The Sinapi Aba Trust, a financial Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has within the last five years trained about 900 youth across the country to acquire various employable skills under its Youth Apprenticeship Programme (YAP). The beneficiaries includes school drop outs, prostitutes and the under-privileged who were trained in batik, tie and dye, soap-making, marketing, packaging, weaving, hairdressing, dressmaking, masonry, carpentry and catering. Mr Thomas Appiah-Mensah, Programme Co-ordinator of the Trust, announced this at the presentation of start-up capital ranging from 100 to 500 Ghana cedis to 18 under-privileged youth who had benefited from the YAP at a ceremony in Kumasi. The beneficiaries were also presented with documented business plans to guide them as they venture into the market. Mr Appiah-Mensah indicated that the credit facilities dubbed “Ashasepa Loan” is part of the management’s decision to cushion beneficiaries of the YAP to help overcome major challenges such as initial capital financing of their businesses. He said to make up for the capacity building interventions which was a key component of the YAP, the Trust organised education on Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) to encourage the beneficiaries to lead a disciplined and healthy lives as they created wealth. Mr Apiah-Mensah said the goal of the programme was to improve the quality of life of young people through the provision of income-earning opportunities, entrepreneurial training and education. He urged corporate bodies as well as NGOs to be committed to augmenting government efforts in job-creation to reduce the high rate of unemployment in the country. Source: GNA