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| Thursday, 20 November 2003 |
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10,000 benefitted by Samurdhi youth development program by Uditha Kumarasinghe Nearly 10,000 youth of Samurdhi beneficiary families have already been empowered under the key youth development project implemented by the Sri Lanka Samurdhi Authority (SLSA) aimed at developing the creative talents of youth of low income families. Under this youth development project commenced in January this year, the target of the SLSA was to empower the socioeconomic standards of 14,000 youth of Samurdhi beneficiary families including one youth selected from each Grama Niladari division during 2003. Of them, 10,000 youth have already been empowered, Samurdhi Director General Dr.Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne told the Daily News yesterday. He said this is the first time that the Government through the Samurdhi movement has taken the initiative to assist youth of under privileged families to develop their skills with the help of the Samurdhi programme. In order to make this endeavour a success, a special Youth and Cultural Division has been established attached to the SLSA. This Division set up on the instructions of Agriculture, Livestock and Samurdhi Minister S.B.Dissanayake will identify various talents of youth relating to arts, education and other technical sectors and assist them to further develop their talents. The target of this youth development project is skills development of youth by providing them a continuous source of income, he said. Under this Youth Development Programme, the SLSA has already directed a large number of youth to acquire vocational training opportunities and self employment ventures. The SLSA through it's countrywide Samurdhi banks will provide a maximum of Rs.100,000 to youth to commence self employment and other small scale industries, he said. Dr. Nawaratne said the target of the Samurdhi movement is to empower 200,000 Samurdhi recipient families by 2004 in relation to several key sectors. This includes the empowerment of 48,000 families in the agriculture sector and 28,000 families in the animal husbandry sector. In addition, the living conditions of 60,000 families will be improved in the marketing section while 48,000 families will be developed under various other services. He said: "Of the total number of 1.93 million Samurdhi beneficiary families, 1.5 million are youth. But special programme have not been implemented during the past few years to identify the talents of these youth and direct them for employments." Arrangements have also been made to direct youth who successfully complete their training to Chartered Accountancy, marketing and other education fields. Once these youth complete higher studies, they will be provided employment in the private sector. Steps will also be taken to provide foreign scholarships to youth in several countries such as the USA, Australia, Canada and India, he said. |
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