Garissa County Governor Ali Korane and Danish Refugee Council have signed a MoU that formalizes a stronger collaboration for Area Based Livelihoods Initiative–Garissa’ (ABLI-G), a three-year project that seeks to enhance self-reliance for refugees and host communities in the area.
The project is funded by the European Union (EU) and targets 9,905 direct beneficiaries comprising refugees and host communities in Dadaab and Fafi sub-counties.
Korana said the program will help in promoting an enabling environment for income generation in terms of access to formal and informal business opportunities and freedom of movement, finance, market linkages, resolution of localized and small-scale disputes that adversely affect economic activities and documentation.
“The new collaboration seeks to build on the achievements the initiative has already made in the past one year. We have built 7 TVET centres in Dagahaley, Ifo, Hagadera and rehabilitated one in Dadaab,” Korane said
“So far over 400 refugees and host students have enrolled for various courses such as tailoring, plumbing, electrical wiring and solar photovoltaic installation, electrical wiring, refrigeration, air-conditioning, henna decoration, graphic design and digital publishing, web development and digital journalism in these institutions,” he added
The partnership will also benefit farmers from host and refugee communities who have been trained on ecological and dryland agriculture.
And due to security concerns in the area, the local youth have been trained as peace champions for peaceful co-existence and encouraged to lead community members in the inter-community and inter-generational dialogues.
The MoU was co-signed by Danish Refugee Council’s Country Director Simon Nzioka.
By Erick Kyalo
