Garissa Youth Project Set for Take-off

Since the late 90s a lot of aid has been poured into Garissa and its surrounding localities. Most of it has gone down the drain without much impact. If a fifth of this aid was deployed effectively, things would have been much different today. Instead you have a cacophony of aid effort from multiple organizations that are uncoordinated and run by non-natives who are not ready to do the nitty-gritty stuff .

Garissa Youth Project is a local organization  funded by an international NGO (Education Youth Center) that has been started by local youth to mobilize their community and change the fortunes of locals in Garissa. Recently G-youth and other local NGOs  have received US $ 5M (Ksh 400 Million) from the American Ambassador, Michael Ranneberger to enhance youth development and capacity building.

It comes as no surprise then that G-Youth stakeholders have started a high school student empowerment project  in Garissa. They intend to hold career fairs for students, sensitize parents, link schools to career resource centers among many other things.

The schools that have been picked to participate in this pilot project are:

Garissa HighSchool
County HighSchool
Nep Girls Secondary School
UmuSalama Secondary School
Boystown Secondary School
Iftin Girls Secondary School
Tetu Secondary School
Khadija Girls Secondary School
Ikhlas Mixed Day Seconday school
Young Muslim Academy

G-Youth needs to lauded for this. Our students have always lacked effective career counselling.

 I hope part of the fund will be used to invest in ICT projects to make High Speed Internet connectivity available to schools so that our students can be in touch with the world.
Rwanda has been able to do this with great success and we ought to learn from them. Students in Primary schools in Rwandan villages have laptops thanks to the combined efforts of their government and the one laptop per child policy. However I'm not under the false impression that Kenya can in anyway be compared to Rwanda, a country whose government may not be of  the people or by the people but is surely for the people.

Daily Nation:�- Business News�|Northern Kenya to get tourism hype

Daily Nation:�- Business News�|Northern Kenya to get tourism hype

BUSINESS NEWS

Northern Kenya to get tourism hype

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A digital village in Garissa, northern Kenya. The region has diverse tourism products whose potential has not been exploited. Photo/FREDRICK ONYANGO

By NATION REPORTER
Posted Tuesday, September 28 2010 at 13:16

Garissa and the northern parts of the country are set to earn from tourism after the Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) announced a major marketing strategy to open up the region to both domestic and international visitors.

Managing director Muriithi Ndegwa in a speech read on his behalf by regional manager Fred Okeyo said that communities within the northern circuit should now identify more tourism products for competitive marketing following the creation of counties.

He said the country has diverse tourism products whose potential has not been exploited adding that the community has the responsibility to identify these unique products for marketing.

This was during a workshop at a hotel in Garissa aimed at sensitising stakeholders on potential tourism offers in the northern part of Kenya as part of this year’s tourism day celebration.

He said KTB will now focus on marketing strategies such as on-line, print, electronic media and other social interactive platforms to raise the profile of the northern circuit.

The larger district has several tourism products including wildlife, culture and scenery among other products.

Last week while opening Garissa tourism regional office, Tourism minister Najib Balala announced that Kenya Utalii College will organise tailor-made courses for local hotels in the region to equip personnel with the required skills.