Agency graduates 101 orphans on skills acquisition, presents them with starter packs

Not less than101 orphans and vulnerable children have been trained on various skills by the Bauchi State Orphans and Vulnerable Children Agency (BASOVCA) skills acquisition scheme. According to the Agency, the trained orphans were presented with gifts of starter packs that will enable them to start their own businesses. The Executive Chairman of the Agency, Alhaji Ibrahim Hali Abdullahi, stated this in a statement issued on Thursday and signed by information officer of the Agency, Hajiya Aisha Idris Bamai, made available to journalists in Bauchi. The press statement said the focus of the training programme was on vocational trades and skills acquisition that could easily be converted into small businesses to create steady means of income for the beneficiaries OVCs in the state. It explained that, “the starter packs would enable the beneficiaries to take off smoothly and possibly later transform into small or medium scale enterprises. The effort is also to build capacity amongst the vulnerable children by empowering them with necessary skills to make them self-reliant”. “During the training, we focused in areas such as Fashion Designing, Catering and Confectioneries Production, Hairdressing and Barbing, Leather Shoes, as well as Liquid Soap, Detergents and Disinfectant Production, among a host of other skills,” the statement added. The statement also explained that the Agency distributed food and clothing materials to the Orphans and Vulnerable Children across the state under the shelter interventions. It said the Agency upgraded the Ambassador M C Abubakar Vocational College to technical college to provide advanced skills to the vulnerable children in the society. Samuel Luka, Bauchi‎