Achieving the Benchmarks for Integrating Rural Areas into the National Economy

31 May 2011

Achieving the Benchmarks for Integrating Rural Areas into the National Economy

In the last year 500 people have been trained at the UNIDO-supported Growth Centre at Binkolo, eastern Sierra Leone. Binkolo ably demonstrates the new dynamic of rural revival initiated by the Government.

 

After completing the Centre's "Quick Impact" course trainees can work as carpenters, electricians and plumbers, eligible for the good jobs which will keep them in their communities, and to which previously they had no access.

Sallu Koroma, 45, was trained in 2010, learning a new skill after a lifetime as a farmer. Now he produces and sells tools from his own blacksmith shop, earning about $20 a day. He says, "With just the farm, I couldn't afford food or provide for my six children - but now things are looking better."

 

Tools produced by trainees are also sold direct from the Growth Centre; these are being bought by local farmers. In turn, the farmers find a ready buyer in the Growth Centre for their crops, such as cassava, which are processed for selling on in the market.

 

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Photo: UNICEF/Olivier Asselin - Since his training Sallu Koroma finds customers every day at the market for the tools he's made in his blacksmith's shop.

 

Text: Therese Leijon