By Salome Gangire

Neno, August 4, Mana:  Neno District Council Director of Planning and Administration Charles Lomoni has hailed Partners in Health (PIH) popularly known as Abwezi Pa Za Umoyo for its programs aimed at improving health and socio economic rights of adolescents in the district.

He was speaking Thursday during an engagement on the strides of the two programmes namely Social Economic Rights (POSER) and Teens Clubs: Improving Health and Creating Socio Economic Opportunities for HIV Adolescent (ASPIRE).

 He said empowering youth with vocational skills is crucial to the development of the country.

“Let me recommend PIH for the good work it is doing in the district as government alone cannot manage to support all the youths in the county,” he said.

Lomoni therefore encouraged the youths to utilise such opportunities by acquiring vocational skills to empower themselves so that they become economically independent.

PIH Director of Community Health Jimmy Harare said one of the objective of the ASPIRE programme is to promote socio-economic rights of adolescents through education promotion and job creation through supporting vulnerable adolescents with school bursaries, food packages, transportation and housing improvement.

He said the programme is supporting 174 students in secondary schools, 11 in universities and some doing vocational skills through Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training programs.

“We believe that once the youths are empowered they will be able to acquire quality health services and improve their physical and economic wellbeing,” he said.

Harare said access to health care services is affected by a number of issues like social economic and if people do not have enough resources they are unable to go to health facilities to get the help they need.

Harare added that the aim of the project is to make sure that adolescents acquire skills to do business so that they are empowered economically so as to acquire quality health services.

He said the project is in line with their strategic plan of supporting adolescents but also national strategies like Adolescent girls and young women, the agenda 2063 and the Health Strategic Plan aimed at supporting the communities economically.

POSER programme Manager Victor Kanyema said the programme gives cash transfers to patients for transport costs, goat pass on programme and education to vulnerable people as means of empowering rural communities economically.

“We make sure that adolescents we work with do not have issues in accessing health services because they have no transport, no housing and sources of income,” he said.