Kenyan youths to receive UN-sponsored skills training

NAIROBI, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Young people in two Nairobi slums will be the first beneficiaries of the 100,000-U.S. dollar donation by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to assist a United Nations agency to work to improve living conditions in the Kenyan capital's poorest areas.

The training is being paid for by the UN secretary-general who announced last year that he would donate the 100,000 dollar award he received from the Pony Chung Scholarship Foundation to the UN-HABITAT for use in Kibera, Africa's largest slum, which the secretary-general visited in his first trip on taking office.

According to a UN news release on Tuesday, about 70 youths from Kibera and Mavoko are taking part in a course organized by the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) in which participants will be trained in three techniques -- making special bricks, tiles and doors -- that they can use in small enterprises.

"Habitat blocks" are bricks that cost only 20 percent of the amount of an ordinary brick, glass "bottle window" tiles are unbreakable windows that can be made out of recycled materials, and "ferro cement" doors are virtually fire-and bullet-proof.

UN-HABITAT Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka who addressed the launch at the Youth Empowerment Program late Monday, urged the young people in Kenya to move beyond the deadly tension that erupted at the start of this year after disputed elections.

Linus Sijenti, a youth leader from Kibera, welcomed the donation and the launch of the program.

"There are over 700,000 people in Kibera and 60 percent of the mare youths," he said. "This project is the first step in giving young people skills to lift them out of poverty."