…forms part of ‘A Million Smile’ initiative
OneChalé, a charity organisation, has supported 25 young adults of Agortime-Kpetoe in the Volta Region of Ghana with skills training as part of their initiative to make a million smiles.
Since its establishment in 2021, OneChalé has focused on addressing social needs, improving lives and creating opportunities for self-development for young people in the creative but underprivileged communities through donations and skills development initiatives.
The project, dubbed ‘A Million Smiles’, is committed to creating opportunities for one million young people in creative but deprived communities, with over 500 children within the Agotime-Kpetoe community receiving essential educational and art supplies – including shoes, school bags, colouring books, among others.
This year, the organisation’s focus was on skills development, which is a key component of the ‘A Million Smiles’ initiative dedicated to supporting young adults to enrol in vocations that will equip them to be self-dependent.
In an interview with Larry Bright Dumenu, the Project Director at OneChalé, he explained why this year’s focus was on young adults and the need to kick-start the skills development component of the project.
“We have been in the community for three years and our engagements revealed that there are a lot of young adults in the community who are interested and willing to learn a trade or a skill to develop themselves but do not have the opportunity to do so because there is no one to support them. We are happy to step in and support the community in this regard to develop the human resource that will contribute to the community’s overall development.”
Twenty-five young women were supported with sewing machines and make-up kits, and enrolled in the inaugural skills development programme to train in dress-making and make-up artistry with full scholarships.
Mercy Gborke, a beneficiary of the inaugural training programme, expressed her excitement at the opportunity and the gesture, saying: “I am very grateful for this opportunity. It has always been my dream to learn dress-making but life after school has not been easy so I took up selling fruits to earn a living. I am so grateful OneChalé came into the picture; I can see my dream coming true”.
Upon further interaction with the organisation, they revealed their intention to enrol beneficiaries every quarter in their quest to create opportunities for a million young people to develop and become self-dependent.
