Nairobi, Kenya (IRIN) – Instead of joining militias or idling at street corners, the youth in Garowe, the regional capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, are learning skills to help them earn a living, officials said.

A local NGO, the Farsano Technical Institute, is implementing the project, which is funded by the Education Development Centre (EDC), an American NGO. Trainees learn skills such as welding, plumbing and electrical services; carpentry, auto mechanics, bookkeeping and IT.

“These are young people in their teens and 20s; most, if not all, were born during the civil war,” said Abdihakim Mohamed Jama, of the Farsano Technical Institute. “We have to find something for them to do or they may end up in criminal gangs, such as militia groups.”

Jama said the project, Shaqa Doon (“Looking for a job” in Somali] started early this year with 156 trainees.

“We have two types of trainees; those with no education and those with some education,” he said, adding that some had completed primary school while others had a secondary school education, “but most are illiterate”.

Jama told IRIN: “Bookkeeping and IT are taught to those with education, because the others cannot manage. We also teach reading, writing and basic mathematics to those who never had an education. So while they are learning the skills, we are also teaching them how to read and write.”

Of the total number of current trainees, Jama said, 38 are women.

One of the trainees, Amina Mohamed Nur, 20, said after completing primary school, she could not afford secondary school fees.

“I was basically sitting at home doing nothing; when I heard about the project I applied and was accepted.”

Nur chose to train as a mechanic, an unusual profession for a woman from a conservative community. “I am not the only one,” she told IRIN. “Four other girls are with me in this training. Since I was a child, I always wanted to work with cars. I don’t know why but that is what I wanted to do.”

She said she would eventually like to own a garage.

Nur Hassan Hussein, 25, from Garowe, was unemployed when he heard about Farsano. He had dropped out of school due to a lack of funds and is training to become an electrician. “I want to be the best electrician I can be and then eventually start my own business.”

Hussein said there were many young people like him “who would do anything to get this opportunity; I am very lucky”.

Jama said that once they have finished the course, trainees “go out and become self-employed, placed in jobs with government agencies or with businesses and other groups. If they don’t get the first two options, we absorb them in Farsano and they help with the project.”

“All these trainees are at-risk young people; if we save them now, they, in turn, will save others and contribute to the well-being of the community instead of becoming a menace,” he said.

The Farsano Technical Institute project is the only one in Garowe targeting the youth.

“There are many young people out there who need help, but we cannot take them all,” Jama said, urging other agencies to help with the growing number of unemployed youth by “giving them the ability and capacity to be productive members of their community”.

ah/mw

– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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Athens, Greece (AHN) – The Greek government is preparing tougher belt-tightening measures as it attempts to meet the terms of the country’s $110 billion (EUR 78 billion) bailout.

Prime Minister George Papandreou rejected debt restructuring ahead of a Monday cabinet meeting to tackle austerity measures, which includes tax hikes and sale of government assets.

Papandreou’s policy is in line with the European Central Bank stand that did not favor a debt restructuring for Greece. However, the drastic wage cut proposal may lead to more civil unrest among public employees. A study published on Sunday found that 80 percent of Greeks are not willing to make any more sacrifices for the country to enjoy further European Union and International Monetary Fund support for the bailout.

Experts opined that Greece is so mired in a debt spiral that more austerity measures would cause further recession and drastic drops in tax revenues. They warned that these economic consequences are self-reinforcing and very difficult to recover from.

While the prime minister is ready to fast track a $70.4 billion (EUR 50 billion) privatization program to raise more money to pay off the country’s mountain of debt, Papandreou said the government will keep its holdings in water and electricity utilities.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims declined by 29,000 to 409,000 for the week ending May 14 compared to the previous week’s tally of 438,000 claims.

That is still above the 400,000 mark. Analysts say first time unemployment compensation insurcance claims must drop below 400,000 and stay below that mark to signal the economy has turned around.

However, the less volatile four-week moving average was up by 1,250 from the previous figure, increasing to 439,000 claims.

The number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending April 30, the most recent week such data is available fell below the 8 million mark to 7,936,548, a decrease of 47,124 from the previous week.

Here is a look at which states had the largest increase in new claims for the week ending May 7.

• Alabama (+5,767)
• California (+4,015)
• Michigan (+3,122)
• Mississippi (+1,666)

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Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines (AHN) – Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay forecast on Monday that the deployment of Filipino workers overseas would soon recover as the political situation in the Middle East and North Africa stabilizes. Binay is also the presidential adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers.

Because of the armed conflict in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and other nations in the two regions which are popular destinations for Filipino overseas workers, deployment of migrant workers for the first quarter of 2011 dropped by 15,000 to 380,000 compared to 395,000 for the same period last year.

During the first quarter, the Philippine government also temporarily suspended deployment of OFWs to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. Manila instead redeployed the workers to other Middle Eastern nations, particularly Qatar which needs thousands of workers in preparation for its hosting of the 2022 World Cup football games.

Besides the lesser numbers of workers deployed, thousands of migrant Filipino workers who had jobs in those regions had to go home, causing the growth of remittances sent by the workers to the Philippines to slow down by 4.1 percent in March to $1.6 billion.

The slow down also affected annual remittance growth rates, which slid down from the 6.2 percent growth in February and 7.6 percent in January.

For the first quarter of this year, the total remittances sent by Filipino migrant workers reached $4.59 billion, up 5.9 percent from $4.34 billion for the same quarter last year.

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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – British households have lost about $750 (GBP 500) in the past 12 months, according to a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies released on Friday. It is considered the largest drop in household income since 1981, and is equal to what households made in 2004.

The think tank said that average take-home income actually went up despite the recent recession because of low inflation and higher social benefits, but the long-term effects of the recession and the threat of a higher consumer price index negated the income hike.

The institute blamed the decline on rising inflation and lower wage increases.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King earlier warned that British households may suffer from a substantial reduction in their spending power and advised families to anticipate a two-digit increase in energy bills, which would push the inflation rate to 5 percent by the end of 2011.

The study was based on data from 2009-10 when Britain was still under a Labour-led government. At that time, average income was still going up faster than inflation, but the think tank said the trend appears to have reversed beginning last year. During this period, earnings dropped by 3.8 percent in real terms for the first 11 months.

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Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines (AHN) – Various Philippine groups criticized the measly $0.51 (PHP 22) daily minimum wage increase for Metro Manila workers approved by the wage board of the Department of Labor and Employment’s National Capital Region on Monday.

The hike was actually incorporated into the cost of living allowance of minimum wage earners, which slightly increased their daily compensation to $9.94 (PHP 426). However, the hike was paltry compared to the $1.75 (PHP 75) increase sought by trade unions.

Among the critics of the salary increase was Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, who said over a radio interview that the non-stop rise in gasoline, food and other basic commodity prices will eat up the small wage hike granted NCR workers.

Trade union officials said the hike was short of the promise of good news for Metro Manila minimum wage earners President Benigno Aquino III made before Labor Day. They hit the Aquino administration for being fast in approving hikes in transport fares, but too slow in alleviating the tight economic spot many Filipinos grapple with.

The wage increase, which will take effect by the end of May, was also hit by legislators who described the increase a “too little, too late.”

Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello said the COLA adjustment is mere loose change compared to the escalating prices of goods and services.

Because of the widespread disenchantment by workers over the measly wage hike – which was defended by employers’ group as the only amount they could yield to without resulting in businesses closing – Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casino pushed for approval of a bill that proposes a $2.91 (PHP 125) across-the-board legislated daily salary increase for all Filipino workers.

Casino pointed to the 10.19 percent fuel price inflation, 7.28 percent transport fare increase and 4.03 percent food price hike as the justifications for the proposed across-the-board pay adjustment.

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