UN Eswatini celebrates UN Day by helping children with disabilities

The United Nations in Eswatini in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security set out to Nhlangano Vocational and Training Centre to do community service on the 25th of October as a continuation of the UN Day celebrations, started on the 24th October.

Led by the UN Resident Coordinator, Ms. Nathalie Ndongo-Seh and the Federation of the UN Staff Association, Mr. Lucas Jele, UN staff spent half a day painting students dormitories, planting trees and vegetable gardens as well as cleaning the yard in preparation of the re-opening of the school in January 2020.

Various partners including the private sector, civil society and development agencies participated in the community service. They included Business Eswatini, Standard Bank, Global Paints, Macsteel and  European Union (EU).

The school is one of three centres in Mbabane and Malkerns providing vocational training to children with disability which were closed down about two years ago due to cashflow challenges faced by the government.

The Resident Coordinator promised to continue to advocate and mobilise other partners to assist government realise its plans to re-operationalise the schools. “No contribution is too small,” she told the gathering before the start of the work. “The total sum of all our efforts will make the work of rehabilitating the schools look like child’s play.”

She noted that the school requires beds for dormitories, equipment and materials for workshops to start functioning as soon as possible. “Some of the equipment include computers for the IT workshop. A lot of us could have old computers that we are disposing but would still be very useful for the training of the children here,” she stated.

Minister of Sports, Youth and Culture, Hon. Madze Bulunga who was the acting Minister for Labour and Social Security noted that the schools were pivotal to government in that they address the challenge of youth unemployment. He added that Prime Minister, Mr. Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini had made the re-opening of the schools a priority since assuming office in October 2018.

The school based in Nhlangano has 8 workshops offering training courses in electrical, leather craft, design and technology, commercial studies, fashion and design, agriculture and information technology.