As part of measures to help refugees living in Ghana adapt to the Ghanaian market, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ghana (UNHCR), with support from the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) and the Ghana Refugee Board, has graduated 88 refugees who were trained in various fields at the Blue Oasis Centre for Urban Refugees in Accra.
Speaking at the event on Thursday, December 21, 2023, the Director of Programme and Advocacy at CCG, Dr. Joyce Steiner, urged the graduates to make use of the skills they had acquired to benefit themselves, their families, and society as a whole.
“Ensure you make good use of the skills acquired. Plan with the little we have given you by making good use of it so that it will improve your life and make you happy,” he advised.
Dr. Steiner said that when someone is hungry, you don’t tell that person to go to church. So, this inspired us to venture into social intervention programmes to empower them, and this was done with the UNHCR for the past two decades.
According to her, the 88 refugees receive seed funding to help them formally integrate into the Ghanaian work market by boosting their skills and advancing their careers.
On his part, the Kokomlemle Mantse, who represented the Adabraka Mantse, charged them to impact society with their skills and also change the status of other refugees in their immediate environment.
The 88 refugee graduates completed their hands-on training in fields such as dressmaking, driving, catering, and interior decoration.
There were an additional 152 graduates who graduated from the Centre’s English Proficiency Class to help them communicate efficiently in their environment because most of these refugees are from francophone-speaking countries.
At the end of the event, certificates were issued, which also featured a physical demonstration from the fashion and make-up artists, where some of their products were also displayed at the ceremony.
Some of the refugees Myrepubliconline spoke with expressed their happiness to the UNHCR, CCG, and GRD for their continuous support all these years.
