Youths in Phalombe have commended government for the construction of Youth Resource Centre at Mpasa under Governance for Enabled Service Delivery (GESD) funds.

Speaking in an interview Mpasa Youth Network Chairperson Gift Mawindo who is also the district youth network secretary said this is the first of it's kind in the district.

"As youth in the district we had no resource centre and this will only not help us youth from Traditional Authority Nkhumba, but the who district to access youth friendly services at one place," he said.

He added that the centre had been a dream of youth from Nkhumba for so many years and they started on their own to construct one, but lack of resources was a challenge as most youths are not financially independent.

Speaking in a separate interview the District Commissioner Rodrick Mateauma said the district has a vibrant youth network with no structures to access youth services and that the construction of the resource centre will be of great impact to the youth in the district.

He added that most youths in the district are not working and a number of them are continuing graduating from different colleges and universities and some are finishing their secondary school so these will be of great help as they will be waiting to be employed while others waiting to go to college for further studies.

"During the first year of GESD funds we looked at a number of projects to be implemented and out of them five were selected which are Mpasa Youth Resource Centre, Chitumbwu to Chivula malaya and Chiringa to Muloza roads , Mouzi clinic and rehabilitation of Kalinde health centre martenity wing," he said.

He further said they also thought of a clinic and a doctor's house at Mouzi because people of that area were walking 20 Kms to access health services while the road were upgraded to ease transportation of food items to other centres and nebouring districts.

He added that despite been a hunger district, but there are some areas that do produce enough to feed other areas of the district and improving road network was of paramount important for easy transportation of the products.

In the first year the district recieved MK178 milliom from National Local Government Financial Commitment (NLGFC) with support from World Bank.

Contributor: Linda Likomwa, District Information Officer