From Crisis To Opportunity : Multi-Year Resilience Programme Equips Youth Training Centers

In a major step towards the socio-professional integration of vulnerable youth, the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF on July 2, 2026 officially handed over a massive consignment of technical workshop equipment. And training kits to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, MINJEC.

Three-Year Programme
The official ceremony took place at the Centre Regional Multipurpose Youth Empowerment Centre, Mimboman, Yaounde. Marking a critical milestone in the implementation of the Multi-Year Resilience Programme, MYRP. This three-year, 25 million USD initiative running from 2022 to 2025 was funded by the global United Nations Fund “Education Cannot Wait,” ECW. Designed to deliver education and training in emergency situations across 64 council subdivisions. The initiative is driven by a heavy-weight humanitarian consortium, including UNICEF, UNESCO, WFP, UNHCR, NRC, and Plan International.

Rebuilding Lives In Crisis-Affected Zones
Since 2021, more than 1.9 million school-aged children in Cameroon have required emergency educational humanitarian assistance. This includes over 1.2 million children in the North West and South West Regions due to the security crisis. Nearly 700,000 students arriving from the Central African Republic, CAR, and approximately 400,000 children in the Far North Region.
In an official address prepared by Nadine Perrault, the UNICEF Representative in Cameroon, and delivered by Georges Bissiongol, the agency stressed that this distribution goes far beyond material logistics: "Imagine a young person who had to leave their village because of the crisis... For them, a computer is not just a computer. An appetizer of welding is not just a workshop. A sewing machine is not just an equipment. These are doors that open. These are opportunities that are born. These are dreams that come back to life."

Turning Theory Into Employable Skills
The newly acquired equipment - valued at 129,109,000 FCFA - is specifically targeted to fully furnish practical training workshops in Multipurpose Youth Empowerment Centers, CMPJs nationwide. The material cover high-demand vocational fields, including welding, hotel management and catering, masonry, hairdressing, IT, and the clothing industry. Mrs. Wapelloua Clementine, Head of the Centre Regional Multipurpose Youth Empowerment Center, Mimboman, explained the critical impact this hardware will have on the ground.

Teaching Not Enough 
"Multipurpose Youth Empowerment Centers are training centers, and as such, theoretical teaching alone is not enough. They therefore need well-equipped practical workshops to properly learn the trade and integrate appropriately into socio-economic activity... The material is what ensures that, once they are on the ground doing internships in these companies, they are not caught off guard. That they know the basics and can now properly perfect their skills on the job."
In addition to the heavy workshop machinery, the handover officially transferred 1,265 student training kits and 77 trainer kits directly to MINJEC to supply classrooms across multiple target regions, including the Centre, South, West, and Littoral.

Institutional Growth, Civility
Speaking on behalf of the Mi...