Hargeysa, Somaliland , November 19, 2005 (SL Times) – Vocational training center is providing skills training for returnees to enable them build their own shelter houses.

Three groups of 12 trainees each are receiving training in the skills of masonry carpentry and metal works. While this training is being provided in the SOOYAAL VTC, a parallel on-the-job training involving other groups takes place at a house construction site located at Ayax 1 to the south of Hargeysa.

Ayax 1 is home to hundred of families who returned last year from the last camp to hold Somaliland refugee in eastern Ethiopia . 22 houses each consisting of 3 rooms, a kitchen, one toilet and a front open space are now under construction in Ayax 1.

The work started on August 24. The construction labor have been recruited from the community. They are given training by SOOYAAL VTC and another local NGO, HAVOYOCO.

SOOYAAL VTC and HAVOYOCO were contracted by UN-HABITAT to build 11 low cost houses each. The beneficiaries were selected from the poorest of the poor in the camp through lottery. The laborers are paid $2 each.

A total of 450 houses are to be constructed by the two local NGOs. To reduce labor costs, the project provides construction skills training for the beneficiaries who will then be required to participate in the building. The team supervisor of SOOYAAL VTC at the Ayax 1 site said that new groups will be recruited next month for a new skills training.

"We are happy about the new shelter and we already feel the difference between the rough situation we had been through in Dul'ad refugee camp and life in our neighborhood" said Nuura Hussein, a mother of 7 children and one of the beneficiary families of this project.

A young trainee called Ahmed N. Muhumed said the skills training was exciting "I hope to use the skills I have learned in earning extra income support for our family in the future" he added.

Dahir Hassan Nur, a former SNM fighter who works now as a trainer at SOOYAAL VTC was struck by the enthusiasm shown by the trainees to learn skills "I trained hundreds of trainees in welding and metal works in the past several years, but I have never seen such an eagerness and dedication for learning as this group of 12 have shown."

According to HABITAT officers the project is funded by the Japanese government.