19 Aug 2013

About 82 youth projects from Mahalapye East and West, Tswapong South and Shoshong constituencies will be funded during the 2013/14 financial year at the tune of P7.45 million.  

Areport from Mahalapye youth office showed that 82 applications had been approved out of 190 applications received this year. It stated that from the 82, 22 were from Tswapong South, 21 from Shoshong while Mahalapye East and West constituencies got 20 and 19 approvals respectively.

The report also showed that Tswapong South constituency beneficiaries would be funded to the tune of P1.95 million. Shoshong and Mahalapye East constituencies beneficiaries would both be funded up to P1.9 million whereas Mahalapye West constituency beneficiaries will be funded with P1.8 million.

From the remaining amount, P100 000 was reserved for one youth living with disability in Mahalapye West who is at an advanced stage to complete his proposal because he was awaiting water right letter. His project will thus make it 83 projects funded in Mahalapye Sub-district for in the current financial year.

Commenting on the report, youth office head in Mahalapye Sub-district Council, Ms Tootini Magapa said each constituency was allocated P2 million and as such constituencies which had more than 20 approvals had many applications below the P100 000 ceiling amount.

Ms Magapa also explained that the process of funding involved screening by the youth office, then appraisals by different experts who then gave their recommendations to the District Economic Development Committee which made final decisions on who got funding.

On this year’s applications, Ms Magapa said more agricultural projects were funded as they tended to fare better since recipients got land from their parents, whereas service projects have to find places to rent which are usually expensive.

Thus, she advised those who applied for the youth fund to check their postal mail because responses to their applications have already been sent. Ends