The Kakamega County Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) with The Global Civic Sharing Organization(GCS) to empower Bodaboda riders. GCS is a non-profit organization that provides development aid to needy communities in different countries across the globe.
In the MOU, The Global Civic Sharing Organization from South Korea will channel Sh. 30million to train bodaboda riders on road safety in collaboration with the National Transport and Safety Authority(NTSA) It will then provide grants to the bodaboda riders to boost their transport business. The support will run for two years.
Speaking after signing the MOU on Monday, the County Executive Committee Member for Social Services, Sports, Youth, Gender & Culture Moffat Mandela said the program will help in transforming the lives of bodaboda riders while equipping them with road safety skills.
He said the Kakamega County Government has had a longstanding relationship with South Korea through the Korean International Cooperation Agency(KOICA) and the Global Civic Sharing Organization. He said GCS has been supporting the county government by facilitating training of staff on youth and women empowerment.
“Through the Korea International Cooperation Agency, we have had on several occasions, county staff travelling to Korea supported by the Korean government and facilitated by the Global Civic Sharing Organization to have training regarding youth and women empowerment,” he noted.
“We are delighted that the Global Civic Sharing is currently running a programme to support the Bodaboda sub sector in Kakamega and we have been having discussions on how we can scale up and further this engagement that we have with them,” the CEC added.
The Executive Director of the Global Civic Sharing Organization Hyunju Cho said that the empowerment program targets the first 240 bodaboda riders from Kakamega county, which would later be scaled up. “We have two activities for the bodaboda people, first is the training for the bodaboda people to have some capacities then we do something for income generation,” he said.
He noted that the Global Civic Sharing Organization has had the same programme in Uasin Gishu County for the last three years which has been successful.