It all started when the President of Desert Flower Foundation Africa – Rev. Fr. Peter A. Konteh realize some of the reasons for the inability of many women to achieve their planned goals is the fact that most of them focus exclusively on men (“Husband, Father, Uncle, and boyfriend”) support without considering to learn skills. Empowerment of women is a necessity for the development of a society, since it enhances both the quality and quantity of available human resources for development.
On the 16th of March 2020, the Desert Flower Turam Vocational Training Institute at Number 2 River Peninsula, Western Rural District started their operation with Young aspiring girls and women, with Motto “Skills for a Better Future”. Empowerment is one of the main procedural concerns when addressing human rights and development, its’ also the surest way of making women “partners in development”. The Desert Flower Turam Vocational Institute is an atmosphere that creates space for young women to learn different skills and some of these women are located in various communities like: The Number 2 River, Bawbaw, Timbo, Sussex and Mile 13 communities.
The Desert Flower Turam Vocational Institute is in line with the strategic plan of Desert Flower Africa in addressing cross cutting gender issues by empowering young girls and women. The aim and objective of Desert Flower Turam Vocational Institute is to discover, nurture and mentor girls and young women with innovative training skills, solutions to problems facing in Sierra Leone and their communities. Thus, promoting innovation and training skill in entrepreneurship in our beloved Sierra Leone. This entire initiative was brought up by Reverend Father Peter Konteh who is the President of Desert Flower Foundation Africa for girls who feels that, there is no hope for them, and for those girls that are marginalized by certain factors in life, and for those that society look low upon as victim of different circumstances.
One of the major roles of the vocational center is to nurture women and young girls with or without ideas at the earliest stage of the journey towards becoming female entrepreneurs and owning companies or their own businesses. The girl’s empowerment program creates a platform for girls to learn skills like communication skills in English, basic Mathematics, communication, development studies and social studies, entrepreneurship, catering and preservation (theory and practical), tailoring or dressmaking (theory and practical, and cosmetology and hairdressing (theory and practical). Through the young girls and women empowerment program, the young girls and women in their various communities will receive one of these skills to be professional and earn leadership quality to lead as champions in communities across the country. The tutors will provide a unified direction to guide and galvanize continuous collective action, with skills for a better future, presently there are seven (7) staff including the Acting Principal Mr. Joseph Boima steering the animation of the Desert Flower Turam Vocational Institute, River Number 2.