Persons with disabilities to benefit from SBL life skills training

Dodoma. Serengeti Breweries Limited (SBL) is promoting inclusive economic growth by training people with disabilities to generate more income through agriculture in a two-day training in partnership with the Foundation of Disabilities Hope (FDH).

The trainings run from September 28-29 in Dodoma, featuring over 100 people with disabilities acquiring agriculture skills, entrepreneurship skills, and financial literacy to help generate more income in their day-to-day economic activities.

SBL corporate relations director John Wanyancha spoke at the launch highlighting how the program will complement the government's efforts and the Society 2030: Spirit of Progress - a 10-year action plan to create an inclusive and sustainable community.

Mr Wanyancha added: We are proud to partner with FDH to facilitate this income-generating training that will equip over 100 PWDs with agricultural and other technical skills. We are confident that as a result of this, we will be able to create a new pool of agriculture officers and agribusiness experts who will be involved in commercialized farming, thereby strengthening our agriculture sector, which is the backbone of our economy. We will also be proud to source our raw materials from PWDs, which will, ultimately, boost their income and raise their standard of living.

SBL’s corporate relations director reiterated how SBL is committed to advocating for inclusive communities where everyone, regardless of their physical state, can enjoy life anywhere, anytime. He said, ‘we are ready to work with PWDs associations in other sectors to ensure sustainability and help the government achieve inclusive economic growth without leaving no one behind.

The chief guest, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Athony Mavunde, on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Hussein Bashe, acknowledged SBL’s role in supporting agriculture in the country through its business operations that source over 18,000 tonnes of cereals per annum. 'We are grateful to SBL for fostering agriculture resilience in our country by being inclusive of people with disabilities,' he said.

He continued, ‘Our Honorable President, Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan, since assuming office, has been expressing her willingness to work with the private sector as an engine for economic growth, especially in agriculture. That is why we are pushing to ensure that we commercialize this sector by bringing in more investment players and farmers who will put in more work to revolutionize the sector and spur growth — and for this, we congratulate SBL for supporting our call’.

SBL has stated that it will continue to partner with key PWD associations and stakeholders to drive the inclusion agenda that will ensure sustainability in the community. The beer maker recalled other efforts it is making in providing scholarships for PWDs to study agriculture-related courses in their new Kilimo-Viwanda Scholarship window that was launched in August this year.