Taunggyi (ILO News) - On 10 May 2018 – a day advised to be particularly lucky by ILO’s community partners in Myanmar’s village of Mauk Wolk (Taunggyi area, Shan State) - a ground-breaking ceremony took place for the construction of a new Youth Empowerment Center.

Funded by the European Union, resulting from a request from five civil society organizations (CSOs) and local communities, the Center will be built by community workers in partnership with the ILO’s Peace, Reconciliation & Development through Community Empowerment project.

It is hoped that the Youth Empowerment Center will become a leading provider of peace, justice, environmental sustainability and development programmes in Taunggyi, available to young people from all ethnic groups living in Shan State.

According to a statement of principles, the use and maintenance of the Center will be jointly managed by the five CSOs and the local communities. Presently, civics, peace and rights based courses are offered to the communities of the Taunggyi area by CSOs in rented spaces. The Youth Center will allow CSOs to redirect the funds currently spent on renting training space to expand their educational programmes.

The Youth Center is scheduled for completion by October 2018, and its construction will generate some 2,125 workdays and on-the-job training opportunities for local workers in different areas such as project management, masonry and carpentry. An ILO engineer team also provided guidelines for the construction techniques and financial records in construction site.