BY JOY OFASIA
BEING an unemployed youth who has just graduated from the Solomon Islands National University, Roy Keleni Junior had the opportunity to attend a very important training on flour processing and cookery held for youths in Honiara this week.
The 28-year-old from the Shortland Islands shared how he saw the importance of this training to youths and our local people on how to process flour from our very own local root crops.
Roy said that the training helps us to develop ourselves with new skills in producing good products from our natural food which can be sustained for a long period of time.
“Take for example, when you harvest cassava from the garden, it can last for up to three days after harvest before it turns bad. But when you process it into a flour product it can take up to one year,” Roy clearly explained.
By learning of this, Roy was convinced and decided to join the workshop. He further explains that cassava is one of our staple foods in the country.
“The training really helps us, participants, to acquire the skills to turn cassava plus other local goods to process flour,” He said.
He also mentioned that not only processing flour but also it is good for turning it into small-scale businesses.
“This program really helps us to make use of our own resources so that it will help us benefit both financially and also for food security for the future,” he said.
Roy added that nowadays we face many natural disasters and everything is unpredictable so to help us be self-sustainable we need to join this kind of program to benefit us in the future.
“I would like to say thank you to the Solomon Islands Development Agency SIDA for providing us with this knowledge which is worth more especially for youths like me because the skills that we acquired will stay for a lifetime,” Roy acknowledged.
