Ongwediva — Asteria Akaide, the founder and owner of Asteroses Catering and Décor, together with her partner Charlotte Mwarakatwe, introduced baking training for the youth to teach them something new and, by extension, curb the unemployment rate in the country.
Akaide (34) told Youth Corner that baking training is an opportunity for the youth to do something, instead of sitting at home on their dreams.
"We are teaching these youth members baking skills to go home to start baking and selling and then advance into something bigger," she explained.
Akaide said she teamed up with Mwarakatwe who is passionate about being a great encouragement and enlightenment to the youth and elders as well.
Mwarakatwe said skills can always be learned to supplement the talents people have already.
She is urging the youth to stop "falling" for anything, saying, "Invest in your skills instead of wasting time on peer pressure because social media is not real".
They had the first youth-centred baking training at the Meita green house at Omatando village on 10 June 2023.
"We trained 24 youths and all were encouraged, empowered and motivated to start a small baking business at home, to gain themselves some money to take care of their daily needs while seeking to secure employment," said Akaide on her Facebook page.
She added that many of these young people are graduates, an unfortunate situation, but Asteroses is available to train, motivate and uplift the youth that are struggling to get jobs.
"If Namibia is not giving us jobs, we create our own by doing it the right way," she was quoted as saying.
Akaide said they charged each participant N$350 in order to buy all the baking ingredients needed during the one-day baking training session and hardly make a profit.
"We are offering this training through charity as I still have to top up a lot of money because the money contributed by the trainees is not enough to cater for all the goods needed for the training," she noted.
Akaide, who says baking and cooking is her hobby because it is therapeutic, added that through this charity work, they are giving back something better to the community.
"We are still looking forward to more youth training as much as we can, just to allow people to pursue a career in baking."
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Petrina Kapiye (32), one of the trainees, said she really has a passion for baking, and attending this type of training helped her gain more skills she never knew.
"I learned some leadership skills from Mwarakatwe and also working with a large number of people," added Kapiye.
She is urging the youth to start putting the skills they have to use and bring change in their communities.
Other trainees, Magda da Silva (22) and Wilhelmina Jonas (31) said they are looking forward to opening their own bakeries and big kitchens.
They also want to serve as inspiration to the youth to start doing something worthwhile.
Akaide appealed for sponsorships to make training for youth possible for more young people and also requests regional councils to assist with training venues.
Apart from cake training, Asteroses also offers pizza-making training.
The company is well known for its beautiful cakes made on order for any occasion as well as its catering services for weddings, year-end functions, corporate events, graduations, birthdays, etc.
Akaide can be reached at 081 6507693.
