A WOMAN from Bournemouth who now lives in Uganda is setting up a new training school to help residents to gain skills for employment.

Rebecca Spencer, 36, who started the charity, Sing with Me Happily, which aims to support community school projects across Africa, is now set to return to the area for the launch the Proposed Youth Empowerment Training (YET) courses.

Previously she set up a school in Mozambique, which has now been taken on by the local government to run and so Rebecca is moving onto her new project, with the support of husband, John, and daughter, Lyra, eight.

She said: "Sing with Me Happily seeks to work with communities at a grassroots level. This project in Uganda aims to build up a workforce to supply the market as northern Uganda goes through a transformative scenario.

"It will do this by providing training at a centre in Purungo sub-county. Predominantly, Sing with Me Happily will be working with a group of young women who have ended up as single mothers."

She says that the area has the youngest population in the world, with over 50-per-cent of residents aged 13 and under.

"We will train them in an area that they decide, or we can help them to decide, where they might already have skills, such in farming, and then we have links with employers, so that we will support them into employment.

"The training centre will host all the trainees, teachers and trainers in full board accommodation, so that trainees gain experience in keeping high standards of hygiene, farming and nutrition, which the centre will upkeep."

Trainees can learn about business and economics, information communication technology, farming, tractor keeping and wildlife and the environment, while the centre will also host sexual health education and a child development centre.

Rebecca hopes that Bournemouth residents may want to support the charity's work by giving a donation or even volunteering their skills in Uganda.

For more information, go to Singwithmehappily.com