Helping young Kenyans survive and thrive in Kisumu

Building your reputation as a trainer and producer of good quality items.

The plan is to train youngsters to develop the sort of skills that will earn them a living in the future. There are lots of carpenters out there. Paluoc’s plan is to produce tables, desks etc of a better than average standard.

You can see from the photos that they are moving along with this aim. Two of those who have been at Paluoc the longest, Evans and Bornventure, take pride in delivering their desks to the customer.

Fred, Keneddy, Kelvin and Geoffrey are relatively new recruits. Like many Kenyan lads who have not had a good experience with education so far in their lives, they still need convincing that staying the full course is a good idea. These are the youngsters that Paluoc targets. It is important to give them a bit of success to boost their confidence.

They can be tempted away by the lure of money in their pockets now, even if the sum involved is very small. To try to overcome this, Paluoc has purchased a planing machine. This can be used to generate some money for the training centre and also a bit of pocket money for the trainees. You can see some of them here posing shyly alongside the machine. This is still at an early stage but will, we hope, provide a useful service for many local  carpenters who would otherwise have to go to Kisumu market to get their wood planed.

The other aspect to the training centre is having to sit down and learn about different types of wood, different joints etc. The centre is desperately short of instructional materials for these tasks but they get by with what little they have. Books are surprisingly expensive in Kenya, and are very well looked after. The trainees are given 30p (50c) per day for lunch, this is a definite inducement to stay. Many Kenyans in their situation get no lunch at all.

Please do continue to help us in helping them. Thank you.