Helping young Kenyans survive and thrive in Kisumu

Moving Forward:

The workshop has had its first successful trainees in the Government Grade 3 carpentry & Joinery Exam. The young men concerned are staying at the workshop to continue to practice and improve their skills, and also to learn important new skills like “How to price a job”.

The workshop now has 9 trainees and is gradually earning a good reputation in the local area. Sadly, even this can prove to be a potential pitfall. All of the trainees are living in difficult financial circumstances but when their carers, it could be an uncle, aunt grandparents or in some instances a single parent, see how busy the workshop is and how well-equipped they are becoming, they don’t believe that the trainees are not being paid! This can cause a lot of aggravation at home. It would be great if they could be paid but that is just not a realistic possibility. They do get a very small amount of money sometimes when they have planed wood using the planning/finishing machine, but this is infrequent, and in other respects they are not skilled enough to work on paid tasks, not yet anyway. The trainees do get money for lunch about 45c (30p) per day, otherwise they would have none. This money comes through Hand in Hand Sponsorship – we are always on the lookout for new sponsors!

The trainees have some smart new uniforms of which they are very proud. They have also got some new power tools – a router and a sanding machine. They are taught the basic hand tool tasks but there is a lot of kudos, and effort saved, by using powered tools. It also will allow them to extend the range and style of their work, and of course are very useful new skills. These are exciting developments coming soon, once they have been trained! They have been helped to purchase this new equipment by donations through GlobalGiving. Thank you for your support!