Training female car mechanics in Nairobi slum

Dear early adopter donors of our new project,

First of all we would like to thank you for your donations. Even if we are not new on GlobalGiving, this project is a new funding project. For us and for you.

We have been educating dozens of girls in the past years who have now a vocational degree in auto mechanics. As we are very succesful with this, we will continue to do so. All our alumni have a job in the car industry. As a mechanic in a garage, in sales with a dealer or in a factory where they manufacture cars.

For the vocational education we work closely together with a befriended garage owner. But in the near future we would like to run our own garage. This would mean a step into becoming a social entreprise. Our young women who want to become a car mechanic can be trained on our site, work on vehicles from 'our' clients and later apply for a job in our garage. It will be a place where customers know they will find female professional car mechanics.

In the past months we have been able to continue the vocational training, although it needed to be done in smaller groups and with 1,5 meter distance. Quite a challenge when you both need to take a look at the motor of the car and learn from what you see. We used clever solutions like stools to stand higher but with a safe distance for example.

Safe Spaces could also provide mouth protection and sanitizers to protect all the women in the garage.

At the same time we have used the Safe Spaces digital library for some online teaching, which worked very well. The girls could watch instructions and films about specific car issues and apply them in real later in the garage.

We thank you for your support, it means so much to us. It means you believe in what we are doing, it means you want to support us in standing on our own two feet in some time.

Asante sana,

Peninah