Uganda / Kasese: Vocational Training Tools at the Skill Development Center

 As one of the long term plans of the PBF and IPOA, the Vocational Training and Skill Development Center was initially established by a collaborative work of PBF and IPOA, along side other many projects implemented under the leadership of Mr. Thomas Kenja who is serving as the Director of the IPOA. The ultimate objective of establishing the Center has been intended to provide variety of skill trainings to the orphans who could not excel in the regular education, to the widows and other needy people from the community who may wish to be trained in small scale and self employing skills.

Due to financial and material constraints, the Center could not instantly offer the program.  In mid of this, appreciatively, the project has got attraction from the UK based Christian humanitarian organization called TWAM (Tool With A Mission) which has recently donated variety of small machineries and light hand working tools and kits, which the beneficiaries are using them for mechanical light works. The tools include; knitting machine, hand knitting, carpentry, welding and metal fabrication, shoe making and melding, tailoring, motor mechanics and electrical. Aiming to promptly dispatch the tools to the Center, PBF has covered the total costs for shipment, customs revenue, storage at warehouse and transportation expenses.

Come to the actual significance of the project, the idea of successful Vocational Training is not how many people we can train in a year, or in how short a time we can carry out the training. Its concrete and practically tenable purpose is, rather the provision of skills and  set of tools, or a sewing machine to enable the trained person to become more proficient in his/her newly acquired skills; and to be able to use them in supporting themselves and their families by putting a roof over their heads, food on the table and educating their families and providing medical care.

This is mainly because, as already mentioned, the people we target to train are the orphans and the youth who had no chance of attaining the formal Education, or those who never completed the levels that could give them employment opportunities. We also intend to train the widows and adult women in skills like: Hand knitting, Machine knitting, and Tailoring.

With this approach, PBF believes that many of the beneficiaries of the project could inherit a skill based qualification which might improve and enhance their potential of carrying out a self containing personal work which could enable them generate their living income.