By Dennis Gaboury | Founder, Chair, Board of Trustees
When we began our vocational training programs, we hoped that by now the Zimbabwean economy would have begun to recover – and that our young people would be finding jobs. But unemployment continues to top 80 percent, by the most conservative estimate, and businesses continue to close. With 300,000 young people leaving school each year, the only hope for the future is serious economic expansion. But the latest estimate is that the economy will grow only 1.2 percent in 2015.
We’re forging ahead, then, especially on training that will allow our young people to start their own small businesses in the community, as Collen and Foster, our solar pioneers, are doing with solar installations – when they’re not working or conducting training sessions for our younger kids.
Nqgabutho is nearly finished a second-level course in electricity, and Shaun, Marvelous and Zibusiso are a year behind him. A new crop of young people has just learned to install floor and wall tile, make cabinet door handles from flat bar and construct countertops and cabinets as part of the revamping of our kitchen. And Nqgabutho and Zibusiso have designed and built circular book shelving that a creative designer would dream about.
Several Zimkids are taking construction to a higher level with their own creativity and designs. Shaun designed and welded a set of amazing, unusual chairs. Peter also welded a giant flying bird, and Nkosi was right behind him with a funny figure topped by a huge head and elaborate shoes. With some tourists still visiting the city and local hotels and safari camps always anxious for something unique, we’re making contact with local businesses in the hope that they might begin to find a market for their work.
The brightest light on the horizon is the negotiations we’re in with a local motorcycle manufacturing start-up company that sought us out as partners because of our vocational training program in welding and a funder interested in businesses involved in such partnerships. If all goes well, our girls and boys will weld and build component parts to supply to the plant and, over time, be hired at the plant itself. FINGERS CROSSED!!!
We just wanted to end with a shout out to the wonderful ZSA ZSA Team from the Rotary Club in Knoxville, which recently visited the Center. In collaboration with the Books for Africa Foundation, they’d sent us dozens of boxes of books, and they arrived just in time to see our staff catalogue and shelve that contribution. Read about their visit at http://www.zsazsagroup.com/2015/02/
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