Agribusiness Training

In early 2019 our partners at the Tumaini Children’s Home launched a greenhouse project to help the Home become self-sufficient and to teach practical modern agricultural skills to the children. Organic tomatoes were selected as the inaugural crop because of seasonality and revenue potential. A few months later, our partners created an agriculture club run by the older children, which is responsible for managing the greenhouse and adjacent kitchen garden. The club’s first task was preparing the greenhouse for use, followed by planting tomatoes there, as well as capsicum, cabbage, kale, and cilantro in the kitchen garden.

Amiran Organic Agriculture Ltd. has been providing hands-on training to the agriculture club at Tumaini Children’s Home. This program encompasses both the greenhouse and open field irrigation farming.

Generous donors made our Agribusiness track a reality: Dorian Ayres for the greenhouse donation, and First Presbyterian Church in Reading, Pennsylvania, for the kitchen garden’s open irrigation system.

Computer Training

One of the foundational programs that will be offered at the Vocational Training Center will be in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). This program will provide VTC students in various fields with a range of skills that will meet their needs — whether they are starting a business, using computers as part of a skilled trade, or specializing in ICT.

Our partners at the Tumaini Children’s Ministry have run their own small ICT program since 2005 and are excited about the imminent migration of that computer program from the Tumaini Children’s Home to the VTC. The Tumaini Computer Training Center started with 4 old laptops, 1 desktop and 4 students from the children’s home. Later in the same year, the Computer Center received a donation of 10 desktop computers that are still operational today but unable to meet the current demand.

Under the leadership of the instructor, Anne Wandimi, the Tumaini Computer Training Center has successfully provided training to almost 1,000 students from the children’s home, local school, and community. Recently, the Computer Center started training elementary school children to help them develop their digital literacy skills from an early age so they are prepared to function in a rapidly changing technology environment.

The Computer Center will help reduce the high rate of youth unemployment by training and equipping youth with practical computer skills in word processing, spreadsheets, database management, graphics, coding, building websites, online work, and many other areas. The Center will also provide computer services to the local community, and revenue generated from these programs will contribute to the VTC’s self-sustainability.

The Computer Center is registered with the Computer Society of Kenya (CSK), which is one of the certified ICT examination organizations in Kenya. The students are trained under the CSK curriculum and awarded certificates that are recognized and valued by employers.

Hairdressing and Barber Skills Training

The Need

At Learn For Life Kenya, we aim to provide opportunities for vocational training that will help young people in Kenya become employed and productive citizens.

Hard realities in Kenya, like an extremely high youth unemployment rate and the high cost of education, leave youth vulnerable, especially those who grew up in orphanages and must fend for themselves upon leaving. Young people need marketable skills to provide for themselves.

Our Focus

Thanks to many generous friends, our Giving Tuesday 2018 Campaign was very successful! We quickly raised $5,000 to launch a Hairdressing & Barber Skills Training program in Nyeri, Kenya. Our Hairdressing and Barber Skills Training program focuses on providing training for the students who will soon leave the Tumaini Children’s Ministry orphanage.

About 20 students will learn the basic skills needed to provide hairdressing/barber services in their communities, thus providing a reliable source of income upon graduation. Receiving such specialized training before graduation equips them for the job market or professional certification; both paths lead to a more self-sustaining, dignified future!

Timeline

Earlier this year, renovations transformed the space for a new salon. Not only will training in hairdressing and barber skills take place in the salon, but the renovated space will become a center for our newly skilled artisans to ply their trade and earn revenue.

The first training for this program is set to begin in June 2019. Stay tuned!