Vocational training courses
in dressmaking and carpentry

Of late the sewing machines are chattering and wood shavings are flying through the air in Kousseri, Northern Cameroon. 52 youngsters are attending the first two courses offered by a vocational school, which is being set up there by IPA.

“The centre is my big dream”, says Jonas Namekong, a carpenter from Kousseri, “I pray to God that you can help me with this”. He is referring to the vocational school whose construction is supported by IPA. The idea was Namekong’s, called “Papa Jonas” by all.

Kousseri is a town in Northern Cameroon of between 150,000 and 170,000 inhabitants. The town borders on Chad. Street scenes are dominated by small traders – and by many street children, who have hardly any chance of recei-ving any edu-cation. Even for children who do attend primary schools there is hardly any way of receiving vo-cational training later on. That is why the project of a vocational school in Kous-seri is needed. Once completed, it will offer a number of different vocational courses.

During the initial phase, the CFPK (Centre de Formation Professionelle de Kousseri) is offering vocational courses for carpentry and dressmaking in an old barn and under the roof of a hangar. Thanks to Papa Jonas, the news that something could be learned here quickly made the rounds in the town. At the beginning, over 70 youngsters started their vocational training; in the meantime, around 20 have dropped out, being somewhat overburdened by the demands of the timetable and the unfamiliar structures imposed on their lives. The remaining 50, who are willing to stay on and complete the course, will not only receive practical and theoretical specialist training but will also get tuition in language, mathematics and “éducation morale”.

The latter has nothing to do with religion; it simply seeks to teach the students the rules of their society. The timetable for the girls offers additional subjects such as “child care”, “family planning” or “homemaking”.
Moreover, the CFPK not only teaches but also executes orders, especially in the carpentry shop. Each month this brings in earnings of around € 500 – a promising start on the way towards self-sufficiency.

The costs for the first year – establishing the vocational school in existing buildings, i.e. without a new building as yet – amount to approximately CHF 170,000; the money was donated by private sponsors – especially one particularly generous person, who would like to remain anonymous. The detailed budgets for thesecond phase – the construction of the first buildings in 2009 – are currently being put together. The State of Cameroon is also contributing to the project: It donated four hectares of land to CFPK for the construction of the new buildings.

The CFPK team is very commit-ted and has wor-ked without any pay during the first four months. Now the tea-chers receive a small salary. The project is supervised and accompanied by Aboukar Maha-mat, the IPA partner in Northern Cameroon, while the school is headed by Mariatou Ngoungoure Mofing, a young, intelligent and hardworking woman. “We are more than a vocational school”, she says. “We pick kids from the street and help them to grow up”.