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Project OKURASE begins job training program
August 26, 2008
August 27, 2008
Project OKURASE has started its first job training program - environmentally friendly brick making. The Alero Olympio Trust has donated the use of her brick making machine to Project OKURASE. Alero Olympio was a Ghanaian architect who died on August 23, 2005 (www.alero-olympio.com). She was a pioneer in
Ghana for sustainable architecture. Project OKURASE is honoring her work in the use of sustainable architecture in building the Nkabom Centre for Skills Training and Formal Education. Toward her quest for sustainable architecture, Alero purchased a brick making machine in
India. The bricks are made from laterite (the red African soil), sand, and a small amount of concrete to hold them together. Colonel Mallet from
Accra, an engineer who partnered with Alero, met three weeks ago with the Project OKURASE on-site team, Nana Ama Yeboah, Samuel Nkrumah Yeboah, and Cynthia Cupit Swenson. He briefed the team on the process of brick making and suggested two trainers. Two weeks later, the trainers moved to Okurase. Nana Ama Yeboah has enrolled 20 men and women from the village in the program. The goal is to make 20,000 bricks by December and these bricks will be used to build the school and job training buildings. The villagers involved are receiving daily training plus three meals a day to give them strength for the job. Upon completion of the training, the 20 Okurase villagers will receive a certificate showing they have completed the brick making training. As we move out of the training phase for these 20, our plan is to begin paying those trained to continue brick making. The people of Okurase are in effect building their own Centre for future generations to see. There is great pride in the job training. The trainees have asked for ID badges so that everyone in the village can know what they are doing as they walk through the village in the morning on their way to training.
We are currently taking donations to pay the 20 villagers for brick making when they move from training to work phase and to provide overalls and shoes. The overalls and shoes equal roughly $50 per person. $1200 per person is needed to pay daily brick making salary for 6 months and provide daily food, which is very important since food is scarce. Thus, $1250 would sponsor a villager for 6 months AND help build the school. The salary provided to the villager would feed his or her children. It is a great win-win situation. Project OKURASE is delighted to be able to include women in the work training, as the village has been clear that women especially are in a difficult economic situation.
View photos of the brick making machine.
