Charity Workaid Reports

Hope Craft Skills Development Centre
Nakuru, Kenya

Workaid has been involved with this umbrella project since 1998. It was set up by Veronica Njoroge, a dedicated teacher at a school for the disabled who wanted to do more to help her students and other disadvantaged members of her community who were unable to support themselves.

Based in an urban area of the Rift Valley in western Kenya, Hope Craft Skills Development Centre runs a wide range of employment-generating schemes to help single mothers, widows, disabled people and victims of tribal fighting. The beneficiaries are recruited through churches, community development workers, disability assessment centres, schools and self-help groups.
Projects include tailoring, machine knitting, carpentry, shoe-making, soap-making and crafts such as beadwork, sisal weaving, tapestry and artificial flower-making. Participants are encouraged to set up their own businesses and are taught basic marketing, budgeting and record-keeping skills.
HCSDC also has a 'revolving loan' scheme which enables members to borrow equipment or materials and pay for them when their venture becomes profitable. This is a simple, cost-effective way of enabling impoverished people to establish a successful business without incurring debts.
Over the last five years, Workaid has supplied 28 sewing machines, 16 knitting machines, 11 sets of carpentry tools, four cobblers sets, three leatherwork sets, three leatherwork sewing machines, three sets of tin-working tools and one metalwork set to a variety of HCSDC-run projects.
Most recently, a consignment of six knitting machines was sent in September 2004 to set up a new training centre for physically disabled adults. The centre will be staffed by volunteers, including a Peace Corps Volunteer, and some of the trainees will be sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru.

HopeCraft Pic
Joseph Ndungu Wairegi has a roadside business repairing shoes with his Workaid sewing machine, supplied through HCSDC

Hannah Wangui makes children's clothes on a knitting machine supplied by Workaid

Hope Craft Skills Development Centre Nakuru, Kenya
Workaid has been involved with this umbrella project since 1998. It was set up by Veronica Njoroge, a dedicated teacher at a school for the disabled who wanted to do more to help her students and other disadvantaged members of her community who were unable to support themselves.
Based in an urban area of the Rift Valley in western Kenya, Hope Craft Skills Development Centre runs a wide range of employment-generating schemes to help single mothers, widows, disabled people and victims of tribal fighting. The beneficiaries are recruited through churches, community development workers, disability assessment centres, schools and self-help groups. Projects include tailoring, machine knitting, carpentry, shoe-making, soap-making and crafts such as beadwork, sisal weaving, tapestry and artificial flower-making. Participants are encouraged to set up their own businesses and are taught basic marketing, budgeting and record-keeping skills. HCSDC also has a 'revolving loan' scheme which enables members to borrow equipment or materials and pay for them when their venture becomes profitable. This is a simple, cost-effective way of enabling impoverished people to establish a successful business without incurring debts. Over the last five years, Workaid has supplied 28 sewing machines, 16 knitting machines, 11 sets of carpentry tools, four cobblers sets, three leatherwork sets, three leatherwork sewing machines, three sets of tin-working tools and one metalwork set to a variety of HCSDC-run projects. Most recently, a consignment of six knitting machines was sent in September 2004 to set up a new training centre for physically disabled adults. The centre will be staffed by volunteers, including a Peace Corps Volunteer, and some of the trainees will be sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru.	Joseph Ndungu Wairegi has a roadside business repairing shoes with his Workaid sewing machine, supplied through HCSDC Hannah Wangui makes children's clothes on a knitting machine supplied by Workaid