The project Empowering Women Through Practical Skills aimed to help reduce women’s unemployment in the poor Marsabit region in Kenya. During the project, new practical-skills courses for women were opened – a tailoring course and a hairdressing and cosmetics course. The desired impact is to reduce unemployment in the region and to strengthen the position of women in society.
The project was implemented at the established Salesian apprenticeship school Don Bosco Technical Institute Marsabit in the county capital of Marsabit. Until then, the apprenticeship school had provided technical education only to men; the project expanded its scope with new courses for women.
During the project, the first 25 women were trained. To give the trained graduates a better chance of finding employment, they had the opportunity to take part in business-skills training and to receive start-up packages to launch their own self-employed activity. The business-skills training was also attended by youth from other courses — a total of 90 apprenticeship students. The second part of the project focused on improving the quality of education at the apprenticeship school by raising the qualifications of teachers. A certified course in teaching technical subjects was completed by 6 teachers, which raised the quality of the teaching process. A mediation-skills course for 10 teachers helped bring together young people from different ethnic groups in the interest of peaceful coexistence among the residents of Marsabit. In addition, the project also organized regular educational seminars for youth, with an average attendance of 30 students per week.
The project started on 1 November 2016 and ended on 31 October 2018. It was financed from the state budget of the Slovak Republic through the official development aid programme SlovakAid thanks to a grant of EUR 226,150. Co-financing of EUR 25,150 was secured thanks to the Women in Kenya collection.
