Addis Ababa, ET – Vocational Training – Aug to Oct 2013

The ultimate goal of Retrak’s Vocational Training Program for street children in Ethiopia continues to be to reduce the prevalence of street children in Addis Ababa, by helping them make the transition from street life back to their home families and communities through long term resettlement programs.

Our successes this quarter were in the areas of enrollment, independent living and training mentors shown in the picture below.

To date, 12 youths have enrolled and are attending vocational training (VOT), which is two more than we had targeted for 2013. All of these youths will graduate before the end of 2013. All youths have chosen tailoring training, as this is a growth industry in Ethiopia and it is easy to find suitable employment in one of the many garment factories in Addis Ababa.

Ten youths have moved to independent living following the completion of VOT (in 2012), finding full employment and suitable accommodation. These youths are reliable workers and are earning a sustainable wage. The manager of the factory has asked Retrak to send other youths to work in his factory. Working conditions in the factories are acceptable.

Eleven community members were recruited and trained to become mentors for the youths living independently. The mentors are provided with a small per diem to meet with the youths to support and encourage them as they make the transition from Retrak to the community.

Our major challenges have been with extra costs for training and accommodation, and addiction issues.

The cost of VOT has increased substantially for good quality training in an accredited school. In 2012 Retrak took up the offer of free places in VOT in government schools. We found that the training was inadequate and the youths had to complete further training in a better training school in order to gain the necessary skills to find employment. Thus in 2013 we have used high quality training schools.

The cost of accommodation in Addis Ababa continues to rise as the government clears substandard accommodation and moves people into condominiums. However, the supply is much lower than the demand and thus it is hard to find suitable accommodation (landlords have many options of tenants) at a reasonable cost.

Issues of addiction continue to be a challenge. Many of the youths have lived on the street for several years and have developed addictions to chewing chat, pornography and alcohol. Following specialist training for all Retrak social workers on helping youths with addictions, we have been able to help youths face these addictions, deal with temptations and develop more acceptable methods of coping with the stress and difficulties in their lives. This is time-consuming but worthwhile. The ability of the youths to hold down fulltime jobs and be recognized as reliable workers is a great encouragement to us.