Donation to aid organization in Gambia

With this year's donation of 2.000,-€, Gebr. Schwarz GmbH supports the House of Skills project in Gambia. House of Skills was founded in Tanje at the end of 2014. Tanje is a village in the West African state of Gambia and has about 6690 inhabitants. House of Skills is a project of the Protestant Church Gambia in partnership with MM EMPOWERMENT Gambia/ Menschen helfen e.V..

The goals are:

• Qualified dual vocational training, especially for young people
• Creation of jobs
• Establishment of profitable businesses

Profitability enables the financing of social projects such as kindergartens, schools and youth hostels. Training is provided in the professions of baker, metalworker, electrician, bricklayer, painter, carpenter, motor vehicle and administration/accounting. In the first 5 years the complete infrastructure with buildings, electricity and water was built. The individual workshops, school buildings and living and office space were built. Currently, the car workshop and a dormitory are being completed.

The construction phase had a great advantage for the trainees - they received real dual training. Now the next phase of the project is about to begin:

• The workshops are to accept more and more orders from outside. Good quality craftsmanship is a high demand in Gambia, which House of Skills provides. From the very beginning, the bakery has served the market with high-quality baked goods.
•  The management of House of Skills and the management of the individual workshops were previously carried out by German specialists. Well-qualified Gambians have now been found for each management position. The local Gambians are to run House of Skills on their own responsibility.

Thus, House of Skills is on the way to organizational and economic independence.

In a You Tube Video you can get a good overview of the idea of "House of Skills".