A vocational education and training centre

The project aimed to construct and equip the two first three-classroom blocks of the Tuwapende Watoto Vocational Education and Training Centre (VETC). The project was to provide six-month training courses in baking and two–year training courses in horticulture and tailoring to over 50 students. The training courses combined theory and practice. Graduates who successfully complete their course would be provided with additional support in the form of tools and micro-credits to enable them to set up their own business, or would be assisted in gaining employment, to enable young people to become self-reliant.

The two first three classroom blocks of the Tuwapende Watoto VETC were successfully constructed and inaugurated in 2018. By the end of the project, ten tailoring apprentices, two horticulture apprentices and nine bakery/food production apprentices had completed their two-year course and taken the Government-accredited vocational and education examination in theory and practical work. All the apprentices are currently employed. Apprentices sold their products (bags, clothes, vegetables, fruits and baked goods), enabling them to gain experience as vendors and in market orientation and timely production. Short information and communication technology (ICT) courses were delivered for the local population at weekends.

Founded in Switzerland in 2004, the Tuwapende Watoto Foundation (which means “We love children”) provides orphaned and abandoned children in Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania, with a caring home and a good quality education for their future.