Life / Vocational Skilling

As humanitarian crises have lifted in Sri Lanka, national development has shifted its focus toward building a strong economic core in the private sector and diversifying rural livelihoods.  Positive demographic transition has accompanied the drive toward middle-income country status but now poses some challenges regarding aged dependency.

Menstrual management can be difficult at the best of times.  Women with no disposable income may use multiple pairs of underwear, kitchen sponges or dirty rags in place of tampons and sanitary pads.  Due to the unhygienic nature of these ‘pieces’, they regularly experience rashes, sores, bruising and infections.

Upon leaving school, many clever and capable young minds are deprived of their career ambitions due to a lack of education and employment opportunities.  Despite working 6 full days a week in menial labour, they earn barely enough to maintain a subsistence lifestyle.

Despite Sri Lanka’s remarkable social progress in literacy, life expectancy and infant mortality, success in generating economic growth has somewhat lagged behind. Underemployment and underachievement has arisen in rural areas where opportunities for higher education and career advancement in modern industries are few

Uganda has seen and suffered under almost twenty years of war between The Lord’s Resistance Army and government forces.  During this time, heinous atrocities were committed including massacres, torture, rape and abductions of young ones to become child soldiers and child brides.

Infant and child abandonment is still a problem in China, particularly due to various forms of disability. Rather than being forsaken to fight for their life, these minors need a program of loving care, medical attention and personal development to enable eventual independence and a prosperous future.

Instead of going to school, many slum-dwelling children in the Philippines roam the streets begging, peddling and sometimes stealing in order to get by.  In a prominent squatter community we have a project striving to break the cycle of poverty by providing ‘catch-up’ education and vocational training to at-risk children and their families. 

The National Department of Social Welfare estimates that there are approximately 220,000 children living on the streets of towns and cities across the Philippines.  Some willingly leave their households to escape domestic violence, neglect or hunger; others are forced out by their parents to beg, scavenge or even sell themselves into prostitution or labour.

A deep-seated caste system has caused the Dalits to not only live a life of limited opportunity, but also perceive their lowly status as permanent and prevailing as it is considered deserved for past ills. Typically, they must endure chronic underemployment with no job security and little opportunity to save for times of illness or their children’s education.

For young people who have grown up in orphanages and state care centres, transition into independent living can be a confronting stage of life.  To make this process smooth and stress-free, this project provides intermediate accommodation and workshops to give these young people the necessary study opportunities or job-ready skills to thrive under their own drive.

As Egypt’s population sprawls beyond the capacity of social services, informal residency in slums and squatter settlements is a reality for many thousands of marginalised locals. Vocational training within these urban areas has proven to be highly effective in fostering employability and life skills for a brighter future.