If I close my eyes I can see their faces perfectly – with expressions both defiant and skittish – They are the boys from the first group of the education and reintegration project for street kids, who have gone on to become apprentices in vocational workshops: Salfo, Wahab, Tiguiani, Aziz, Yacouba, Rasmané and Harouna… I look at them now and see little men with attitude, eager to take the world by storm.
In Rimkieta we are celebrating! In a simple, very touching ceremony, we bestowed graduation diplomas on the first 7 boys from the workshops who have reached “apprentice:” 2 tailors, 2 auto mechanics and 3 welders. They are ready to set out on the path to employment that will allow them to better their living conditions and those of their families.
The 7 boys from the first promotion to become apprentices
Each of them comes from very difficult circumstances that led them to the street as boys, where they were fortunate enough to cross paths with the great Drissa, who runs the project. That’s when their luck changed and their lives turned 180 degrees.
Their road hasn’t been an easy one; One of their group didn’t make it, which makes their achievement of having finished all the more commendable. I won’t go into the details, but I can assure you that for most of them it was by no means a sure thing that they could make it this far… Yet, there they were – the seven of them at the ceremony, receiving their diplomas.
Drissa during his speach
But they didn’t get here on their own…Obviously there is much, much personal merit involved. The environment they moved in as boys, more than just dangerous, is very tempting and they found themselves in a highly vulnerable situation. But, like I said, they weren’t alone and through all these years they’ve counted on Drissa, Jacques, Mady and Toé and on their bosses at the workshops, without whom it would have been more than difficult to have made it. All the adults have been much more than teachers and workshop bosses to the boys. They have been “big brothers” who took them by the hand when they were walking a thorny path and released their grip when the path became “just” a rocky one. Because here the so called sandy or grassy path doesn’t exist…
The 7 boys with the responsibles of the projec (from left to right): Toe, Drissa, Jacques y Mady
Every year FAR “takes in” 15 new “street kids” in the CIEPYD (Educational, Professional and Sports Integration Center), where they receive training, food and medical care, under the careful watch of Toé throughout the school year. After that, we determine which of them can be enrolled in school and which should go on to vocational training in a workshop because their intellectual capacity wouldn’t get them through school. We’ve taken in a hundred boys, approximately a quarter of whom have had to go into vocational training. These 7 boys are the first to receive diplomas in the 8 years the project has been running.
There is an enormous amount of work behind this first graduation ceremony. I always say that among all FAR’s projects, this is by far the most challenging for us. There is daily follow up – yes, daily – of each and every boy in a workshop. This year there are 19 of them. And situations come up that are hard to manage: serious bad behavior in the workshops or with others; theft; disappearances for days without a sign of them…
So thanks, so, so very much to the “Drissas,” to the workshop bosses, and of course to all of those who – from another world where grassy and sandy paths DO exist – have made possible that these 7 boys have made it this far. We continue to count on you all because there are still so many boys who tread thorny paths…