(*) Thanks so much to all of you who have made this possible!

Ambroise, Hervé and Moïse with their diplomas

Ambroise, Moïse and Hervé, three of the street kids in the “education and reintegration program,” whose resumes are complete with thefts from and fights in the workshop, repeated truancy, lack of personal hygiene and cleanliness, etc, make up the second graduating class of FAR apprentices. Just a few days ago, they proudly received the diplomas that attest to this status.

Just like the first group of apprentice graduates, this group has also passed, with great difficulty, from a thorny path to a rocky one.

On the right, Ambriose and Moïse, on their first day of training in the auto mechanic workshop, with Drissa and two FAR classmates

In a private ceremony, full of affection, we bestowed diplomas on the three workshop graduates: a carpenter and two auto mechanics. Now they set out, full of excitement and energy, on a career path that can insure their future and that of their families.

Thanks to more than 8 years of training at FAR’s hands, not only professional training, but – much more importantly – training for life, Ambroise, Moïse and Hervé have passed from hanging out on the streets with nothing to do (with all the dangers that that implies) to using professionally the tools of the trades of carpenter and auto mechanic.

During these formative years, the three boys have taken advantage of any excuse to come in late or not show up at all: I wasn’t able to wash my uniform so I had to stay home to do it; on the way to the workshop I saw a broken down car and I stopped to see if I could fix it: I can’t find my work boots and without then I can’t go to the workshop: yesterday my neighbors had a party and I fell asleep late; it was raining this morning; my bike got a flat tire just as I set out and I had to stop to fix it…..what a trio!!

Hervé polishing a chair.

What’s more, one of the boys has a history of even ore serious incidents, like being implicated in a robbery, fights with other boys in the workshop, a few short “disappearances” of 2 or 3 days, in which no one had any word of him because he’d gone off to work with some “snake charmer” who promised him the stars…having gone off believing that easy money existed, and having come home with his tail between his legs when he learned that it was not so….All of this has served to prepare him for life!

As I told them in my graduation speech, in my very, very limited Mooré (the language of the Mossi, the country’s ethnic majority), “Tond pusda yam bark wusogo yam sen sake mwa tond boola”. That is to say, thanks so much to all of you who have made this possible! To the Drissas (our pet name for the project leaders), the workshop owners, and above all, to all the “Friends of Rimkieta” for your support and affection, which are essential to helping us persevere. Remember that there are many other graduating classes to come and we count on your support for that.