Thanks to a donation from The Dallas Zoo we have been able to fund the starting of soap-making and hair dressing as alternative income training programmes in Kortor! We are still raising funds to complete our building and up-scale our tailoring classes and IT training.
- When we reach £2,000 we will be able to finish the Community Centre construction
- When we reach £4,500 we will be able to massively expand our current tailoring training programme
- When we reach £6,500 we will be able to expand our IT training
We’ve nearly completed construction of our Community Centre where we host free tailoring training for all nearby communities, but also education, outreach, and skills training sessions. The building has it’s bones and roof so we are functional! But we need to raise some funds to purchase additional chairs, tables, a small solar panel, and the cement to give us a nice finish. We have also been lucky enough to connect with Sierra Leonean artist Morrison (@Morrison_arts on Instagram), so part of this fundraiser will go towards supporting this wonderful local artist to paint some inspiring murals at the centre.
The Pan Verus Project team hold regular meetings with the community members participating in our alternative income training program. Our tailoring classes (which have been being held since February 2020) have been so popular we have well outgrown the two machines we currently have. We would like to secure as many machines as possible, as well as a second trainer to expand this popular class.
The community people have chosen soap-making as another alternative income skill that they want to learn. We are working now on establishing a partnership which would result in hiring someone to train two community members to be the community trainers for soap making. This means we can continue to hire local peoples to act as trainers, which is providing alternative incomes in their own right!
If we can reach the full goal here the remainder of the funds will go towards supporting:
- Two hairstylist trainers’ salaries (for both men and women’s styles)
- Motorbike maintenance (hard to apply for funding for, but a necessary part of the budget line when the roads are as rough as they are)
- Additional computers for project staff and volunteers (which also allows us to expand the on-going IT training)
- Supporting meals for community youth volunteer days, where the young adults of the community support the community where needed (fixing the road after heavy rains, helping in planting/harvest season, creating burn borders to decrease forest fires)