Vocational Education

After the activity on our farm yesterday it was good to spend time on somebody else's farm today. Mary, our manager, and I visited a Vocational Training Centre at Sikri, (a nearby village). The centre offers training in agriculture, carpentry, masonry and weaving principally for blind, deaf and mentally handicapped students. A small number of able bodied students are also enrolled each year. The centre is funded by the government and is the only training centre of its kind in Kenya. Students are referred from a number of countries in Eastern Africa.

The farm has been established for some time on a very large site and incorporates a 'forest', dairy unit, piggery, sheep rearing unit, fish pond, chicken unit, maize and fodder crops and horticulture plots. Mary and I were shown around the main units in the farm by the deputy principal of the college who was very enthusiastic about the impact training has for handicapped students. He explained that the deaf and blind are often marginalised in Kenya and clearly believes in standing up for their rights.

It was very encouraging to see a large, and clearly successful, farm in operation. The craft training facilities were also very good and there was evidence of high quality work from the students. The weaving workshop was especially impressive. Long strands of yarn were hung up along one of the walls. The deputy principal explained that this helped the blind pupils with their work.

“They know that the fourth colour along is green, for example”, he said.

The output from the workshop is sold locally. We saw very colourful scarves and blankets that had been made by the students which would have sold well in craft stalls in Kisumu and Nairobi.

During our visit we talked about our work with the Farming God's Way project. The deputy principal quickly asked if it would be OK for one of the senior teachers from the centre to come back to Kosele with us to find out more about it. We were pleased to be able to co-operate and look forward to developing a relationship with the centre to share ideas and experiences.

On the way back to our place we were surprised to see a new road block in the village close to the centre. The villagers had hastily piled up earth and rocks to block the road either end of the village, dramatically reducing the speed of traffic passing through. Our passenger explained that a young school girl had been 'knocked' by a hit and run driver earlier that morning and the villagers were taking direct action. I coudn't imagine it happening at home.