Chipata
Craft Center is an Arts and Crafts
Training School offering Vocational
Skills to the youths. The
Catholic Diocese of Chipata owns the
School. It is situated near the
Eastern Border with Malawi and
Mozambique. Chipata is 600km
from Lusaka, the country's capital and
30km from the Malawian border.
The
Arts and Crafts Center came to address
a number of problems in the Province
e.g. high unemployment rate.
Chipata is a small town with very few
companies and government offices,
which would offer employment of the
population. In fact most of the
government workers were retrenched
following the Public Service Reform
Programme initiated by the Government,
thus adding to the unemployment
rate. This had a negative impact
on school going youths; they had to
drop out of school because their
parents have no money. This
implies that there is a lot of poverty
in the district, province and the
country as a whole resulting into an
increasing number of youths engaging
in prostitution, stealing, drug abuse
etc.
In
order to address the problems of the
youths and to help them earn a living,
the Diocese of Chipata created an Arts
and Crafts School in 1996 to provide
occupational opportunities for the
young people who drop out of school
but show marked inclination for
creative and manual activities.
The skills provided include
Sewing (Tailoring) and Weaving,
Ceramics, and Carpentry & Joinery.
All students enrolled at the
Center are offered Entrepreneurship
skills as well.
All
youths, both male and female
regardless of their religious beliefs
and ethnic origin are selected on the
basis of the Vocational
characteristics in relation to
handcraft activities.
At the end of training
programme two (2) certificates are
awarded to deserving students, a local
certificate, and another recognized by
the government which is obtained by
getting through a final exam carried
out by State Board of Examiners.
Former
students are encouraged to form
cooperatives, which are supervised by
Center management for a minimum of two
(2) years to ensure that their small
business takes off, and progress well.
The basic idea of forming
cooperatives is to make sure that the
students have basic tools and
materials to start productive work, so
that the skill acquired do not go to
waste.
As at now there are nine (9)
cooperatives of former students and
these are doing quite well.
Chipata
Craft Center is non-profit making
institution whose sole aim is to
alleviate the problems of the youth by
empowering them economically through
provision of Vocational Skills.
A local Congregation of the
Good Shepherd Sisters of Chipata is
managing the Center on behalf of the
Diocese.
