Amoakowaa and Simon continue their life’s journey
When the sheltered workshop started in PCC in 2004
special needs youth from all over the Nkoranza surroundings came to PCC to start working in this sheltered workshop.
Most of these young people came from far and that is why they spent the larger part of the year in PCC, where they would sleep in the Boys’ or Girls’ Dormitory.
The idea being that they would learn a simple profession in the sheltered workshop and would return to their own village in the course of time. There they would be able to make up a life of their own thanks to the skills mastered in the workshop.
For years many of these young people have learnt to make e.g. necklaces or kente rugs in our sheltered workshop. While working they also improved their social skills and – last but not least – they made a lot of fun during and after work.
However, since 2004 none of them has ever returned from the workshop to his or her native village to continue life there. But it has never been the intention that all these youth would slowly but surely become “ordinary” and permanent residents of PCC. In this way they would block the transition of new youth in the sheltered workshop. So we definitely had to run a new course.
It became clear after meeting many (grand-)parents that they didn’t consider the making and selling of necklaces by these children as promising businesses in their own villages.
Together with these parents and via our Outreach programme we have sought new ways of helping this particular youth find a good future in their own surroundings after their period in PCC.
Most of these young people came from far and that is why they spent the larger part of the year in PCC, where they would sleep in the Boys’ or Girls’ Dormitory.
The idea being that they would learn a simple profession in the sheltered workshop and would return to their own village in the course of time. There they would be able to make up a life of their own thanks to the skills mastered in the workshop.
For years many of these young people have learnt to make e.g. necklaces or kente rugs in our sheltered workshop. While working they also improved their social skills and – last but not least – they made a lot of fun during and after work.
However, since 2004 none of them has ever returned from the workshop to his or her native village to continue life there. But it has never been the intention that all these youth would slowly but surely become “ordinary” and permanent residents of PCC. In this way they would block the transition of new youth in the sheltered workshop. So we definitely had to run a new course.
It became clear after meeting many (grand-)parents that they didn’t consider the making and selling of necklaces by these children as promising businesses in their own villages.
Together with these parents and via our Outreach programme we have sought new ways of helping this particular youth find a good future in their own surroundings after their period in PCC.
One of the most important goals of the PCC Outreach programme, which we started a few years ago, is that we try to help special needs youth who live in the surrounding villages of Nkoranza with finding a simple job as a e.g. goat or sheep shepherd, rabbit breeder or mushroom grower, to improve their social status.
If the parents are supportive of their child and we consider the situation promising, we donate for example 2 sheep or 2 goats as seed capital and we keep our fingers crossed that nature will run its course!
Amoakowaa and Simon belong to the first youth who started working in the sheltered workshop and they have been chosen this year to make use of our new policy.
Things have been talked over extensively with their families and there have been several field surveys in their villages and the conclusion was: all systems are go!
Subsequently Amoakowaa and Simon each got their 2 sheep, which are already grazing the green in their villages. Hopefully these animals will turn out to be really prolific besides providing both youth with meaningful work, enabling them to contribute to the family’s income.
When we were certain that everything had been well organized we said our goodbyes to Amoakowaa and Simon during a great party in PCC. They have worked in the sheltered workshop for over 10 years and have learnt a lot there. Now it is time for them to take the next step in their lives. It goes without saying that we will keep an active eye on them from a distance.
We are proud of these 2 confident young people, we are very happy with the positive development they have made in PCC and wish both of them the very best in the future.