Today, he makes furniture for traditional schools in his community, while learning a trade in an alternative learning setting we have provided him and others in his situation.
After my father's death, I had no choice but to stop studying because he was the one paying my school fees.Saturnin (19)
Saturnin is just one of many who have lost a parent to the violence in CAR. Joblessness, and the resulting lack of money for school fees, has been collateral damage from fighting between the predominantly Muslim group ex-Seleka and the Christian animist militia anti-Balaka since the civil war broke out in late 2012. Many children and youths have been deprived of their education since. As a result, livelihood opportunities for young people in CAR are extremely slim. Saturnin, though, has found a way to make ends meet.
Helping young people launch and succeed in small businesses
In response to this pervasive lack of opportunity, our organisation’s country team has launched a vocation and professional programme at the Sibut Regional Centre for Education and Training, close to Saturnin’s village Bomini. The programme’s aim is to equip conflict affected youth like Saturnin with the professional and technical skills they will need to launch and succeed in small businesses.
Saturnin was seeking a way to change his family’s fortunes for the better and chose to learn carpentry in his effort. "This is very important to me, because I need to have a job to support my mother," he says. During his time in the programme, Saturnin was put in touch with a workshop manager who acted as a mentor and guided him until the launch of his business. He made a successful start, and our programme recently employed him to make table and benches for classrooms.
Using his new skill to help affected communities
Making tables and benches for schools affected by insecurity and lingering structural problems is Saturnin’s way of using his newly acquired skill to support education and help future generations in CAR enjoy learning in conducive environments. “This job has made me feel stable, and I’ve proven to myself that I’m good at what I do. All the benches here in the NRC office are the result of my hard work,” he says. Saturnin hopes that the quality of his work will soon be noticed by potential customers, so he can grow his small business.
In CAR, 75 per cent of the population is under 35 years old. Most young people, however, remain unemployed, and others have dropped out of school, making them an easy target for recruitment by armed groups. We have marshalled our resources to do our part to combat this, and utilizing NMFA funds, we trained 83 young people through our vocation and professional programme in Sibut last year.
International efforts to put CAR on solid footing have, however, continued to be inconsistent, with an insufficient and sporadic flow of aid. In 2017, we declared the situation in CAR the world’s most neglected crisis.
