Students enrolled in our center celebrate the completion of their formation in cooking, sewing and painting
A year ago, the Community of St. Paul initiated a work training program for women and young people in the Vicariate of Meki, Ethiopia. María José Morales, the person behind this project, reports now the following:
«Saturday, February 18, was a great day for our training center... a real event! There aren’t cameras or videos or gestures or words that can express what the graduation meant for our first forty students. The week before graduation they created committees in charge of preparing the celebration: a teacher and three students from each course. The rest of us helped however we could, decorating the center, preparing songs, obtaining the graduation uniforms —that we just couldn’t do without— and setting up a big tent in which we could welcome our guests and prepare cookies, coffee and food for the 200 people who participated in the celebration.
On graduation day, the first to arrive were the heads of the committees to ensure that nothing was missing. Then, the students, wearing their uniforms, arrived with their families. For them, being able to graduate, to have a profession, to invite family and to be photographed receiving their certificate from the Bishop of the Vicariate of Meki and the director of the center... all of it, it meant more than we can imagine. These young people hadn’t finished their studies and had scarce work opportunities; now they graduated as cooks, seamstresses and painters. Some were already working, thanks to the training they had received. They were all radiant with happiness and enthusiasm.
Emabet —one of the students— thanked us for the opportunity the center gave her and many others to study a profession after having returned from an Arab country. When these students returned, they were rejected by their families and found no job opportunities. They were discouraged for not having achieved the “better future” that they had hoped to find when they emigrated. Emabet is now a cooking teacher at our center, and other students are now working in local hotels. The sewing students made their first delivery of uniforms to a nearby daycare center and have formed a cooperative in order to make the uniforms that are required in schools throughout the country. At the present time, we have an order for 500 student uniforms and 50 teacher uniforms.
It is difficult to communicate the happiness of the families who accompanied their relatives on such a special day, as well as our happiness after having worked so hard and with so much enthusiasm throughout the year to make this moment possible. We have all “graduated a little” with our students, and wish the best for them in this new stage that they begin their life as professionals».
«Saturday, February 18, was a great day for our training center... a real event! There aren’t cameras or videos or gestures or words that can express what the graduation meant for our first forty students. The week before graduation they created committees in charge of preparing the celebration: a teacher and three students from each course. The rest of us helped however we could, decorating the center, preparing songs, obtaining the graduation uniforms —that we just couldn’t do without— and setting up a big tent in which we could welcome our guests and prepare cookies, coffee and food for the 200 people who participated in the celebration.
On graduation day, the first to arrive were the heads of the committees to ensure that nothing was missing. Then, the students, wearing their uniforms, arrived with their families. For them, being able to graduate, to have a profession, to invite family and to be photographed receiving their certificate from the Bishop of the Vicariate of Meki and the director of the center... all of it, it meant more than we can imagine. These young people hadn’t finished their studies and had scarce work opportunities; now they graduated as cooks, seamstresses and painters. Some were already working, thanks to the training they had received. They were all radiant with happiness and enthusiasm.
Emabet —one of the students— thanked us for the opportunity the center gave her and many others to study a profession after having returned from an Arab country. When these students returned, they were rejected by their families and found no job opportunities. They were discouraged for not having achieved the “better future” that they had hoped to find when they emigrated. Emabet is now a cooking teacher at our center, and other students are now working in local hotels. The sewing students made their first delivery of uniforms to a nearby daycare center and have formed a cooperative in order to make the uniforms that are required in schools throughout the country. At the present time, we have an order for 500 student uniforms and 50 teacher uniforms.
It is difficult to communicate the happiness of the families who accompanied their relatives on such a special day, as well as our happiness after having worked so hard and with so much enthusiasm throughout the year to make this moment possible. We have all “graduated a little” with our students, and wish the best for them in this new stage that they begin their life as professionals».
