VOCATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMME

Update from Imbert Matthee, September 2006:

I just returned from SE Asia and had a chance to visit the site where we are building the rice mill to support the vocational training program for landmine survivors. Clearpath has  received nearly $290,000 in grants from the McKnight Foundation, Adopt-A-Minefield (UNA USA), the U.S. State Department's Office of Weapons Removal & Abatement, several private donors and from SD Britain. That means we're close to our target of $325,000.

A 0.5-hectare building side has been purchased and filled for construction, and footings are being poured for the foundation of a 22 x 25-meter warehouse and rice mill. Meanwhile, the mill equipment is being fabricated and assembled. The site also has a fish-raising pond and will have a temporary skills training facility and office by early next year. We are in the process of negotiating for the purchase of a second 5.5-hectare site to develop the demonstration farm for the agricultural skills training program. That site will have at least two hectares for rice cultivation and the rest for fruit-tree growing, animal husbandry, honey bees and additional fish farming.

The rice mill should be done by the end of the year and training could begin next spring. We plan to experiment with organic rice cultivation, generators running on rice plant waste and solar panels. This will be a tremendous community and skills development asset, not to mention its economic benefits to urban poor households to which the rice from the mill will be distributed.

Read more about the  vocational skills training