Refugee Programme

WE TRULY CARE ABOUT OUR WORK


The refugee’s programme was started in 1997 by the Little Sisters of St. Francis. Most of the refugees came from different countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia and Eritrea to Nairobi – Kenya

Most of these people had problems of food, shelter, clothing, medical, language. They used to come to the compound of the Little Sisters of St. Francis – Kasarani looking for basic needs. Language was a major barrier to communication since most of the refugees come from French speaking countries.

In 2000 the Little Sisters started a formal training the refugees in language – English and Kiswahili with aim of helping them cope in Kenya by interacting with other people. This helped them to seek casual jobs such as washing clothes, cleaning houses, looking after people’s children and at the end of the day, they could get something small in return. After learning the language “English and Kiswahili” it was felt that there was a need for more training for the refugees in order to become more self – reliant while in Kenya. With this this in mind technical skills were started namely: – Garments making, Computer application/ ICT and Food and beverage production, sales and service.

This helped them to seek casual jobs and others joined skills training courses such as computer literacy garment making and housekeeping and Hospitality with an aim of searching jobs for sustainability so as to support themselves and their families.

In 2013, the training department was accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education as a Centre of the Kenya National Examination Council and Technical Vocational Education (TVET). We have embarked on small and interactive classes thus allowing students to have substantial one- on -one training with the teaching staff. In additional to attending theory classes students have significant opportunity to obtain practical sessions within the Centre and industry within maximum supervision of their teachers.

2.0. The programme Activities
  1. Technical skills training
  2. Production unit – Canteen and knitting
2.1. Technical skills training

In order to provide quality technical training skills the following are the course we are offering:-

  1. Craft certificate in food and beverage production, sales and service
  2. Artisan certificate in food and beverage production, sales and service
  3. Garments making
  4. Computer application
  5. Craft certificate in food and Beverage production, sales and service, the course is divided into module 1 and 11 the first module takes 1year while module 11 take six months. After the first year the students go for three months industrial attachment. Admission qualification is D plain and above or a pass in Artisan Certificate.
  6. Artisan Certificate in food and beverage production, sales and service, the course is for 1 year and qualification is D minus and below (Class 8 who have certificate).
  7. Garments making is for 2 years but the students have an option to do it in 1 year and for the 2 years or one the grade is 111. Those who have certificate either class eight or form IV certificate sit for National Industrial Training Authority examination (NITA).
  8. Computer applications we are training students for computer packages. Duration is 3 months and 2weeks or 6months.

After learning the language “English and Kiswahili” it was felt that there was a need for more training for the refugees in order to become more self–reliant while in Kenya. With this in mind technical skills were started namely: – Garments making, Computer application/ ICT and Food and beverage production, sales, and service.

This helped them to seek casual jobs and others joined skills training courses such as computer literacy garment making and housekeeping and Hospitality with an aim of searching jobs for sustainability so as to support themselves and their families. In 2013, the training department was accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education as a Centre of the Kenya National Examination Council and Technical Vocational Education (TVET). We have embarked on small and interactive classes thus allowing students to have substantial one- on -one training with the teaching staff. In addition to attending theory classes, students have a significant opportunity to obtain practical sessions within the Centre and industry within the maximum supervision of their teachers.