Twenty-three young people are starting our entry-level Building Skills course. They will gain valuable skills and experience as they help us build new facilities at Zambezi Sawmills Community School, Livingstone.

This is our first community training course since before the pandemic.

Our Senior Community Development Officer Jones Samwenda and Project Office Kelvin Mwando led the recruitment of trainees, alongside the school’s Parent Community School Committee (PCSC).

Kelvin explained the recruitment process:

“We’re delighted to restart our community training. The PCSC helped to get the message out to young people across the local community. From there, we invited those interested to meetings at the school on 24 May.

This was an opportunity for people to find out more about the course. We explained what the training involves and what would be required from them.

Information meeting at Zambezi Sawmills Community School

We handed out application forms and asked participants to return the next day with their completed form.

Together with the PCSC we then held a series of short interviews. This is a chance to help assess motivation and attitude. This course is a six-month commitment so we want to ensure that people have thought it through properly and have spoken to their families, husbands or wives about it.”

Build It Project Officer Kelvin interviewing a potential trainee

Build It looks to train young people who did not have the opportunity to complete their education, but with a genuine interest and desire to learn new skills.

With input from our Training Team, 16 men and 7 women were successfully selected for the course.

We look forward to welcoming them for their orientation on Monday 13 June, and will keep you updated on their progress.