PROJECT #152

Project #152 | Welding Training Program in Guinea-Bissau

Our partnership with WAVS

Guinea-Bissau is a country facing serious challenges — crippling poverty, corruption, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. More than half the population survives off less than $1.25 each day. The public education system is under-funded and often fails to pay its teachers, leading to months-long teacher strikes. As a result, less than one out of four students even graduate from high school. And those that do graduate don’t come away with the job skills they need to provide for their family.

One Day’s Wages partnered with West African Vocational Schools (WAVS) to equip young people in Guinea-Bissau with welding and metalworking skills so that they can open their own workshops and provide for themselves and their families. The training topics include safety, welding theory, stick and MIG welders, machining work (including use of a lathe), proper measuring and cutting techniques, and basic design work.

The WAVS welding program is focused on giving students real-world, hands-on experience. By the time they finish their nine-month course, these future entrepreneurs will have made their own fish grills, built chairs and desks, welded windows and doors, and learned how to install a steel roof. In addition, qualifying graduates will receive a welding tools starter kit.

Our collective impact

Total People Impacted

Welding Students Trained

Welding Interns Trained

Meet Frenando 

Frenando was a welding student in the WAVS 2019 program. He joined the program to be able to contribute to helping others, since he received help when he was a student. When he first started the welding program, the thing that he really enjoyed and kept him motivated was the daily denotational the teachers shared at the start of each class. As an intern, he says that he is still learning more things. Now that he has welding skills, he is learning more about customer relations, budgeting for projects, and analyzing projects to know how to start to work. His dream is to take all the skills and knowledge he has learned and to open his own welding shop to continue to support the people in Canchungo, Guinea-Bissau. He wants to see the school grow more and offer other courses to help professionals grow their businesses more.

Thank you for making this possible!

Our movement is grassroots, to us that not only means the work on the ground is led by local leaders with the support of the community, but it also means that we raise the funds for our projects through everyday donors just like you. In addition to all the donors that gave $25, $100, or $250 and the campaigners that ran a race or donated their birthday to raise funds, we also want to thank our generous business, school, and faith sponsors who believed in our work and joined the movement.

If you want to support future projects like this you can make a donation to our jobs and skills fund.

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One Day's Wages is a grassroots movement of people, stories, and actions to alleviate extreme global poverty

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