Brobo Youth Training Center July 1997 - June 1998 Brobo, Cote D'Ivoire Implemented by: ICA Cote D'Ivoire, ICA Japan and local people
PROJECT OVERVIEW Vocational Training for Youth Brobo is a town in the Brobo sub-prefecture with about 4,000 residents. The population there has been increasing rapidly because of the high birth rate and the influx of refugees from strife-ridden neighbouring countries. Unemployment is a serious problem, and the youth go to cities searching for a job, or stay idle in their village. In 1995, vocational training courses in carpentry, weaving, sewing and hairdressing for 35 trainees were established and this training center was renovated during the school break in 1996. We are continuing to support this program providing training materials, instructors' salaries and Japanese technical support of the program. We are also expanding the facilities so that we can train at least 100 students each year.
1. The third year sewing class. Students are making the wedding dress to present at the graduation ceremony. In sewing training, it is symbolic to make a wedding dress before the graduation. That is why most students, despite financial problems, managed by all means to get materials, and output all their skills acquired during the three years of training to the dress. Half of the students of the center, mostly women of 10-20's, have one or more children and sometimes come to class with their babies. Those young people have not been doing anything before entering this center, and the training will help them become independent. ?@
Life in Brobo City
	2. Market in Brobo. There are only a limited number of vegetables like ladies fingers, eggplants, red peppers or tomatoes. Because the dry season continued too long these last two years, food suppy diminished and the price augmented.
	3. Every Tuesday, people from surrounding areas come with all sorts of merchandise and the market becomes very lively. It is the only day during the week when micro buses to the villages are in service.
	4. People live on yam, cassava, rice, maize and banana. The photo shows a foutou made from banana, attieke made from cassava and the sauce based on eggplant with fish. Shown is enough food for about one and a half people.
Youth Training Center
	5. The existing training center which is too small because the number of students has grown. Some classes will be moved to the new building to be constructed this year, starting from next October.
	6. The signboard planted at the side of the road in front of the center. In the middle is Ms. Michiko Tokuyama who was entrusted with inspection by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
	7. Students welcoming Ms. Naoko Tsukamoto who had just arrived from Japan. The white T-shirt and the pink shirt are uniforms set according to the day.
	8. The trainer's meeting. They make detailed plans before the beginning of each class, and have a review meeting at the end of each month.
	9. Ms.Tsukamoto had a meeting with each class, and talked about how they changed after joining the center, and what they would like to do in the future.
	10. Students selling and buying attieke during the break time. Some students earn a living and also the money to pay for training in this way.
First Year Sewing
	11. The first year students making a skirt with craft paper before working on cloth.
	12. They made a simple skirt with craft paper.
	13. Second year students made a more difficult dress with craft paper.
	14. One of the first year students ironing with a charcoal iron.
	15. The students working on embroidery by hand before learning to use the machine.
	16. Embroidering by hand. Each trainee chose his/her own motifs and colors.
Second Year Sewing
	17. A design for street wear. Each student made his/her own design in their notebook based on the teacher's design.
	18. In African style, they do the layout directly on the cloth. The lady in the middle is the trainer Lydie.
	19. A trainee who is putting a lining inside the street wear.
	20. The trainer explaining how to layout a girl's dress on the black board.
	21. Students listening attentively to the teacher's explanations.
	22. Students sewing the girl's dress by machine. As there are not enough machines for all the students, two or three people share one machine.
Third Year Sewing
	23. The design of a girl's dress with double skirt and sleeves, which requires a higher level of skills.
	24. Sewing according to the initial design. He is Firmin, one of the only four male students in the center.
	25. Firmin, satisfied to have finished the girl's dress.
	26. The graduation ceremony getting closer, the students start on their wedding dress. The students are cutting the cloth after having decided their design.
	27. The dress gets nearer to being finished by the process of ironing its various parts, and by making pleats.
	28. A student sewing a wedding dress by machine.
	29. One of the wedding dresses almost finished.
Graduation Ceremony
	30. The graduation ceremony was held on June 20th, 1998 with more than 100 participants. The students presented the fruits of their training. The wedding dresses, which marked the end of the fashion show, especially excitied the audience. In the photo, the graduates are dancing around the master of ceremonies, who poured champagne on their heads as a symbol of their graduation.
	31. The graduates, the trainers, and the invited people showing their joy and satisfaction after the graduation ceremony. The graduates will now become professionals. As they do not?@immediately have the means to set up on their own, they are planning to establish a cooperative.
Exchange with another sewing school
	32. The visit to the governmental sewing school IFEF Koko in Bouake where two JOCVs are teaching. One of the ICA staff Vincent (left) is exchanging ideas with the president of the school (right).
	33. The classroom of IFEF. Third year students are following the house management lesson. This school is only for women, and it has different courses besides sewing, such as theories of housework or cooking.
	34. JOCVs visited the Brobo training center, and exchanged ideas with the trainers.
Hairdressing
	35. First, students practice setting the hair on a mannequin's head. As white people's hair is more difficult to manage, it will be easier to manage local peoples' hair after training with these mannequins.
	36. Students wash the hair before setting it. There is no running water, so they use a bucket.
	37. A student putting curlers on another student's hair.
	38. Using an electric curling iron. The trainer is on the right.
	39. After perming the hair, they dry with a dryer. This is the newly purchased dryer that covers the head.
	40. Finishing the upsweep hairstyle.
	41. The banana hairstyle.
	42. The short cut hairstyle.
	43. The upsweep hairstyle using hair pieces, from the side.
	44. The upsweep hairstyle using hair pieces, from the back.
	45. Aesthetics. The trainer teaching how to take care of the face.
	46. Manicure. Students learn also how to remove hangnails.
Weaving in the Baoule region style
	47. As weaving is a man's job in the Ivory Coast, there are only male students in this section. First, they prepare the warp thread. After untying the thread, they stretch it the length of the weaving they want to make. Walking up and down between two points for several hours under the hot sun is very hard work.
	48. Preparing the thread to weave across the fabric.
	49. Setting up again on the loom what he had completed before.
	50. The trainer teaching two students.
	51. The student is weaving. He uses the pedals to change the place to pass the thread, and makes the motifs. The object which looks like a comb is for tightening the weaved thread.
	52. Children who came to the short term course. The trainer is teaching a student who sits in front of the machine for the first time.
	53. After having weaved the bands, they assemble them to make one cloth.
	54. The student is assembling two bands by sewing by hand with a needle.
	55. When the bands are assembled, the completed piece is like this. Mens cloth is one large piece and womens is two smaller pieces. The pieces are worn as-is, by just putting them around their body. Nowadays, these fabrics are only worn for special occasions.
	56. There are various types of colors and motifs in Baoule weaving. As the weaver becomes more accomplished they attempt more and more complicated designs. As it takes about three weeks on average to finish a cloth, weaving is an activity requiring a great deal of patience. However, one cloth might sell for over 100,000 CFA F (about 160 US$) according to its quality, so therefore weaving is an important potential source of income for the students..
Literacy
	57. The center also offers a literacy course for students who have not been able to go to school or who quit early. It's aim is to facilitate students' training. There is a beginners' course and a middle level course, each of which has class once a week.
	58. The trainer teaching mathematics as part of literacy. Especially in sewing, it is important to get used to numbers because students have to do much measuring.
	59. The teacher gives lessons by copying the text on the black board. As students do not have money to buy the textbook, they copy the text in their own notebook. Even those students who were completely illiterate at the beginning learned little by little, and gained more confidence in themselves.