Many school children, from underprivileged neighbourhoods and broken families in the suburbs of Port Louis district, lack any form of afterschool care. With little or no supervision these children find themselves roaming the streets with too many eventually tempted by crime and drugs. When we were made aware of this by concerned teachers, who had witnessed the subsequent fall in educational attainment, we decided we had to act.

In 2010, we fitted out a workshop at a ZEP school in Port Louis and found teaching staff so that Woodwork and Artwork and Creativity classes could be run after normal classes finished. Today we have expanded the project to two schools with over 80 pupils being taught craft skills outside of the normal school curriculum every year. Every year an exhibition is organised to showcase students’ work.

The feedback from teachers and parents at these schools has been remarkable and we have seen a clear improvement in the attendance rate and the educational achievements of the children enrolled on the programme. Many of the students have now progressed to technical colleges and others have become artisans in their own right, inspired by this afterschool programme.

The annual cost of the project is about Rs500,000 and, although some support has already been volunteered, more funds would ensure a particularly effective project can continue…