Burkina Faso - Salesian Women's Vocational Training Center in Ouagadougou trains 300 young women each year
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso - January 2023 - The Women's Vocational Training Center of the Salesians in Ouagadougou trains more than 300 young women each year in various specializations: tailoring, hairstyling and esthetician, fabric design and pattern making, computer maintenance, and secretarial work. Thanks to the Salesians and the NGO "Bosco Global" project of the Spanish "Mary Help of Christians" (SMX) Province, funded by the Badajoz Provincial Council, the Vocational Training Center (VTC) provides inclusive, equitable and quality education. In the last phase of the project, the cutting-tailoring and hairstyling workshops were equipped and the places for female students in the theoretical-practical courses were expanded; refresher courses were provided for the center's teaching staff; and several female students in extremely vulnerable situations were provided with the necessary kits to carry out their practice. Fr. Joseph Basson, SDB, Director of the VTC, said that there were many stories of the female students that touched his heart, but he pointed out one in particular, of a young woman who pedaled 25 kilometers every day to get to the center to take classes, never arriving late. Today, Fr. Basson said, that girl has crowned her dream: that of having her own sewing workshop.