Kisumu Urban Apostolate Programme works in the peri-urban areas of Kisumu, where living conditions are often appalling. The educational facilities for children are very limited. There are a number of ECD (Nursery) schools, one of them being at Pandipieri Centre. There are also a number of primary schools. But after that there is hardly anything. There are many secondary schools in the town, but the fees are too high; if families can raise those fees, they will preferably spend them on boys rather than girls. From the beginning of this Urban Apostolate Programme in 1979 it was clear that something had to be done in the line of girls education, non-formal education and vocational training.

Having an independent future through self reliance is our goal. KUAP Pandipieri Education programme gives most vulnerable youngsters in kisumu shanty areas opportunity to train in job skills as well as prepare them for formal employment and self employment. The trainings are done in our centres located in the middle of the Manyatta and Nyalenda slums in Kisumu, Kenya. Many vulnerable girls that drop out of school continue to need training to enable them to become self reliant by earning income and improve their living conditions. The increase of child headed households due to HIV/AIDS continues to necessitate job skills training so as to improve living conditions of such families. These youths not only benefit alone but their siblings and the entire household benefits from the income earned when these youngsters get a job. Nearly all the youths that benefit from this programme have lost their parents due to HIV and AIDS or are affected by HIV and AIDS.

The need for a stable income so as to ensure self-sufficiency and improvement of wellbeing for young men and women living in the peri-urban areas of Kisumu is an urgent requirement. Rapid urbanization trends in Kisumu, particularly in the last decade coupled with low investments has resulted into enormous pressure on the urban environment especially youths living in the city slums. 73% of the population in Kisumu is below 30 years. This puts a lot of strain on educational facilities and other youth related services. School drop out is on the increase and where the vulnerable youths complete school they have limited opportunity to train in skills that can enable them to earn an income. Young orphans are faced with the responsibility of taking care of siblings with no stable source of income, poor diet and appalling living conditions. The biggest problem faced by youths of Kisumu is unemployment and restricted access to other opportunities and this survival pushes them to risky behaviour e.g. prostitution, drugs and substance abuse, early marriages, child labour, robbery, loitering in the streets in search of food. According to the Kisumu Development report under Youth and Children, High unemployment rate, substance abuse among the youth, high rate of school drop out, high rate of early marriages and pregnancies and high rate of HIV/AIDs prevalence are the major concerns affecting youths in Kisumu. The cultural and customary settings of this community render women powerless unlike their male counterparts. Prolonged droughts and poor harvests have heightened levels of poverty and this has weakened the fabric that bonded relatives to provide for each other in times of need.

 Project strategy
This project intends to provide education, job skills, promote entrepreneurship, enhance quality of vocational training and create employment opportunities for young women and men of ages between 15 and 25 years of age in the peri-urban areas of Kisumu district.  Since the most vulnerable youths in these areas have no skills to enable them have access to income oriented work; this is income that would enable them provide for their siblings, we intend to support these youths through vocational training and link them to the job market. This is aimed at contributing towards direct poverty reduction at household level. The project objective is to train youth who are heading households and lacks job skills.  These youths will be equipped with skills that would help them adapt to the rapidly changing market conditions to avoid future job loss. We have also developed proactive, innovative approaches to create jobs to the youths as well as rejuvenate self-help initiatives not just to create employment, but to create employment of sufficient quality to lift youths out of poverty in a sustainable way.

The project also undertakes capacity building for youths in addressing HIV and AIDS issues in the community. We work with relevant agencies in the community for sustainability and community ownership as well as establish linkages and networks to maximize the use of locally available resources. In 2006 we carried out a community needs assessment for Kisumu where we mapped the areas and clustered them for easy coordination, planning, implementation and project monitoring and evaluation. This has helped us to prioritize community needs, allocate equal opportunity to the communities and youths in these areas.

 Trainings offered
Garment making; tailoring and dressmaking, cookery, Carpentry and joinery, Building and construction, computer training, Art and design, entrepreneurship, sewing and knitting machines repair.

The training programme
It is divided into three parts: self development; mastering a trade, and entrepreneurship.
For the sake of the personal development of the students they are taught subjects like language, sexuality education, guidance and counselling, computer training as well as sports, theater, music and dance. All this raise the esteem and confidence levels of the youngsters during their training.

For mastering a trade we follow the respective government syllabus. We had the following occupations in view: tailors, dressmakers, cooks, receptionists, designers, restaurant service work, kitchen work, carpenters, maintenance persons, building and construction work, sign writers, artists, Most of the trainings take one year after which the youths sit for Government Trade Test and get government certificates. Entrepreneurship is an important element of our training.

The learning programme is 80% practical and only 20% theory. During attachments to successful enterprises the students learn how to apply their acquired skills in the real working environment, how to interact with customers, how to live and behave responsibly and how to start up a small business as well as work ethics. During their training they normally go for attachments for eight weeks.
Most of the youths normally get job offers during attachments and the remaining lot is assisted by a job-hunter to get into employment; they are assisted in starting up their own small businesses by getting tools and tailoring machines.

Target group-Trainees
KUAP-Pandipieri training targets youngsters living under difficult circumstances in the age bracket of aged 16-24 years. From the beginning the girl students needed no previous qualifications. If they had a baby to look after they could bring it to school. Many girls need an extra push, because often they have become apathetic and frustrated. The trainees are normally recruited through our community health workers; these are social workers, home based caregivers, community leaders, staff and volunteers who go into the community everyday.

Each of the schools has a community committee attached to it that take part in the running of the school. The annual graduations are very festive occasions, which shows how popular the Girls Domestic and vocational training is for people of all religious denominations: the majority of the girls are not catholic. In the course of 25 years hundreds of girls have received education. From the beginning the project was seen as an example of integral education of girls: an attempt to equip them for their future rolls as mothers and housewives. Many of the girls did very well.
The training programme is realized through cost sharing system where the parents/guardians contribute towards some of the programme costs.