Learning a trade

Maison de la Gare offers an ambitious vocational training program, a springboard to independence for talibé children. By providing them with practical skills, this program promotes their socio-professional integration and gives them confidence in their potential. The training offered—in sewing, poultry farming, and market gardening—is adapted to local realities and the interests of the young beneficiaries, while taking into account existing job opportunities.

Each year, around thirty talibés are trained in poultry farming in our educational chicken farm located in Bango, eight kilometers from Maison de la Gare's center in Saint Louis. The comprehensive training allows them to master poultry farming, from daily chicken coop management to basic veterinary care, including animal nutrition, facility hygiene, and marketing strategies. In addition to technical know-how, the young people develop a true sense of responsibility and organizational skills.

Many talibé children come from farming communities, and our market gardening apprenticeship program gives some of them the opportunity to acquire skills that would have come naturally to them had they not been sent away at a young age. Our center's garden is their classroom for learning the basics, while our farmland in Bango allows them to practice what they've learned on a larger scale. They experience all the stages of successful market gardening: preparing the land, choosing products suited to the soil, caring for the growing plants, harvesting, and marketing.

For several years, we have offered sewing workshops at our center. Apprentices learn the fundamentals of drawing, measuring, fabric cutting, assembly, sewing machine use, finishing, and ironing. This training is also an opportunity to develop artistic talents while cultivating rigor and patience.

These initiatives are not just technical training; they are genuine gateways to reintegration, self-esteem, and emancipation. They allow talibé children to project themselves beyond begging or marginalization by discovering their abilities, feeling valued, and gradually building a solid life plan. For some, our microfinance loan program offers invaluable assistance.

Through this program, Maison de la Gare affirms its deep commitment to supporting children beyond their immediate difficult situations, towards an adult life full of meaning, possibilities and dignity.