Editor’s Note: Meet Gus. He’s a big, red, fuzzy, stuffed bug with his own Instagram following. For the last few years, he’s worked at the WAVS office in Fresno. Why do we keep him around? Probably because he always has a smile on his face. Earlier this year, we decided that it was time for […]
Nilton, a WAVS School Welding Graduate, is now ready to open his own shop. For seven years, Nilton Gomes worked as an apprentice at a small welding shop. But he was mostly given odd-jobs and didn’t receive much real training. At this rate, Nilton knew he would never be ready to start his own shop. So in October 2016, […]
How learning welding skills can provide for a whole family in West Africa Rumario started out welding like most other young people in Guinea-Bissau who want to learn a trade skill: He found someone who’s already working, and watched and learned. In West Africa, these informal internships are common. But they have many shortcomings, including […]
I sat next to Rosa on the veranda of her family home – a home made out of mud bricks that she and her family had dug out of the earth around them and were later hardened under the unrelenting sun. Her mother sat nearby, her coarse hands revealing a woman no stranger to physical […]
In West Africa, a vocational education can make dreams a reality. As a little boy in Guinea-Bissau, Bruno would sit in class daydreaming of one day becoming a famous soccer player like the ones pictured on the front of a notebook he brought to school every day. But when he would get home, Bruno’s mom […]
Thanks to the opportunity Papa received to study welding at the WAVS School, and a lot of hard work and determination, he now has his own shop PELUNDO, GUINEA-BISSAU – He’s gone by the name “Papa” his whole life, but soon he’ll be a father for the first time. Papa Mendes, 32, and his wife […]
Learning new computer skills helped Deusa advance her career. Deusa was nervous. It was her first day at the WAVS School’s computer basics class and she wasn’t even sure how to hold a computer mouse. But she was confident that she would learn. After all, her friends who graduated from the WAVS School were now […]
Agusto has grown up in Guinea-Bissau, a small country in West Africa that has 80% unemployment. Watch this inspiring story of a young man named Agusto who graduated from the WAVS welding course and now has his own shop.
João has been welding since he was 8 years old. He enrolled in the WAVS School’s welding program so he could expand his skills set. During the course, he learned about gas and electric welding, machining work, and he helped install a zinc roof. “I gained a lot of experience,” João said. “And I’ve used […]
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