Nkabom Centre
The Nkabom Centre for Skills Training and Formal Education will be located in Okurase, Ghana in the West Akyem Municipal of the Eastern Region of Ghana. Once complete, the Nkabom Centre will consist of 15 buildings:
1. Administration Building. This building will be the administrative hub of the Centre but will also have a computer lab and space for health and other community education. Classes and training in the administration building will help prepare people for jobs that are competitive in the global market.
2-4. Accommodations Buildings. The Centre will feature 3 accommodations buildings. Students, interns, and others from around the world will come for training in the arts, international teaching, audio engineering, recording, and to do humanitarian work. The accommodations buildings will provide a place for guests to stay and the artists who offer training will stay on the grounds of the Centre in the Artist Cottage. One of the accommodations buildings will be for Djole Dance Company and will be called Djole House.
5. Workshop Building. This building will be used for the work of the artists. Here, job skills training will take place for street children, at risk young adults, and women in skills such as carving, textile design, jewelry making, sewing, and instrument making.
6. Performance Workshop Building. A workshop building for teaching performing arts - dance, drumming, other instruments.
7. School. We are developing a village-based education model and emphasizing the education of girl children. The school will be a building for formal education of children who live at the Centre and children from the village of Okurase. Our hope is to include people from Okurase in the classroom to learn how to teach children and in effect serve a function as teacher's assistants. We envision the school to be part of the heart and soul of the village.
8. Dining Building with Indoor Recreation. In this building we will feed school children and those coming to the Centre to work or train. Organic gardening will be a basis of growing much of our food. We are working to learn original African farming techniques.
9-14. Way Forward Homes. We will have 6 houses that are in effect 3 duplexes. We hold a strong value that children thrive when they grow up in families. We are developing a model for caring for orphans and vulnerable children. We plan to offer mothers and grandmothers from the village a place to live with food everyday, electricity, and water, and opportunities to learn at the school (learn to read, write, educate children) and in turn they will take orphaned children into their household to be part of their family. This is different from orphanage and group home models. We are aiming for a family and village based model.
15. Recording Studio. We envision the recording studio to be a resource not only for Ghanaian artists but for artists around the world. Africa feeds the soul and many artists will find that recording and spending time in Ghana will be very inspiring and enriching to their work. The recording studio will also be a site for training in audio engineering.
In addition to the buildings noted above, the Centre will feature a Performance Chalet, a Playground for children to play on and a flower and reflection garden.
Our vision is for the entire centre to be of green design. Our vision is not just a centre but a model that we can use to help with the AIDS crisis in other developing countries.
BUILDING THE NKABOM CENTRE - THE ROLE OF UNITY
Our plan for building the Centre (as with all of our work) has its basis in unity. The building of Nkabom Centre presents an excellent opportunity for on-the-job training in the construction trades such as masonry, carpentry, electrical wiring, and plumbing. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has programs throughout the United States for on-the-job training of youth and young adults in green building. In addition, there are home and commercial builders in Ghana. The not-for-profit Workforce Development arm of NAHB, the Home Builders Institute (HBI), will partner with Project OKURASE to work with Ghanaian builders to revise the U.S.-based training materials to make them pertinent to a Ghanaian context. Then HBI will bring instructors in the building trades to Ghana and work together with Ghanaian builders to do on-the-job training with people from the village of Okurase and environs as they build the NKABOM Centre. This training will offer the opportunity to develop skills from core/basic to journeyman level and to earn a Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate issued by HBI that may enable villagers to obtain jobs since the Certificate is industry-based, recognized internationally, and transferable to other jobs. Graduates that enter full apprenticeships will have the option to teach others, initiating the sustainability chain for construction skills training and job placement.
