House of Plenty Vocational Training Center
House of Plenty - Vocational Training Institute (HOPE-VTI) Free high-quality vocational training to poor, unemployed children and youth.
By Combining IT, English and Entrepreneurship, students are equipped with both practical and theoretical knowledge, ready to compete for jobs, take on higher education or start their own business.
House of Plenty Vocational Training Institute Kenya is a non-profit making organization located in Elementaita, Nakuru.
HOPE-VTI serves not only school drop-outs and unemployed youth but also the children in the local primary school by offering afternoon IT and English sessions and social activities at the campus. Since the start of the first institute in Kenya in 2012, about 500 children and youth have taken part of education, sports, social and community activities. Teachers in the local primary school report a notably higher motivation and performance in the children who are attending activities at HOPE-VTI. Mothers in the community extend their gratitude for the notable change in their children's behavior - they no longer end up on the streets, take drugs or engage in criminal activities. Employers praise our former students and commend them for their skills acquired at the institute. And students themselves are grateful for this wonderful opportunity to find their way out of poverty.
In 2014, DGC entered into a new partnership with House of Plenty Foundation to establish yet another institute in Uganda based on the excellent results from the vocational training institute in Kenya. In Uganda, House of Plenty Foundation is partnering with the Government of Uganda which has provided the facilities due to their great interest in our model and results of HOPE-VTI Kenya in fighting poverty and unemployment among youth.
Aiming towards self-sufficiency
Through micro-enterprises run by students themselves at the campus, the institutes aims to become self-sufficient while at the same time teaching the students to start and run successful businesses on their own. Since the start we have seen small hotels, hawks of sweets and other successful businesses emerge in the community.
The first Vocational Training Institute under the name HOPE-VTI opened in 2012 as a result of 16 years of research and social innovations together with street children, their caregivers and poor children in underserved areas and thanks to a generous sponsorship from DGC One AB - a Swedish Internet Service Provider.
The Vocational Training institute was developed as a part of the House of Plenty Safe Shelter for street children by the Researcher Dr Wanjiku Kaime Atterhög, her brother Michael Kaime and his wife Francesca, in an area where very few jobs were to be found and many youth lacked both sufficient skills and financial means to proceed to higher studies to compete for these jobs. Instead, many engaged in criminal activities, abuse and were early exposed to HIV and ended up with teenage pregnancies.
