My name is Edwin , I am from Nkhwapu but staying here at Pendwe. I am 25 years old. I was forced to flee my village of origin as a result of being stubborn. I still have memories of the widespread life that I lived through before coming here. It was in 2021 when I moved here to stay with my parents after all this long have been raised with my uncle who stays at nkhwapu.

I used to be troublesome to the extent that i was chased from my uncle’s house . I eventually found myself in town (Nkhotakota boma) where I stayed for a week and then I went to my parents house. Once in my fathers house seeing how things were and how the family was suffering being the only son in the family with 5 sisters I was concerned with our financial status and I needed to change and start doing something productive than living life of smoking and drinking.

I was forced to start from scratch to work towards finding a gain a dignified and safe life despite the fact that i didn’t go further with my education. I drop out of school while in primary in standard 8. That is how I found myself being trained with FOCCAD  in mechanics specializing in motorbikes,I was introduced to this program through a friend who was attending such vocational training with Foccad but in different trade of welding and fabrication within our village. I was selected and I was able to benefit from trainings facilitated by FOCCAD. We were introduced to entrepreneurial skills, life skills e.t.c.

After acquiring such skills I submitted myself to this free training. I was using each opportunity to be close to my instructor and ask him questions where I see I am failing because my course needed attention despite that we were not writing formal exams because the main aim of this training was only for us to have skills and knowledge.

The opportunity started to flow on my way when we started receiving more customers at our training workshop. When we fixed more bikes our teacher could give us some cash a development that motivated us to probe more skills from our master artisan. I was saving money for myself to buy some spare parts so that I should be selling and now I am able to fix motorbikes on my own without any supervision. I manage to feed, care for my family members, and I enjoy good social standing in the community because of the skills that Foccad provided to me.