"Capacitacion" = Apprenticeship.

Many NGOs emphasize capacitation as a way to make programs more self-renewable and self-sustainable. Instructing local people, and teaching the necessary skills to carry on on their own. It is also a good way to start new spin-off programs in other locations.

Update August 2006.

PROJIMO used to be very active in this context.

Many of PROJIMO's former long-term patients have indeed started up workshops and programs in their hometown when they left PROJIMO. Many of PROJIMO's visitors and longer-term volunteers also have learned some of these skills, and carried them on to other locations. Just like PROJIMO, the spin-off programs are both primary healthcare and Community-Based Rehabilitation: essential healthcare services provided by local people for local people, people who help themselves by helping others.

Nowadays, there are far fewer people in PROJIMO, and fewer people come to PROJIMO for assistance.
Part of the reason for that is of course the many other local programs that now exist. This makes it so much harder to find people who are willing to learn (and pass on) these skills.  

PROJIMO is having a difficult time finding enough people to renew itself. Every task and every skill in the project should have an apprentice, learning to take over and keep the project going when the other person leaves.

During the year and a half that I have been at PROJIMO, only the prosthetic shop ever had an apprentice. Because of the other problems, that has proven to be insufficient. The master left, and the apprentice followed a few months later...

Page last modified: October 27, 2011

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