Soulgo is a cotton-growing village where the traditional processing of cotton - spinning and weaving - has long been the main activity during the dry season. Ruined by textile imports from Asia, 95 percent of the weavers today have abandoned their craft: at the moment, the majority of the villagers is unemployed and without income.

This not only affects the socio-economic and cultural structure of the village and its inhabitants, but has also negatively impacted the neighbouring villages, which supplied tool making, dyeing and tailoring services.

With entire villages abandoning these crafts, the next generations are losing all opportunities to acquire and earn income from these traditional manual skills.

SOS-SAVE OUR SKILLS Charitable Trust has therefore chosen Soulgo as the location for its first pilot project: establishing a traditional village training centre for handloom weaving in Burkina.

The Centre will offer an after-school apprenticeship programme to the village youth to learn the techniques of hand-carding, -spinning, -dyeing and -weaving, taught by the senior members of the village.

THE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN BURKINA, THE SOULGO-CENTRE POUR LES MÉTIERS CREATIFS TRADITIONAUX DE TISSAGE A LA MAIN WILL OFFER:

1. CERTIFIED MASTER STATUS FOR THE SENIOR PART TIME STAFF
2. CERTIFIED APPRENTICESHIP STATUS FOR THE TRAINEES
3. PAYMENT SCHEMES FOR THE LOCAL PART-TIME TEACHERS
4. PAYMENT SCHEMES FOR THE APPRENTICES

TRAINING WILL INCLUDE:

1. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
2. DESIGN (FOR HIGH-END NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETS)
3. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
4. BRANDING AND MARKETING
5. LANGUAGE TRAINING – ENGLISH