Shortly after I arrived at the PCC, I updated the blog with an entry about the weaving that some of the youth are doing in the sheltered workshop here. That’s only one of the things that the kids are working on, though. There’s also Nana Yaw’s Paradise, a special place for some of our kids with autism. They also sometimes help to string together beads, or make greeting cards, or envelopes.

Then there’s also beadmaking – involving big, clay ovens that become red-hot and then have clay molds filled with broken glass shoved into them so the glass will melt into beautiful beads.

And then, another part of the sheltered workshop is where the necklaces, bracelets and earings are designed and strung together – so these glass beads we make (along with beads we purchase in Kumasi that come from other parts of Ghana and Africa) become the final products that the kids produce in this part of the sheltered workshop. (If you check out our website – see the link to the right – you can find some pictures of the final products that our kids are making here.)

Once a month is also payday for the kids working here. It’s one of my favorite times, and a time when I actually feel I’m doing some work in my field. The kids come into the office, they all have their own box for saving their money, and their own key for their box. And we sit and talk about the money they have earned, what they have done to earn the money, what their plans are for the money, etc. There are different level of understanding and communication ability – and there’s also growth in this area with some of the kids. There’s also a range of plans for their savings – some are just saving with no idea what they will do with it, some are saving for a car, some are saving to open their own shop one day.