A fashion school, strictly for the indigent and disabled

[Mirror]

There is a place in Lagos where the physically challenged and indigent are given top priority in acquiring the art of sewing and fashion designing. Sadly, this school is tottering towards collapse for dearth of funds and aid. Will the good work of the proprietor be allowed to go down the drain? THOMAS USHIE asks.

The hall is long and wide, spit and polish. Arranged neatly in rows are large tables fitted with assorted tools. On all sides of the large rooms and other designated places heavy machines are screwed tightly to the floor.

Save for the young men and women scurrying around and some glued to their workstations, the factory, for that is what it is, could go for a display of a show room. Welcome to God's Glory Charity Fashion Design School, Alagbado, Lagos.

There are a lot of unique things about this outfit, the most outstanding one being its training of the physically challenged and indigent free of charge. What could have prompted this? Mrs. Veronica Freeman is the coordinator of God's Glory Charity Fashion Design School.

She described the founding and running of the school in the nature it is done as her way of answering a divine call. "My coming down to Nigeria to carry out this commission to help and empower the poor was a divine call. It was not easy but I had to heed the call. I am a designer. I had one of the biggest designing fashion stores in Holland. But when I had this call, I had to abandon my store to pursue it. And here I am today.

Although it has been difficult, my joy is that we have put smiles on the faces of some Nigerians who hitherto, had no hope," Freeman added.

And so in the school the dumb speak fashion design. The deaf hear fashion design. Even the cripple walk it. This dream of Freeman is being threatened.

Damilola Mekuleyi is one of the trainees at the institute. He is 20 years old and also deaf and dumb. But Mekuleyi told Saturday Mirror that he had learned how to make clothes in industrial scale with the use of latest technology in the garment industry and only needs support to live his dream and contribute positively to the country's economy.

Mekuleyi who writes and read with an almost incredible speed wrote: "I have learned how to make clothes in a bigger and better way. But I am not a tailor. I am not a roadside fashion designer. At God's Glory Fashion School, we were thought how to draw, how to design using industrial machines, how to market and how to interact as responsible designers. I am in the school on scholarship granted me by the owners.

When I was told the school fees, I realised that it was beyond me and when I told them my background, they had pity on me and decided to help me. I can see that we have increased in number since I came here and it has not been easy with our owners.

We need help from the government and individuals to supplement our scholarship and expand this place so that we can be absorbed, work and fend for ourselves".

Another trainee is Kemi Soyoola a 24-year-old deaf and dumb young woman. She can read and write and has high sense of fashion. "I started training here last year September on free tuition. Before I came here, I was doing nothing. I went to a special school and learned how to read and write and sign language. But all these could not put food on my table or take care of my needs.

I needed to do something for myself and be independent. I heard of God's Glory Fashion School and decided to give it a try since I was told that they could give scholarship. That was how I got here and I have learned a lot of things.

I have learned how to sketch fashion designs and bring them into reality very fast with the cooperation of other workers. They taught us work etiquette. But when I think of more opportunities for engagement, I get scared. That is why we are crying to the government and other individuals of means to come and see things for themselves here at the school and help us out.

If there is a good garment industry for us to work, or if the existing one that we are learning from, is expanded to accommodate more people and give us the opportunity to train and work here, it would add more to the good of the Nigerian people and the economy in general. So, we need help," Kemi pleaded.

Another deaf and dumb 21-year-old trainee, Blessing Ogworonjo, said that if the enabling environment were not created to grow the local garment making industry, the good gesture of the trainers would be futile and the efforts of the trainees would not put food on their table.

"We want help from well meaning Nigerians and international organisations. The government can give the school grant to expand its machineries so that as it is training us, we can be absorbed. The government or any concerned groups and individuals can also supplement our scholarship because it has been very hard for the school to bear all our responsibilities.

Before I enrolled in the school, I had no hope of doing something for myself considering my hearing and speech constraint. But the school has given me hope not like that of a road side fashion designer but on a higher scale," Blessing said.

Also speaking, Omolara Ayinla, one of the underprivileged granted scholarships to train, said that the opportunity has changed her perception of fashion designing. She pleaded for the control of imported already made clothing, the erection of garment manufacturing factories and supports for the training school. "I was not doing anything when I walked into this school and sought their assistance to learn fashion designing. I told the owners my problems and they decided to enrol me free of charge.

I must confess that what I have learned here has changed my perception of fashion designing. What I knew within my limited knowledge then was that fashion design is to have a sewing machine and sit down at one corner of the street sowing in trickles. But that has all changed. I now know that fashion can be on an industrial scale, so rewarding, engaging a lot of youths.

I have now learned that to do well, the trainee needs some level of education as it requires painstaking thinking and coordination, invention, trend following and trend carving, to succeed. I have realized that fashion can change the economy of Nigeria and empower her youths. We have been given total package and we are well equipped to deliver.

The school taught us work etiquette and how to be polite to clients and other business associates. It taught us honesty. "But for us to succeed, the country must encourage local garment industry. It is only through this that our skill can be successfully engaged.

The Standard Organisation of Nigeria has been complaining about substandard goods being dumped into the Nigerian market. Some of these goods are textile and garments. Just imagine the money Nigerians have been investing into other country's economy through the importation of these clothes. If such money for just a year, is invested into a garment industry, it would employ so many people and contribute positively to the betterment of Nigerians and the economy," Omolara lamented.

According to Mrs. Veronica Freeman, the coordinator of God's Glory Charity Fashion Design School, "one-man-show" mentality has not added value to the individual nor the country as it would not cause the needed industrial revolution that the country direly needs to create employment for the army of unemployed youths.

"We have been training less privileged Nigerians, especially, the physically challenged free, on industrial garment manufacturing. The scheme is all about employment and empowerment.

We teach the students the theory and more importantly, the practical as well as work ethics. We have the latest technology in garment manufacturing as you can see, in our factory. "It is no news to say that there is so much poverty in the land.

Neither is it news to say that unemployment is approaching a pandemic stage in Nigeria, breathing down the necks of several Nigerian youths. But how can it be tackled? Several government poverty alleviation programmes have come and gone, leaving the masses poorer.

One of the potent avenues for truly alleviating poverty in the country is through skills acquisition. But what I mean by this is not training individual how to make soaps at their backyard, sow cloths in their small shop or at home, how to vulcanize, etc.

No. Experiences have shown that it has not worked. How many people are patronising these road side fashion designers? That is why people are going more and more China than patronising local skills. These individualistic energy sapping avenues cannot contribute positively to the empowerment of individuals neither would it help in growing the Nigerian economy.

"Instead of training individuals to use their power to produce, what we do at Gglory is to train individuals to specialize in one form of cloth production and the other with modern garment making technology.

Instead of the usual one-manshow sewing machine where one person cuts the cloth, sow, iron, button, etc. taking several hours and wasting time, we train specialized different individuals to deal with all of these in less than 20 minutes.

To cause an industrial revolution in the fashion industry and create employment for the teeming unemployed Nigerians, to stop the importation of readymade cloths especially all these China dumped clothing, we need the support of the government to train more Nigerians. That is what we have been seeking. You can go and ask all our trainees here and you would be shocked what they would tell you.

We are training them for free and that comes with great discomfort to us," Freeman lamented. She said that "we do background checks on all our students to ascertain that their claims of being underprivileged are true before enrolling them on full scholarship. All the students here are on tuition free and more are begging to be enrolled".

Showing the reporter those seeking assistance to be enrolled on scholarship, she lamented that the avenue she has created to help the people has become a burden to her.

And she is searching for partnership with public spirited individuals, governmental and international agencies, to partner with the organization and train more people.

"Every day, different people come here to be offered scholarship to train. It has become a great burden on us. At the beginning I could not turn them down but it has become a very big problem to us to cater for all of the underprivileged students. We have accommodated several trainees and put them on shift.

But it has become unbearable for us to accommodate more people. Regrettably, I started to turn some people down. It is very painful to do so. When they are turned down, you can see the pain and frustration on their faces. It makes us seem as we are wicked to have refused to help somebody in dire need of the opportunity to survive.

That is why we are calling on the government from local to the federal level to channel their poverty alleviation programme toward helping these handicapped people out of their situations," she pleaded.

National Mirror

[Mirror]

[Folami David]

This is a good initiative from whoever put it together...It makes a lot of sense. This would definately help those in that condition! Nice I must say.

[Folami David]