Training youths to be shoemakers

TANGERANG (JP): With a Rp 50 million (US$5,620) fund from the 2000 budget, the Tangerang Municipality is training 20 youths from the slum area of Kampung Sawah, Pakojan subdistrict, Cipondoh, to make shoes and sandals.

The eight-week course, held by instructors hired by the municipality's Economic Affairs Division, is aimed at giving the boys, all of whom are from poor families, skills to become talented shoemakers.

Division head Suwardjono said over the weekend, "After completing the short course (Aug. 29 to Oct. 26), the youths will be provided with two sewing machines, a pressing machine, a hemming machine, and the raw materials required to make shoes and sandals."

"We hope that this group of young men can develop themselves and then also help develop the economic engine at their isolated Kampung Sawah village," the official said.

A course participant, Roni, who graduated from a local junior high school last year, expressed his gratitude over the municipality's plan and promised to do his best to complete the course.

"It is better to work than being jobless. The point is, I'm ready to be a shoemaker," Roni said. (41/bsr)