BASSETERRE ST KITTS (March 17, 2010) -- Shema Clarke, 29, of Buckley’s Estate is a YES Programme student with a difference. Currently undertaking a six-month dress making course, her heart goes out to the earthquake stricken people of Haiti and Chile whom she believes the skills she is acquiring could help bring some measure of relief to them.
She is among the six students sponsored by the Youth Empowerment through Skills (YES) Programme to train under sewing maestro Sharon Williams of Unique Fashions at College Street in Basseterre. The course which started in November last year has already opened up her eyes and has even put some money back in her pocket.
“Before I joined the YES Programme I was doing hair dressing,” said Shema. “I have always had a liking to sewing and when the programme offered me the chance, I saw it as being a good opportunity to learn a skill in order to help in certain situations because you never know what will happen. It is like an insurance to cover you against the unexpected in life.”
The economies of all countries in the world have taken serious knockdowns, noted Shema adding that right here in St. Kitts, a number of youths were stuck at home doing nothing, but when the YES Programme started, things have never been the same, noting that those young people now have a reason to feel respectable in their communities.
Under the guidance of Sharon Williams, Shema and her five colleagues have made some of the clothing they proudly wear. She informed that the top she was wearing during the interview was her own creation made under the watchful eye of her instructor, whom she describes as being very accommodative despite the youthful energies they sometimes exhibit.
“I feel proud wearing the top that I made because in the past I would not have made such, I would have had to go and buy it. Now I am saving my money and I can sew what I need now,” commented Shema.
“I can use those skills to open a business and to help people in Haiti and also Chile where they too had an earthquake. Maybe they need to have someone to either sew for them or even teach them how to do it as the task of getting back on their feet is enormous.”
Talking of the YES Programme she said it was not a waste of government money as some people have made attempt to say. “The YES Programme is a good programme for a lot of the young people who were previously left out in the villages to fend for themselves in these hard economic times. We might not all get jobs, but we will all come out with skills that we can use anywhere in the world.
“We were hopeless before the YES Programme but now it has given us a boost of confidence. It is a very good idea the government came up with and a couple of us are really learning, we are taking the opportunity not for granted and all of us are very serious. When this course gets finished I will be a different person, because you cannot learn too much.”
Unique Fashions’ proprietor, Sharon Williams, who has been running the business since 1990 was approached by the YES Programme to train the six young women because of her past experience as a dressmaking instructor at the Department of Youth Skills.
She observed that the students have an interest in what they are doing and that by the end of the six-month course, she feels that they will be ready and even if they do not land fulltime jobs, they will be able to stand on their own. On the other hand, she also feels that they could use the knowledge from her course to venture into advanced training locally or overseas.
“They have made a lot of stuff and I have already told them that I am proud of them,” said Williams. “The material they use is supplied by the programme, but they also bring in their own material and sew their own items under my guidance and supervision as part of the training.”
She noted that part of the weekly $300 stipend they receive should also go to buy the some of the material used during the training. Williams allows them to use any material she has which is not in use. When the Programme supplies the material, they keep whatever items they make, which has been a great incentive.
