Skills by Sea
http://www.rotary.org/en/Pages/ridefault.aspx
In country after country, one notes the glaring need for sustainable skills-training. Dotted along a tropical beach were several, almost new, outboard motors. Abandoned – seemingly useless, forlorn. However, closer inspection revealed that the spare part needed was probably quite small and readily available as well as easily fitted. The missing factor is the knowledge and skill borne of thorough training and patient practice. Generous donors from overseas had made provision for these mechanical "servants" to improve fishing yields and increase the quality of family life.
Thousands of miles away in Africa there is a yard of cannibalised coaches, also looking forlorn and seemingly helpless. Some were precariously perched on improvised "jacks" as wheels or other parts had been removed and re-fitted to other vehicles with seemingly more urgent needs to keep the fleet operational. Here too was a missing element - transport-management. Not far away, in the harbour were huge gantry cranes, silent and motionless as they had been for some years. They too needed assistance from wise mechanics to bring them into active service once again.
These patterns are so often repeated … is there a need for a maritime training vessel to be launched into service full of machinery and spares for training hundreds of mechanics in all areas of the community in a whole group of countries? Technical personnel could sail onboard as volunteers or join the vessel(s) in specific ports. The advantage of such a vessel is the capacity to carry equipment and supplies as well as people. It could even encourage mechanics from similar cultures to travel onboard to teach in other port communities.
Thousands of surplus used-tools are collected and refurbished in the UK and I am sure in other countries too. These sets of tools for carpentry, car mechanics, electric repairs etc could be transported by such a vessel. Thus the valuable "know how" could be twinned with generous gifts to enrich the whole process.
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