Wonder Welders

Workshop Recycled Glass Project

Dar es Salaam – Tanzania 2012

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Wonder Welders is a Tanzanian registered NGO that trains and employs disabled men and women in Dar es Salaam to recycle waste materials and create attractive artworks. Wonder Welders started so disabled Tanzanians, who were begging on the streets, could learn new skills like carpentry and glass to identify opportunities and generate their own income within the community.

In February 2009 Wonder Workshop facilitated a training exercise sponsored by the Finnish Foreign Ministry. Mr Jukka Isotalo a highly skilled Finnish glass artist came for three weeks to train four existing members of Wonder Workshops carpentry/glass workshop and two employees of another local NGO, Africraft. However, after the training came to an end it has become evident that in order to take this training forward to achieve the best possible outcomes it requires further financial assistance and help to source certain products which are crucial in the technical processes taught by Mr. Isotalo.

In 2010 The People Bridge provided funding to Wonder Welders to further expand their glass project in order to increase employment opportunities for persons with disabilities and this was successfully completed. In February 2012 we agreed on the revisions to be included in phase 2 of the project, which included enhancements to the bead jewelry production facilities and further training of the workers in the bead section of the workshop for the design and quality of the jewelry being produced.

With good success over the years in positively changing the lives of over 40 disabled people, additional support is needed to expand the development work to support more individuals. With the help of The People Bridge, Wonder Welders has continue to grow and inspire these disabled workers and trainers to make a considerable life-changing impact on the Region of Msasani, Dar es Salaam.

Wonder Workshop with its five years experience in creating viable means for disabled Tanzanians to earn a sustainable income through creativity recognizes the importance  of establishing the project soundly from the outset in  regards to machinery as well as training in order to make the project profitable in the long run. This Project allowed the  expansion of space and acquisition of equipment for the Workshop to provide the making of recycled glass  projects that are sold to tourists.

CASE STUDY

  • Name: Daniel Maurus
  • Age: 50
  • From Mozambique/Lindi
  • Joined WW: May 2007
  • Disability: Born able bodied but stood on a land mine in Mozambique in 1970, losing one leg above the knee.

What were you doing before you joined the WW?

After the accident in Mozambique and because of the war there, my family fled to Lindi in southern Tanzania. In 1999, as there was little work there, it was decided that I should go to Dar es Salaam to try and earn some money by begging from all the wealthy businessmen at the traffic lights. Things did not work out the way I’d hoped. Dar is an expensive place to be if you have no income and no family to help out so I ended up sleeping in the Mnazi Moja public gardens in town at night and begging on the street during the day in the hope I’d get enough to be able to buy myself something to eat. It soon became clear I was never going to make enough to send back to Lindi, let alone enough even for a bus fare for me to go back so I was stuck…until I got the chance to join the Wonder Workshop.

How has WW changed your life?

I can’t begin to tell you how happy I was when my friend Roma told me that my name had got to the top of the waiting list. I now have my own room which I have been able to rent with my salary from Wonder Workshop and I am saving up in the bank account the workshop helped me open so that when I take my leave in August I can return to Lindi for the first time and try to find my family and bring them some money as I had promised to do so nine years ago.

Please see images below taken at a show held at the workshop when the products were launched.

After the training came to an end it became evident that in order to take this training forward to achieve the best possible outcomes it requires further financial assistance to source certain products which are crucial in the technical processes taught by Mr Isotalo.

Wonder Workshop with its five years experience in creating viable means for disabled Tanzanians to earn a sustainable income through creativity recognizes the importance of establishing the project soundly from the outset in regards to machinery as well as training in order to make the project profitable in the long run.

The motivation behind this project is to utilize the training that has already proved to be a great success to guarantee the future of this glass project. The demand for this style of recycled glass product has already proven to be extremely popular with their customers, and there is huge potential to expand further with ranges of drinking glasses, more household lighting ranges etc.

Further expansion of this project will create opportunities to employ more disabled and marginalized Tanzanians. The sponsorship of this project was  started in 2010 and completed in 2012.