Mechanical sanding of timber. It requires an experienced hand. (Photo BGF)
In the footsteps of the father SOS Vocational Training Centre “off spring” replicate the SOS philosophy By Wanjiru Ciira
B
ehind some high-rise residential buildings in the Donholm area of Nairobi’s Eastlands, nestles a woodwork workshop. To get there you have to battle the appalling roads that characterise the area. During the rainy season, you have to wade through puddles of water and mud, while in dry weather you have to fight off dust. You would normally not associate this workshop with quality furniture. But you would be dead wrong. This is the home of Audicious Wood Works, a furniture-making outfit that Cornelius Mbithi, Joseph Njung’e, Morris Muoki, Samwel Nthiga and Gibson Muraya – all graduates of the SOS Vocational Training Centre in Buruburu - set up in July 2004. Audicious is known for woodwork and fittings for interiors, such as wooden staircases, wardrobes and kitchen cabinets, as well as individual furniture pieces like beds, chairs, tables, and even picture and mirror frames. Cornelius Mbithi always wanted to be a carpenter. He is passionate about carpentry – making durable, high quality furniture. And although today Mr Mbithi can look back with
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pride at what he and his partners have set up, he came into carpentry by a very long and winding route. He was not one of the SOS “children”, so to speak. After sitting for his Form 4 examination in 1992 in his home area of Kathiani in Machakos, Mr Mbithi stayed at home for a year, “trying to do some farming.” He then decided to try his fortune in Nairobi and joined the masses of casual workers at construction sites. And that is when a window of opportunity opened. A friend of Mr Mbithi, who worked at the SOS Woodwork Workshop, needed a helper for sanding the legs of furniture. “When he mentioned it to me, I jumped at the idea,” says Mr Mbithi. So, in August 1994, Mr Mbithi joined the SOS Workshop and worked as a helper until the end of that year. He remembers working on a big, round table with 40 drawers. Mr Mbithi was now on good terms with the people at the workshop and when he came back in January 1995, expecting to continue as a helper, he was offered a job as a storekeeper. Fritz Bachlechner, the Technical Training and
Construction Coordinator at the SOS Wood Workshop trained Mr Mbithi in storekeeping, a skill that was to prove very useful when Mr Mbithi eventually set up his own furniture workshop. However, at the time, Mr Mbithi did not appreciate this and kept looking for opportunities to work in the workshop, making furniture. “I wanted to be a woodworker,” he says. As a storekeeper, Mr Mbithi started handling issues of costing and keeping a record of all items in the store, such as hinges, varnish, screws, sanding paper, tools, wood, etc; all the time working closely with Lucas Barongo, the Production Unit Manager. However, Mr Mbithi still could not suppress his burning desire to be a carpenter. He thus took every opportunity to interact and learn from the carpenters and instructors in the workshop. He not only wanted to be a practical carpenter but also have the papers to back his competence. To this end, Mr Mbithi sat for and passed the Grade 3 Carpentry course at the end of 1996. Yet he was still working in the stores. He then decided to sit for the Grade 2 Test in the new
Miti October-December 2010