Chinese expertise

The weaving school's Chinese chief instructor, Li Chonglin, said since the project was launched in January 2007, close to 200 students have been trained. "We have been receiving fairly good feedbacks. We continue to receive information that most of our graduates are now self-employed and have their own workshops where they are producing furniture," he said.

According to Li, at the end of the training exercise, the students are presented toolkits, which he says helps them to get work done on their own. "We also train them in a way that they too will train other people in their communities after their graduation as a way of getting more and more people prepared for the job market," he says.

Li said when the project started the furniture produced by the students was mainly used for exhibition purposes or as samples to show the program's partners in an effort to raise awareness. "But right now, the students are advancing and so the products have improved in quality and so we are selling them to help the students," he said.

Li said proceeds from the sale of merchandise is strictly used to help the students buy additional materials to what the program gives them. Some Liberian government departments have instructed their procurement departments to purchase furniture and other items directly from the show room of the weaving school. 

Using local resources

Zargba Gaye, the center's out-going director, said the program has been very beneficial to Liberia not only by training the unskilled youth to become productive, but also in unlocking the potential of the country's rich natural forest, which has ample supply of bamboo and rattans of all kinds.

"The raw materials used here in the school, are from the Liberian forest. Currently, Liberia is located on the belt of countries in the world that are rich in bamboo, including the varieties that are used for construction, flooring, ceilings or production," he said.

According to Gaye, the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan has just rated Liberia high among the countries rich in bamboo, but stressed that despite this significant progress, the country is not making use of exploiting the sector. "The government and the private sector need to explore this [bamboo] sector because it has the potential to play a meaningful role in the reconstruction process of our country," he said.

He appealed to the governments of Liberia and China to continue with the joint venture.

(Reporting from Liberia)

The Bamboo and Rattan Weaving Center

The Bamboo and Rattan Weaving Center is a program initiated and funded by the governments of Liberia and China. It was established when Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf paid her first official visit to Beijing in 2006, as guest of her Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. To the surprise of the Liberian pesident when she was accompanied to a bamboo and weaving center in Beijing during her visit, she saw Chinese bamboo craftspeople making furniture of all kinds and using bamboo and rattan to carry on major construction work.

Impressed by the Chinese experience and realizing that bamboo and rattan are in abundant supply in Liberia and underutilized, she appealed to President Hu to help set up a program whereby Chinese experts could teach Liberians the skills behind bamboo and rattan production. The Chinese Government generously accepted her appeal and in 2007 Beijing sent the first team of experts to train young Liberians how to benefit from bamboo and rattan and production.