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CONSTRUCTION SKILLS TRAINING

This program teaches rural Tibetans how to construct handsome and durable traditional Tibetan homes. It is operated under funding from USAID andother donors, in partnership with Winrock International under the Sustainable Tibetan Communities program.  The training program offers three main benefits:

  • It provides useful job skills to Tibetans from economically marginalized areas and helps them win jobs that they might otherwise lose to workers from outside.
  • It helps preserve Tibetan architectural traditions and preventing use of nontraditional materials such as cement and ceramic roof tile that are - incorrectly - perceived as better than traditional stone, timber, and clay.
  • It makes homes last longer and be more resistant to damage from earthquakes and summer monsoon, thus enhancing safety.

So far we have given courses in stone-cutting, masonry (building foundations and walls), carpentry, and roof-making.  Our instructors are master builders from other parts of Kham where home construction and earthquake-resistance has been developed to a more advance level. 

In future we would like to expand our program to include the following:

  • provide intermediate and advanced training to students who already mastered the basics of carpentry and stonemasonry
  • make the stone cutting course available to more people, since our existing program graduates are not sufficient to meet local demand
  • send the best students to other parts of Kham for 2-year apprenticeships
  • offer training courses in other aspects of construction such as interior carpentry, carving, and painting
  • replicate the program in other needy communities, especially herding villages

Details of the program so far are in the following field reports:

Roof Repair Training Program Completed April, 2006

Construction Training Program in Tagong: Results!  March, 2006

Kham Aid teaches traditional construction skills (program introduction)  August, 2005

 

For more information, write to pam(at)khamaid.org.