custard
Established Member
A year or so back someone on the forum mentioned a charity called "Tools For Self Reliance". I took special notice because, even though they have branches all over the country, their main branch isn't far from me in Southampton.
They run training courses in basic practical skills in some of Africa's poorest countries, and when their students finish they are given a tool kit that sets them up as a carpenter, joiner, shoemaker, bricklayer, dressmaker, plumber, mechanic, etc.
They look for decent quality tools relevant to all these areas, both hand tools and good quality 240v power tools. What's needed is refurbished or packed straight into trade specific tool kits, what's not appropriate is sold on Ebay to raise the shipping costs. It takes about £160 for each cubic metre of container space, those containers are then shipped from Southampton direct to Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, and the other destinations where they run their skills training programmes.
After reading the original article it occurred to me that I have plenty of local tradesmen dropping by my workshop to ask a small favour like running something through the thicknesser or doing a bit of vac bag veneer work. I decided that in future any favours will require a donation of unused tools. Over the past year a tea chest in the workshop slowly filled up with trowels, planes, spanners, sash cramps, hammers, chisels, and lots more besides. Here's just a portion of what was accumulated,
Recently I took it all down to Tools For Self Reliance and learnt first hand about their work,
What a smashing bunch they are, enthusiastic volunteers who are making a real difference.
So if you've got anything cluttering up your workshop get in touch with Tools For Self Reliance, and put your unwanted tools into the hands of people who really need them,
https://www.tfsr.org
PS, right at the moment they're particularly short of 18mm spark plug spanners!
They run training courses in basic practical skills in some of Africa's poorest countries, and when their students finish they are given a tool kit that sets them up as a carpenter, joiner, shoemaker, bricklayer, dressmaker, plumber, mechanic, etc.
They look for decent quality tools relevant to all these areas, both hand tools and good quality 240v power tools. What's needed is refurbished or packed straight into trade specific tool kits, what's not appropriate is sold on Ebay to raise the shipping costs. It takes about £160 for each cubic metre of container space, those containers are then shipped from Southampton direct to Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, and the other destinations where they run their skills training programmes.
After reading the original article it occurred to me that I have plenty of local tradesmen dropping by my workshop to ask a small favour like running something through the thicknesser or doing a bit of vac bag veneer work. I decided that in future any favours will require a donation of unused tools. Over the past year a tea chest in the workshop slowly filled up with trowels, planes, spanners, sash cramps, hammers, chisels, and lots more besides. Here's just a portion of what was accumulated,
Recently I took it all down to Tools For Self Reliance and learnt first hand about their work,
What a smashing bunch they are, enthusiastic volunteers who are making a real difference.
So if you've got anything cluttering up your workshop get in touch with Tools For Self Reliance, and put your unwanted tools into the hands of people who really need them,
https://www.tfsr.org
PS, right at the moment they're particularly short of 18mm spark plug spanners!
