Fole: A tailor with passion to empower others

When Henderson Fole, 32, trekked to South Africa in 2012, nobody knew the reasons behind his migration.

Thus, his neighbours in Ndirande Township could only speculate that he was simply running away from poverty, which held a tight grip on his family.

In fact, some people thought he would never return after tasting the joy of leading a plush life in the rainbow nation.

But Fole was determined to return, not after buying trendy wares to sell back home, but after securing capital for his business.

“I have stayed the better part of life unemployed and poverty-stricken. Honestly, that’s not an experience one can desire in life,” he narrates his story.

But Fole believes the predicaments he went through were a blessing in disguise.

The years he spent unproductively drove him into action. In 1996, he enrolled for tailoring lessons with a local tailor in Ndirande. He mastered the trade in two months after paying K700 as tuition fees.

Fole says the training helped him secure a job with a number of local tailors where he worked as assistant tailor.

“What I used to earn from there was enough for me to feed my family, but I felt uneasy to see my fellow youth just loafing. So, I decided to come up with something to assist them deal with their economic challenges,” he explains.

And having seen how tailoring is changing lives of many people, especially those with less education, Fole thought that opening a tailoring school that provides training lessons at an affordable fee would be the strongest tool for empowering the loafing community to turn around its economic woes.

However, Fole did not have the capital to enable him realise his dreams.

“It is this aspiration that drove me to migrate to South Africa in 2012 where I picked any work that availed itself, including petty ones, just to secure enough money for procuring sewing machines for this initiative,” he recounts.

He says after working for about two years, he was able to save enough for the startup machines for his school.

And in April this year, he returned to establish the institution. Fole says he was particularly pleased to note that chiefs and parents supported the initiative.

“Chiefs and parents have been very supportive because they know this school will give not only the youth, but also the unemployed community skills and knowledge they need to set up their own business.

“The tailoring skills acquired can also help them find a job or obtain a promotion for those enrolling to upgrade themselves,” he states.

Fole says students enrolling with his institution pay K8 000 per month. He says the full training programme lasts for six months translating into K48 000 as full tuition fees.

“The school is two months old, and, already three students have enrolled with me. I’m thinking about registering with Teveta [Technical Entrepreneurial, Vocational Education and Training Authority] so that the certificates I will give them will be credible and accepted by employers,” he explains.