Children Formerly Associated with Armed Forces/Groups (CAAFAG) in South Sudan who received vocational training open a carpentry business, prompting an evaluation that shows widespread success.

Abstract Information: In 2021 CMMB, supported by UNICEF, provided vocational training for Children Formerly Associated with Armed Forces/Groups (CAAFAG), more commonly known as former child soldiers, in Western Equatoria State, South Sudan. After being released from armed groups, CAFAAGs have minimal education or skills to provide economically for themselves. CMMB provided 100 released CAAFAGs with vocational training. After learning that two graduates of the program decided to open their own successful woodworking workshop, CMMB decided to conduct an internal evaluation. The evaluation goal was to assess the impact of the Technical Vocational Education and Training Skills on Children Associated with Armed Forces group enrolled in Tindoka Vocational Centre. Despite having no budget, the team was able to conduct a small evaluation using qualitative methods, collecting ten individual interviews with Vocational Center graduates and four key informant interviews with Tindoka tutors. The evaluation revealed that vocational training graduates were successful in opening businesses, earning enough to support their livelihoods, and healing from post-trauma stress disorder (PTSD). 

Relevance Statement: This abstract describes how one success story led to an evaluation, revealing a larger pattern of success. This abstract is relevant to the field of evaluation because it encourages small nonprofits to lead their own internal research to understand the effects of their programming, especially with very sensitive groups and in low resource settings. The evaluation used standards of qualitative research, such as developing unbiased and open-ended questions, to gain more insight about the CAAFAG’s experience with their vocational skills.