Chisels from Narex Bystřice will help give work to the people of Kenya

4. června 2020

The problem of poverty in one of the most remote areas of Kenya is being addressed by an educational project that includes a two-year carpentry training course. Narex Bystřice provided the newly emerging school with ten sets of basic carpentry tools.

"When Mrs Lejla Abbasová, whose Asante Kenya Endowment Fund has been helping the local people for a long time, approached us with a request for help for the new school, we did not hesitate at all. 

"For our company, it was an automatic and natural thing to help people in Africa to have a job at home that will provide them with a livelihood," said Karel Ježek, owner of Narex Bystřice.

The Loitta Hills area, where the new school is located, is rich in resources, especially wood. But the locals cannot turn them into useful products. Most young people have no practical skills other than grazing livestock.

"We had the opportunity to hand over the tools to Africa before the global crisis with COVID-19 broke out. That is why we witnessed how the local carpenter Daniel Aloo immediately tried out the tools together with the requests and was carried away from its quality, “said Lejla Abbasová.

The company Narex Bystřice, which belongs to the group of the largest traditional Czech manufacturer of knives and office equipment Mikov, has a tradition of more than a century in the development and production of hand tools. It exports its products all over the world. 

"Ignaz Rosler, an enterprising man from Mikulášovice, stood at the birth of the Mikov cutlery company more than two centuries ago. In the same way, in 1919, today's Narex was founded in Bystřice by Václav Richter. We believe that our chisels in Kenya can help to find someone similarly capable among the locals who will solve the problems of poverty and the resulting economic migration on the spot, "concluded Karel Ježek.