Sophia is one of those working-class communities where unemployment is high, poverty is ever present and the rate of school dropouts is disturbing. When children leave school with little in the way of academic accomplishment to show for their effort they are ill-equipped for the job market. Sometimes, an absence of viable options take them in the direction of unpalatable alternatives.
Currently in its sixteenth year, the Mercy Wings Vocational and Day Care Centre run by the Sisters of Mercy is on a mission to transform the lives of at least some of those young Sophia residents who might otherwise simply drift down a disastrous road. What the centre seeks to do is to offer a curriculum that might steer some of them down the road to gainful employment, perhaps even self-employment.
For all the challenges that inhere in sustaining the
