Poverty loosens when a person can make something people will pay for. At Mercy School that lesson starts with flour.
The children put on grey aprons and white chef hats. They cut stars and gingerbread from a yellow dough. Later two bakers hold out red plates as if the tray were a feast — because for that hour, it is.
Skilling in this house is hair, sewing, baking, a stall, a customer who comes back. Baking day is how a primary child first feels a trade in their hands. The grin is the certificate.
From the field
The photographs and films of this story.
Skilling & enterprise
Baking day at Mercy School
Orange shirts, grey aprons, star cutters, a bowl of dough. Skilling starts young: a trade a child can taste, and later sell.
Skilling & enterprise
The biscuits, on red plates
Two bakers in Mercy Schools shirts hold out gingerbread and stars. The lesson is a tray that came out of the oven. The grin is the certificate.