APT stands for "Appropriate Paper-based Technology". Various methods are used to create useful items from paper or card.

Appropriate Paper-based Technology originated in Zimbabwe in the late seventies. Bevill Packer, a sociology lecturer at the United College of Education, Bulawayo, found himself having to teach art. The students would later be sent to schools that could not afford to buy paints or brushes, or even suitable paper and pencils for art and where, for those reasons, art periods were often given over to other subjects.

Students and tutor embarked on a programme they called "Art that costs nothing", in which they used no-cost materials - clay, grass, fibres, leaves, reeds and waste paper and card - for creative purposes.

Paper and card soon became the most popular item. From it, using imagination and much ingenuity, they produced a wide range of articles that were remarkably strong and attractive. Many of these articles were made for use in students' homes or schools.

As each intake of students learned from their predecessors, the articles became larger and more sophisticated. In 1981 the first "do it yourself" desk and stool were produced. Ten of these were made and loaned to a school for testing. They passed with honours.

When Bevill Packer and his wife Joan, a primary school teacher, retired in 1982, they began exploring the possibilities of the technology as a productive adult activity.

More experimentation followed, and the technology was systematised and called APT. The four rules within which it was to operate and preserve its essential character were set down, namely that every APT article was to be;

1. Strong
2. Useful
3. Attractive
4. Made from materials that cost nothing

Friends saw their work and persuaded them to show it to the public; an exhibition was held at the Standard Bank of Zimbabwe Gallery, Harare, in August 1983. The enthusiastic public reaction confirmed their belief that that APT could meet many needs and that it should be taken to the people. Following the exhibition more short courses were held. Pupils at St Peter's Primary School, Mbare went on to furnish an entire classroom with APT, some of which was still being used ten years later! In October 1983 the first "Full Training" course opened in the Presbyterian Church Training Centre, Mbare. Of the twelve students most were women. Scorning the set hours for work, they started at five o'clock in the morning and worked till late at night. At the end of the six-week course, they returned to their homes laden with stools, tables, a desk, trays, bowls, toys and other articles. They began teaching APT to other women in their clubs. Another 28 people completed the course in 1984, and the technique began to be spread through the rural areas.

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