FIGHT HUNGER & FOOD INSECURITY IN S/EAST, NIGERIA

PROJECT REPORT

Name of Organization: Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation.

Project Title/Name: Fight hunger and Food insecurity in Southeast, Nigeria.
Focus Country: Nigeria.

Project Locations: 27 communities in Southeast, Nigeria.

Focus Area: Agriculture, Food and nutrition

Project Type: Direct service, Street based Project

Proponent: Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation

Address Klm 1 Eke-Ahiara Junction, Umuofor Nnarambia
Ahiara, Ahiazu Mbaise, Imo State, Nigeria

BRANCH OFFICE: 88 Murtala Muhammed way,
Yaba, Ebute Metta, Lagos.

EMAIL: support@samonyemaechihumanitarian.org
WEBSITE: https://www.samonyemaechihumanitarian.org

Introduction;
Hunger is the most extreme manifestation of poverty and human deprivation. Hunger in a world of plenty is not just a moral outrage; it is an infringement of the most basic of human rights: the right to adequate food. Hunger entails large economic costs, severely compromising the productivity of individuals, the growth of nations and the sustainable use of natural resources. Part of what makes food insecurity so difficult to solve is that the underlying causes - poverty, unemployment/under-employment, and inconsistent access to enough healthy food - are often deeply interconnected.

Executive Summary:
Significant progress has been made to date in realizing our project goal within the first three months. As a group we have accomplished to a greater extent the following: achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, Designed overall user interface structure for sustainable solutions to end hunger in all its forms by 2030 and to achieve food security, Made significant progress in integrating the productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers by promoting equal access to land, technology and markets, sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices, all of which are now in progress. One of the problems we encountered and are currently investigating is that we are only able to reach out to limited number of communities with little resources at hand. However, more than 45% people still lack regular access to adequate food. If current trends continue, the zero hunger target will be largely missed by 2030.

Organizational Background
Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' started in the year 2012, officially registered September 7, 2017. Joined GlobalGiving community May 29, 2021, with a vision to seek sustainable solutions to end hunger in all its forms by 2030 and to achieve food security. SOHF aim is to ensure that everyone everywhere has enough good quality food to lead a healthy life. Also to create a platform for young people to actively engage them in social issues in the southeast, Nigeria. In the first 3 months of its operations, 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' did a rapid assessment of existing youth program in the region to discover a dearth of serious, structured interventions with young people in the area. The team from 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' visited more than 20 rural communities and several NGO functionaries operating in the area to learn about the involvement of youth and adult in Social initiatives in the area. In these visits, most of the principals, teachers and social workers voiced a need to build leadership among young people on social issues and motivate them to take up social action initiatives. The educators expressed their concerns and difficulties involved in mobilizing young people for social action initiatives.
In the same period, a team from 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' participated in the 'Change Makers program' that was conducted jointly by The Nonprofit council with the aim of understanding the current community development initiatives of other NGOs across Nigeria. During this phase the team studied the program design and the community mobilization methods of these NGOs. The team also underwent a one year long mentoring and handholding under this program. In the process, the team also participated in a several learning programs with several NGOs working on community issues from across the nation. In these sessions, the team interacted with more than 12 NGOs and their several community leaders working in different parts of the country.

Equipped with an understanding of local issues and an understanding of the best practices of NGOs from across the country, 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' started conducting basic life skill and active citizenship programs in communities in Southeast. The program was named 'change for life'. These workshops caught the interest of educators and students alike and they welcomed 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' team to conduct repeat workshops on several issues in 15 communities with around 8,367 in attendant. This program also had an indirect outreach of another 4200 people. 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' also initiated a pilot program named 'Metamorphosis' that involved families in community outreach program. This program involved around 10,600 farmers from 15 different communities in the area. In the same period, 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' conducted two parent counseling workshops in two different communities to discuss the issues of their children. This program titled 'Parenting and grassroots child-care' helped us put forward our standpoints and increased our acceptance with parents who are the prime decision makers for their children

The success of the initiative inspired us to continue the program with young farmers. Now in its second year of operation, 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' has started conducting life skill and active citizenship workshops in 10 additional Communities. This program so far had a direct outreach of 2700 families. Parenting and grassroots child-care has been conducted in two new Communities in the year. Currently, 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation is actively working with 23 communities in Southeast working on different issues in different communities.

In order to give a push to these projects, 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' has identified the need for:
a) Help the vulnerable improve and maintain a healthy and independent lifestyle and to maximize their quality of life.
b) Starting of 2 Resource Centers in southeast to address the needs of farmers
a) Resource Centers for youth to learn vocational skills.
b) Resource and Empowerment Centers for farmers to equip them with skills in farming.

Vision and Goal
The vision and goal of Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian foundation is to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. SOHF primary Goal is to seek sustainable solutions to end hunger in all its forms in southeast, Nigeria by 2030 and to achieve food security. The aim is to ensure that everyone everywhere has enough good-quality food to lead a healthy life. Achieving this Goal will require better access to food and the widespread promotion of sustainable agriculture. This entails improving the productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers by promoting equal access to land, technology and markets, sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices. It also requires increased investments through international cooperation to booster the productive capacity of agriculture in developing countries.

Core values
Involving people, applying knowledge and making things happen. We take as our Motto "Peace, social justice, diversity, fun and democracy as key values" which guide us.

Organizational Structure
'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' is registered as a Trust with Mr AKARAONYE Samuel Ifeanyi, Engr. Greg Ntiwunka, Mr. Joseph Ehioma and Ms James Rosita Nkeiruka as the Board of Trustees.
The 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' Team is currently led by Chief Augustine Anyanwu and comprises of Mr.Dominic Anyanwu, Dr Agnes Cletus Bassey, Mr. Chigbu Uchenna Ezekiel, Ms Anthonia Chuke etc.

Aims and Objectives
The aim and objectives of Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation is to Improve agricultural training for farmers, Provision of inputs and technology for farmers to increase production, Training and capacity building in community and Promoting the formation of farmers' cooperatives disadvantaged people business activities. Achieving this Goal will require better access to food and the widespread promotion of sustainable agriculture. This entails improving the productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers by promoting equal access to land, technology and markets, sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices. It also requires increased investments through international cooperation to booster the productive capacity of agriculture in developing countries.

Target Beneficiaries
The project was implemented in the rural communities in Southeast and south west. The direct beneficiaries are the youths, women vulnerable and malnourished children and rural communities. 8,367 people are directly benefited comprising of 3,912 males and 4, 455 females. The indirect beneficiaries are people within the communities with a combined population of 4200 individuals and 51% of which is made of females.

The impact of the underlying problem on the target population.
The effects of poverty are serious in communities in southeast. Children who grow up in poverty suffer more persistent, frequent, and severe health problems than children who grow up under better financial circumstances. In the Society, Issues like hunger, illness, and poor sanitation are all causes and effects of poverty. Bad sanitation makes one susceptible to diseases, and hunger and lack of clean water makes one even more vulnerable to diseases. This impact ranges from; family problems, Health, Illness, and Medical Care, education, housing and homelessness.

*Project Details*

INCOME

s/n DATE DISCRIPTION AMOUNT
1 10/26/2021 FUNDRAISING THROUGH GLOBALGIVING $ 3433.93
2 10/31/2021 PRODUCTS SALES $ 2116.05
3 11/20/2021 IN-KIND CONTRIBUTION $ 2100.80
4 11/24/2021 FUNDRAISING THROUGH GLOBALGIVING $ 982.61
5 12/21/2021 MISCELLANUOUS DONATION $ 550.05
GRAND TOTAL $ 9,183.45

GRAND TOTAL OF INCOME= $9,183.45

EXPENSES

S/N DESCRIPTION AMOUNT
1 SALARIES/ ASSOCIATE COSTS $1100
2 SEED MONEY $3500
3 TRAVEL/MILEAGE $350
4 MEETING COSTS (CONFERENCE AND REFRESHMENT) $500
5 PRINTING/PHOTOCOPY $85
6 VOLUNTARY/STAFF APPRECIATION $1000
7 WORKSHOP TRAINING/SEMINAR $500
8 FACILITATOR APPRECIATION $550
9 TELEPHONE BILLS $150
10 FOODSTUFFS/PROGRAM MATERIALS $1000
11 ICT DEVELOPMENT $350
GRAND TOTAL $9,085

GRAND TOTAL OF EXPENDITURES= $9085

Balance= $98.45

Sustainability of the Project
The ability of our organization as a whole to survive and to meet our mission goal, we embark on an entrepreneurial venture, as a way of raising money for community, financial and organizational sustainability. The foundation runs a food production, processing and packaging factory. We have been partnering with a company in processing our food items for sales. We are working hard to build our own factory for our organizational sustainability, and to help youth that have vocational skill to acquaint themselves with entrepreneurial skills to be resourceful and useful to themselves and society at large. The procurement of the necessary equipment for production, processing and packaging of organic raw materials(food) and construction of a multi-purpose hall that will accommodate our factory and other activities is our priority, we can achieve this through external sources like grants and long-term funding or through internal sources like income-generating activities or membership fees. And to actualize our mission and goal, we have these points as our guiding principles: Collaborative leadership, member-driven decisions,
effective communication, change-ready and adaptive workforce continuous improvement, on- going evaluation and measurement, sound financial infrastructure.

Difficulties and Challenges
The fight against hunger has seen some progress over the past three months. Globally, the proportion of undernourished people declined from 15 per cent in to 11 per cent in few communities we have visited with little resources at hand. However, more than 45% people still lack regular access to adequate food. If current trends continue, the zero hunger target will be largely missed by 2030.
The persistence of hunger is no longer a matter of food availability. Rather, in many countries that failed to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) hunger target, natural and human-induced disasters or political instability have resulted in food insecurity affecting large swathes of the population.

Annexes
Annexed below is a sample of this section that has been drawn from the project report of 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' - a non-profit organization that works with young adolescents, youths and adult in rural Communities.

*Overview of the Program:
We at 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' very much value exposure, interaction and peer learning processes. Our recent interactions with more than 20 Communities have reinforced this belief. We are now looking out for support to create 2 youth resource and Empowerment centers in southeast, Nigeria where young, adult etc can come together, co-create learning experiences and contribute positively to the community development. We plan to utilize these resource Empowerment centers as spaces for involving the youth and adult in "self-development" and 'social action' projects of various kind.
'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' has the required experience and expertise to design and run social action campaigns. We feel campaigns are great opportunities to demonstrate leadership skills, highlight social issues, develop deeper understanding about issues and mobilize young people. Campaigns give energy and take care of youth and adult needs such as fun, interaction, novelty etc. We want to organize a campaign each year highlighting youth action.

What we have achieved so far?
'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' is now an accepted name in more than 35 Communities. Our volunteers are personally known to tens of thousands of families in southeast.
As a part of self-development initiative, we have conducted workshops in more than 25 Communities in the last 3 years with a direct outreach of approximately 4000 people in the last 3 years. We have so far organized one major campaign in nearby villages where they went and identified families who were not buoyant enough to Carter for their family's needs.
Since the beginning 'Sam Onyemaechi Humanitarian Foundation' has been running out several programs in Communities promoting spirit of volunteerism and celebrating youth led social action. We have organized a major social action project titled 'Change for life' in 10 large Communities with an approximate outreach of around 23000 peoples. This project involved collecting and donating used and unused clothes blankets, shoes, food items to the needy.

What we propose?
In this project we propose to undertake the following activities under the aegis of the Resource and Empowerment Center for youth and adult.
Youth Resource and Empowerment Center:
We wish to build 2 new Youth Resource and Empowerment Centers (YREC) in Southeast over a period of next two years - one for the first generation school goers and the second for adult in rural Communities. At the end of the two years we would have been running 2 Youth and adult Resource and Empowerment Centers and the third year would be dedicated to further strengthen and better the functioning of these 2 resource and Empowerment centers.

Awareness Campaign:
We will design and run campaigns involving adolescents young people and adult from rural and urban areas every year starting with the end of year 1. The theme of the campaign will be designed by the adolescents. This will help them to consolidate their learnings and create awareness about social issues.

Conclusion
Food security is indispensable prerequisite for the survival of mankind and his economic activities including food production. Food is different from other commodities because of its inevitability for survival and existence. In Southeast, there is high level of hunger and food insecurity for the past four decades as a result of neglect in food production when oil has become the major export product and because of the adoption of neo-liberal economic policies such as devaluation of naira, trade liberalization and withdrawal of government from economic activities, ethnic and religious conflicts; disasters, such as flooding and drought have also contributed to food insecurity in Nigeria.
Unfortunately, most of the food need in Nigeria is produced by peasant farmers who lack capital, skills, energy and other viable ingredients to produce on large quantity that will meet the required of the growing population. A proportion of the population experiences food insecurity at some time in a given year because of food deprivation and lack of access to food due to economic resource constraints. Still, food insecurity in Southeast is not of the same intensity as in some developing countries. In the 2021 Global Hunger Index, Nigeria ranks 103rd out of the 116 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2021 GHI scores. With a score of 28.3, Nigeria has a level of hunger that is serious. Let's join hands together in integrating the productivity and incomes of small- scale farmers by promoting sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices.

;