Support 150 Mauritian Youth Agripreneurs

On 31st August and 14 September 2019, Farmcity conducted its first 2 of 6 Community Workshops. We welcomed 40 junior youths from 4 different regions of Northen Mauritius - Baie du Tombeau, Terre Rouge, Triolet and Bois Marchand. Boy, did they blow us away with their insight, creativity, and strong sense of justice!

In each Community Workshop, participants were introduced to Farmcity’s mission and social enterprise model. We also shared the backstory of how Farmcity came to be - against all odds and despite the founders knowing nothing about agriculture when they started! Participants were then given a tour of the farm, where they learnt the different strategies employed to farm in harmony in nature, tasted some farm fresh produce, and even conducted a mini experiment to understand irrigation through capillary action. Nature has all the answers, and we simply need to observe and appreciate the bounties of what She has to offer.

After a brief break prepared by a wonderful local caterer, we turned the floor over to these bright, young junior youths! They were given 2 scenarios to role play - first, as Minister of Agriculture to propose ways to make agriculture attractive to youths; and then taking on a superpower to solve some of the most pressing issues facing their communities today. The depth of discussion that followed, as well as their suggestions to solve some extremely challenging problems - of drugs, of pollution, of poor health, left us wondering why we aren't involving them in our policy making process. Imagine the wonders that could be achieved if we simply gave young people a voice!

We were humbled to be given an opportunity to look at complex problems from their perspective, and deeply inspired by their resilience and tenacity, even in the face of a really challenging environment. We are convinced, contrary to much of the bad press that the 'youths of today' often get, that they will be the ones who can change the world for the better. We will be compiling the solutions that the junior youths have proposed in this series of Community Workshops (4 more upcoming!), and will share them with the leaders and decision makers of Mauritius.

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More about The Agripreneurship Program

These Community Workshops are the first of a three-part Agripreneurship Program for junior youths. We aim to use agriculture as a tool to teach entrepreneurship, so we can build the agripreneurs of tomorrow.

Community Workshops set the scene for junior youths, introducing them to the possibilities of sustainable farming in a modern way, and providing them with a safe space to first, surface some of the challenges they see in their local food system; and secondly, to propose ground-up solutions to improve it and by extension, their communities.

This will be followed by Chapter 2 where participants will dive heads-in (and hands on) learning the basics of farming. As a group, they will learn how to prepare the soil, sow seeds, manage weeds, irrigate and tend to their own bed of crops on the farm.

Their efforts will then culminate in Chapter 3: The Agripreneurs' Club, where they will follow a 10 week program to develop a selection of their ideas (raised in Chapter 1) into a first prototype to be tested on the ground. It is our belief (and hope) that improving their local food system, through initiative(s) that are developed by the community for the community, will pave the way for more postive changes. 

Watch this space for more details on how you can support these junior youths efforts!

Dear Donor, 

We are most happy to provide you with an update on our very first GlobalGiving project. As we shared in our project blurb, we will be hosting 150 junior youths from underprivileged communities at Farmcity, and it is all thanks to your generous donation. The fundraising campaign ended in June, and the funds were disbursed on 31 July 2019. Since the campaign ended, we've been hard at work organizing the back end of things so that we can ensure each youth has an enjoyable and productive learning experience at Farmcity. 

Logistics

The project will be carried our in 6 separate groups, consisting of 25 junior youths, 2 animators, and up to 8 parent volunteers. The Junior Youths are grouped according to the region they live in as well as their age groups (9-11,12-15, 16-19). They are from the following regions of Mauritius: Baie du Tombeau, Terre Rouge, Triolet, Bois Marchand, La Tour Koenig, Cité La Cure, Cottage. Consent forms have also been distributed to the junior youths so we can get formal approval from their parents for their participation. 

Collaborators & Helping Hands 

For this project, Farmcity is collaborating with coordinators and animators of the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program (JYSEP), a global movement inspiring young people, parents, and community members to work together toward a better world. We felt it was prudent to work with the JYSEP animators as they have cultivated a great relationship with these junior youths, having worked with them through the JYSEP for over a year now. Our goal is to build on that relationship, and to work longer term with the same junior youths. This would be in the form of other food-related service projects (e.g from community gardens to food literacy), as well as through our 10 - week Agripreneurs’ Club Program in the near future.

We have also opened the tour to parent volunteers who may be interested in accompanying their teens as they embark on this program. There are two reasons for this: involving the parents helps the junior youth to feel valued and important because their parents are taking an interest in their live, and also because it offers Farmcity an opportunity to create more awareness about healthy eating at the community level.

We have also reached out to our friends to lend a helping hand for each tour. Raahena (our former intern), Khavi, Cherish (previous volunteers for other programs we have run) have already offered to help on some days. Volunteers and animators will be provided with a stipend to cover their time and cost of transport for the day.  

Transport Arrangements

We have arranged return transport , via a local bus driver, for the junior youths as well as accompanying parents/animators. To this end, we will also install signage and wayfinders so our visitors will be able to locate our farm easily. This is based on many instances where previous visitors were lost in the sugarcane fields and we had to waste much precious time looking for them. 

Food and Beverages

Pink Catering, a local small business, will be providing refreshments for each day of the tour consisting of sandwiches, mini potato and tuna balls, mini pizzas, sliced chocolate cakes, water as well as homemade ice tea. Reshmi, the owner and chef, has kindly offered a very competitive price for the refreshments. 

Photo/Video

We have contacted AVS, one of the most professional photo and video production company in Mauritius to help us record the event/s and produce a video for the GlobalGiving project. AVS has generously offered us a 50% discount as part of their kind contribution to support this project. 

Timeline 

Tour 1 - Date set for 31 August 2019 

The Bus driver will pick up junior youths from 3 separate locations, namely Baie du Tombeau, Terre Rouge and Triolet. 

Tour 2 - Date set for 14 September 2019

The Bus driver will pick up junior youths from 1 location, namely Bois Marchand.

Tour 3 October 2019, Date TBC (depending on school examination dates)

Tour 4-6 November-December 2019, Dates TBC (school holidays, may be conducted on weekdays too)

Thank you once again for helping to make this possible! We look forward to providing you with another update soon!