By Wesley & Kelly | Co-Founders, Farmers and Animators
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!
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