Search NaijaAgroNet

Showing posts with label social. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social. Show all posts

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Over 1m African children’s lives improved by local social entrepreneurs

Over one million African children have benefited from social enterprise development on the continent in the last five years, reports NaijaAgroNet.

According to a new report released by Reach for Change Africa, a non-profit organization, also reported that over 300 early-stage social entrepreneurs were supported to develop organizations that are improving the lives of children, youth and women in 7 African countries.

NaijaAgroNet gathered, Reach for Change Africa is marking its 5th anniversary themed “Accelerating Impact. Driving Change”, 

Since it was first launched in Accra, Ghana in 2012, Reach for Change Africa has provided crucial business development support for social entrepreneurs who, in turn, used their social businesses to impact over one million children. As a result, over 435,000 African children were protected from mental abuse and threats, over 308,000 children were provided with high quality education, and over 156,000 children were supported to develop and live healthy lives.

“The social enterprise movement is really starting to take off in Africa, and we are honoured to be a part of this movement for change,” said Amma Lartey, Reach for Change Africa’s Regional Director. “With the right supports, social entrepreneurs have the potential to lead Africa’s development and impact millions along the way.”

Reach for Change Africa is a non-profit organization that runs incubators, accelerators and other customized programs to help local social entrepreneurs develop sustainable organizations that impact the lives of children, youth and women.

Additionally, the report showed a number of social entrepreneurs from the 7 countries where Reach for Change Africa operates, explaining how the organization’s programs helped them to develop their social ventures.

“Being in the Incubator has helped me develop a scalable model,” said Carolyne Ekyarisiima, the founder of Apps & Girls in Tanzania. Apps & Girls is a social enterprise that is bridging the gender gap in ICT through coding clubs, workshops, exhibitions, hackathons, bootcamps and competitions for girls and young women. Since joining the Reach for Change Incubator, Ms. Ekyarisiima has scaled her organization from just one location to 21 clubs in Dar es Salaam.

“This year, I spoke with my mentor at Reach for Change about the possibility of franchising my social enterprise and got great feedback. This led me to apply for the NEXTGEN franchising competition and because of the great influence and impact of the Reach for Change Incubator, I was among the winners! Now I am looking into scaling Apps & Girls across all of Tanzania and other African countries,” she added.

The Reach for Change Incubator also helped James Kofi Annan build a social enterprise that’s fighting child-trafficking in Ghana.


Isaac Oyimah/GEE
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Amb Patrick says books veritable for social re-engineering … Opara-Anyiam unveils Short Stories with Morals

NaijaAgroNet 
The CEO of Meljenstin Youth Empowerment Initiative and Reviewer of the book, Ambassador Chibuzor Patrick, has said that books are a veritable tool for social reengineering and nation building, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Speaking at the unveiling of a book, Short Stories with Morals by Vivian Opara-Anyiam, at the weekend, declared that there is nothing one can do without books.

“Books are the only tool that can change this generation. Reading is a skill whereby you get information for your life to be illuminated. Knowledge is the principal thing. It comes with wisdom because a closed book is a closed life. I have essay competition in Meljenstin just to encourage reading culture. Without books no generation can stand, because in reading we find solution to our problems”, she stated.

Short Stories with Morals, she informed NaijaAgroNet, is designed to touch every aspect of our lives. “It is simple in language, unique in its own way because the book deals on: respect, honesty, kindness, impatience, obedience, humility, forgiveness, anger, conscience, jealousy, wickedness, quarelling, greed, stealing and envy among other themes and these are issues we need to deal with in our society. As the reviewer of the book I recommend it for everyone: the parents for their children, the church for their members. A life will be changed positively after reading this book”. She advised the young ones to write instead of depending on uncles which in most cases do not work. She said there is no perfect book yet. “Put down that thing you call nonsense because tomorrow it may make sense to some people some day,” she concluded.

According to the writer of the book in an exclusive interview with NaijaAgroNet, her aim of writing the book is to impact morals in the life of Nigerian youths, children and young adults who love reading literature books. “When you look around, a lot has gone wrong with our morals .This book is written to serve as a corrective measure towards this direction, it will impact morals in the life of people after reading it, you will feel the impact of what you are reading and you will learn a lot, not just moral but other aspects of life. 

She admitted to NaijaAgroNet that the first obstacle she faced as a young writer was the issue of finance. “You have good intention or inspiration but when it comes to financial aspect you have to run up and down to look for money to implement it. But I give God the glory that I did not just write the book and abandon it, God gave  me the grace I was able to publish it which is what we are about to unveil today”.

She however dropped a word of advice to other upcoming writers, “if you know that you have the gift or the inspiration to write, you can start by putting those ideas down one day you can put those ideas of yours together to form a book”, adding that by the special grace of God by the end of next year her poem collections and short plays will be out.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Modern ideas key for improved jobs and income





Innovation, modern ideas have been identified as the only key to engender improved jobs and sustainable income as joblessness among young people is one of the most pressing social, economic and political challenges facing Africa in the 21st Century, NaijaAgroNet  reports.

African Development Bank's Special Envoy on Gender, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi stated this in Abidjan at a consultative workshop organised by the Bank's Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department in collaboration with the Office of the Special Envoy on Gender and the Human Development Department.

The workshop NaijaAgroNet gathered, was designed to deliberate on a proposed innovative programme titled “Empowering Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment for Youth in African Agriculture (ENABLE Youth)”.  The programme once developed, will be implemented in 20 Regional Member Countries of the Bank under the coordination of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

The programme will be designed to reinforce the roles of disenfranchised young African adults through a comprehensive outreach approach involving providing information, life-skills education (effective and functional job training), proven technologies and opportunities to at least 800,000 youth in 20 RMCs.

“Over 10 million young people in Africa are entering the job market each year. Despite the strong growth performance of African economies over the recent years, the continent has failed to create the number of jobs needed to absorb these young people,” said Fraser-Moleketi.

NaijaAgroNet reliably learnt that the meeting was attended by key players in the agricultural sector such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), and West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development

Cyriacus Nnaji/ ED,OPs

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology