Teen mothers and vulnerable inclusive Farm School

Youth unemployment is one of the major challenges many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa face. In Rwanda, nearly 17% of young people are unemployed. The odds of unemployment slightly rose against you if you are teen mother with limited to no formal education, which leads to endless poverty cycles. Since 2016, more than 100,000 teens have given birth. In addition, Bugesera district is among the top five districts to have a bigger number of cases of teen mothers (in 2019 alone more than 900 teens got pregnant).

Despite the efforts of the Government of Rwanda and some NGOs to get teen mothers back to school, more than 50% do not go back to school; they end up on the already saturated job market with no degree, an extra mouth to feed usually with little to no family support.

The agricultural sector presents good potential for youth employment opportunities as it accounts for 30% of the country’s GDP and 70% of the active workforce in Rwanda. However, young people see this sector as unattractive to them. The absence of decent returns/wages due to the lack of professional farming accompaniment are the reasons young women and men are shying away from this sector. Given these realities, the country will not even be able to replace the current aging population of farmers in the future, with more than 75% of current famers being above 35 and 55 years old being the average age of a Rwandan farmer. Yet, the majority of teen mothers In Bugesera district are from rural regions and are more likely to profit from agriculture.

The Inclusive Farm School project will affect its target population in the following ways:

1. Creating employment opportunities for the youth especially teen mothers from the community:

   The project will be teaching modern agriculture practices, employ teen mothers to run the model farm and popularize irrigation services across the neighboring communities. This will contribute to the country’s target to create up to 214,000 jobs annually (2018-2024).

2. Prosperity opportunities through sustainable agriculture and transparent value chains:

   Farm gate value addition will bring about positive externalities that will flow over many stakeholders; down to the female street vendors ensuring standardized high value crops through digital interfaces are earning them good reputation and decent wages. A one-of-a-kind initiative highlighting how the human cantered design model can help in creating indigenous solutions in communities.

3. Social and food security impact:

   The waves of hundreds of indirect beneficiaries will connect with a remunerative vocation, improve their livelihoods and contribute to the country's self-sufficiency when it comes to food; addressing the consequences of the endemic poverty in rural areas but also countering the teen pregnancies factors by offering dignifying professional options to underprivileged young women.

Beneficiaries:

The project have reached two different target groups. The first target group was 60 teen mothers who directly benefited from this initiative. Those teen mothers became role models and unceasing ambassadors of this project to the other underprivileged youth.

The second target group was the empowered 60 former female street vendors, trained in food safety, customer standards and handling, and equipped with basic technology to sell high value products and collect orders on behalf of the consortium’s school farm.

Both groups of beneficiaries will be essential components of this project and will learn significantly. More than 120 people will directly benefit from this project and waves of hundreds others will indirectly.