Kitchen gardens and organic farming awareness

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.

Our Expectation Were:

1. Sorting organic and non-organic matter

2. Organic matter processing(recycling) into organic fertilizers.

3. Organic fertilizer packaging

4. Distribution toward community

5. Promotes fruit trees as a restoration landscape and increases fruit production in the community

6. This project aims to reduce malnutrition in the community by promoting fruit tree activity,

7. Disseminating vegetables in health centers with more number of stunting children and pregnant women.

This project expanded at Nkombo Island Community by promoting regenerative farming with purpose of island’s biodiversity conservation, soil health restoration, in order to end the local malnutrition and children stunting.