Sowing the seeds for a bright future!

By Savina

Happy New Year!! For us at Aspyre Africa, 2016 already started with plenty of excitement as our first cohort of 14 young people started their training in horticulture on the 5^th of January.  It was the start of a beautiful journey for them, and for us the culmination of a year of hard work, building the foundations for a sustainable programme.

In October, the Aspyre Africa team was back in Saint-Louis for a few weeks. Having identified the agricultural & horticultural sectors as our top priority following our local labour market analysis, we were in a position to formalise programmes and partnerships and we mobilized many more stakeholders, businesses in particular.  We also worked with our local partner Association Jeunesse Espoir (AJE) to develop and finalise all the tools needed to execute and monitor the planned programmes.

Following our visit, the AJE team carefully selected the beneficiaries from the young people on their waiting list or referred to them by both NGOs and Government bodies, based both on vulnerability and motivation. All of them have now been equipped with their own toolkit and will benefit from regular support from the AJE team throughout the training.

While in 2015 we already reached a first fundraising milestone with the support of the Fujian White Crane Kung Fu Club and one amazing major donor in particular, in 2016 we will be looking for broader support to launch other pilot projects targeting other specific vulnerable groups.

We look forward to updating you on all our programmes in our next blog.