tailieunhanh - FUTURE FARMERS PROGRAM - SMALLHOLDERS FOUNDATION

A pioneer in Islamic microfinance, Al-Amal Microfinance Bank (Al-Amal) was established in October 2008 as the first microfinance bank in Yemen. Dedicated to providing poor micro- entrepreneurs with access to financial services, Al-Amal targets youth and women with microcredit, savings, and insurance, among other services. To date, Al-Amal has developed two youth-friendly products, Youth Fund (credit) and Child Savers (savings). Through slight adaptations to its product offerings, including collateral requirements and minimum balances, Al-Amal has quickly grown its reach to thousands of Yemeni youth. By the end of 2010, Al-Amal had disbursed 6,317 loans to young entrepreneurs between. | A SMALLHOLDERS FOUNDATION .for smallformers to overcome poverty THE PROBLEM About 20 of Nigerian young people are unemployed. Incidentally agriculture provides an enormous opportunity for young people to become self-employed as quickly as possible. Unfortunately young Nigerians in-school and out-of-school are not adequately trained to see agriculture as a profitable venture for income generation and for selfemployment purposes. They lack the entrepreneurial and technical skills practical agricultural techniques and knowledge to successfully create modern small medium scale commercial agricultural enterprises. Unfortunately lack of employment opportunities for youth in Nigeria has led to youth restiveness armed robbery kidnapping rural - urban migration and drug peddling. This is a very dangerous trend for the future leaders of the country. THE SOLUTION The Future Farmers Program tackles youth unemployment by empowering young Nigerians especially girls with practical valuable and lifetime agricultural environmental management financial education and entrepreneurship skills through the establishment of modern community or school crops fruit trees and livestock garden which they entirely own and manage. Through this approach young people are empowered to sell the garden products place the money in a Saving Bank Account and use the profit to grant themselves micro-loans to establish similar gardens at home eventually becoming selfemployed. THE IMPACT Unemployed youths aged 18 - 35 years old acquires practical agricultural environmental and entrepreneurship skillsand becomes self-employed Youths successfully establishes crop fruit trees and livestock gardens and micro enterprises at home earns income andsupportstheirparents Young people takes-up and advances studies and careers in agriculture environmental management and entrepreneurship Girls increases their decision making ability as such the independently decide what time to get married what career or business they .