• About
  • Our Work
  • Join
  • Partner
  • Media
EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER

Sign-up for monthly updates on Winrock's work around the world.

Volunteer Blog

VOLUNTEER BLOG

Youth Entrepreneur Expands and Improves Her Business After Farmer-to-Farmer Support

Posted on November 15, 2021

We were inspired by Global Entrepreneurship Week (Nov. 8-14) and are excited to share the success of a youth entrepreneur in Guinea who has expanded her product line thanks to support received from Winrock’s Farmer-to-Farmer program. Enterprise Fatou et Kadija (EFK), a startup company in Guinea led by a young woman named Fatou Titine Cissoko, is gaining success by providing juice and jam products that meet market demand and quality standards.

Ms. Cissoko was trained in entrepreneurship topics by prior USAID-funded Associate Awards implemented by Winrock International and CNFA. As part of her participation in entrepreneurship

Ms. Cissoko displaying new product offerings from EFK after receiving F2F technical training.

training, Ms. Cissoko created a business plan and received a grant of US$ 900 (8,134,500 GNF) to start her fruit drying business, EFK.  Since starting the business in 2019, she has added the production of drinks and jams made from fruits such as ginger, pineapple, mango, etc.

Recognizing that she needed further technical and organizational capacity-building skills to grow her business, Ms. Cissoko reached out to the Guinea Farmer-to-Farmer program to receive

trainings in financial literacy and food processing and preservation to better produce tropical fruit drinks.

“During the financial literacy training, I learned how to approach financial institutions with my business plan. I admit that I was afraid because these institutions are very demanding, and as a young entrepreneur, I have no guarantees to offer. Nevertheless, following my meeting with them, two of the most important banks in the area came back to me and offered me credit opportunities…”, explains Ms. Cissoko. She plans to utilize a finance option soon to invest in expanding her production and feels that the banks’ willingness to offer her credit options offers an opportunity to prove that young entrepreneurs are solid investments.

The Farmer-to-Farmer technical training focused on processing techniques followed the financial literacy capacity building and has led to additional product offerings for EFK. Prior to receiving training, EFK was unable to produce quality ginger juice and jams. Since receiving training, EFK now produces and sells quality ginger juice, jams, and monkey bread juice, resulting in a 40 to 50% increase in profits. EFK has sold more than 300 bottles of monkey juice alone within the few months after learning of this new product from the Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer.

Ms. Cissoko and EFK’s goals are to continue to expand product offerings that meet quality standards and hope as the business grows that they are able to employ more young staff in the future.

Posted in AET, Africa, Nigeria | Tagged AET, agriculture education and training, capacity building, entrepreneurship, inspiration, knowledge transfer, Nigeria, Winrock Volunteers, women, youth

A Life Experience with the Rural Reconstruction Foundation in Bangladesh

Training Beef Fattening for Youth Entrepreneurship Development

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Abner A. Rodríguez-Carías, F2F Volunteer

Winrock International invited me to volunteer in Bangladesh as part of the Farmer-to-Farmer Program funded by USAID.  In Bangladesh, the Farmer-to-Farmer program engages skilled American volunteers to provide training and technical assistance to support youth entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector and to strengthen agricultural education and training institutions.  My assignment was to visit local beef cattle fattening farms and locally available feed sources to assess the existing status, practices, problems, and opportunities to improve practices of beef fattening activities in the community, and to conduct two 3-day trainings on improved beef fattening for the host staff and youth group members with a focus on youth entrepreneurship development.  The Rural Reconstruction Foundation (RRF) hosted me, as part of its mission to seek and accomplish “the comprehensive development of underprivileged men, women, youths, and children towards understanding a civil society with respect of full democracy, liberty, equality, justice, peace, and solidarity”.

This was my first Winrock volunteer experience, my first visit to Bangladesh and my first visit to Asia. I enjoyed Bangladesh since the day of my arrival in Dhaka City.  During my assignment, I visited farms, worked with farmers, and participated in the two three-day training for the youth beef fattening group members.  I value and admire the great interest shown by all participants to enhance their beef fattening knowledge and make of it a mechanism to improve their lifestyles. All farmers that we visited were very attentive to our recommendations on how to improve their production system. They wrote the recommendations on animal management, feeding practices, and animal comfort.

Visiting local beef farmers at Jessore District, Bangladesh

The RRF technical staff and the beef farmers showed a great attitude during the 3-day training sections. All participated actively during the training, asking many questions. The RRF staff showed critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, especially during the ration formulation exercises where we used local feed resources to formulate beef cattle diets.

Training RRF technical staff in beef cattle diet formulation using local resources

RRF Beneficiaries – Beef Fattening for Youth Entrepreneurship Development

Professionally, I will share this experience with my colleagues from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico and encourage them to volunteer in this type of activities.  I will also share this experience in the classes that I teach to undergraduate and graduate students of at the University of Puerto Rico. It is very important for the student population to know about how volunteering aboard can improve the livelihoods for so many youths around the world.

In closing, I really appreciate the new relationships I have acquired with people from the RRF and Winrock International. My special and personal gratitude goes to Mr. Badal Golder, Project Manager Specialist, Winrock International, and Mrs. Shahnaz Begum, Assistant Director, RRF, for their friendship and professional support during the activities. This experience, working with Winrock International in Bangladesh, has enriched my life and I feel it has empowered my career.  After 22 years of teaching Animal Sciences, I believe that a higher education degree is not complete without the experience to be a volunteer and have the ability to help and transfer to people the knowledge that we have had the opportunity to acquire during our life.

Posted in Asia, Bangladesh, Volunteer Feedback | Tagged entrepreneurship, livestock

Learning by doing in Nepal

Posted on April 22, 2015

Volunteer Jeremy Elliot-Engel recently completed a youth entrepreneurship assignment with Winrock’s F2F program in Nepal. His blog post, below, offers candid insights from his trip:

Entrepreneurship is not only something you learn, but something you must do.

Namaste from Nepal.  If Nepal is one thing, it is a country of smiles, optimism and positivity.

This was my first time volunteering with the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) project.  It has been an incredible privilege to work with the Nepal country team and the students in Chitwan district.  This was not my first time traveling abroad providing education or training.  What I have valued throughout this experience has been that it has been asset based and has supported the strengths of the local individuals and hosts.

My project was training university agriculture majors on entrepreneurship.  The hosts were the Eco Minions and Prikiti Prahawa, both different organizations that have organized around agricultural and environmental concerns.  After talking with the youth leadership, I quickly, was able to identify the training needs to the fundamentals of business. I am confident these exceptional students (all 108 of them) will be able to recreate this training and spread the material, throughout the University but also into the community.

As agriculture majors at the local public agriculture university, they had content knowledge, but needed help to identify business concepts and how to create business plans.  We also spent significant time on writing and practicing SMART goals, so that the training would be valuable to their personal lives as well as in business.

During the intensive 20 hour training, students often had their first taste of experiential learning, following the 4-H motto “learning by doing.”  On numerous occasions on the first day or two, I heard “when will we start learning” or “we have so much to cover, let’s do less activities and more learning.”  By the end of the training, the students were saying “That was the best training I have had, it was so much fun and I have learned so much.”  The learning had crept up on them, while they were busy making marketing portfolios or playing Telephone to experience what marketing message diffusion appears like. Because the content was interactive and student driven, it was able to be relevant to the challenges and issues that occur locally.

Most of these students still have years of University studying to complete before they are able to go into the world and start a new entrepreneurship business. However, I am confident that their exposure to entrepreneurial thinking, understanding the importance of goals, maintaining personal, organization and business financial records and the many other concepts we covered will be utilized as they continue through their schooling.

I was energized by the can-do attitude and desire for improvement by every one of my learners during the training. There was a practical recognition of the challenges ahead and a willingness to tackle it.  I made the students promise me that if they made it BIG, then I expected an invitation back to Nepal.  They all promised, and one day, I am sure I will be returning to Nepal.  Dhanyabad (Thank You).

Here are some photos of Jeremy in action:   

img_5402

img_5601

img_5980

Posted in Asia, Nepal | Tagged entrepreneurship, Farmer-to-Farmer, international volunteer, youth
ABOUT FARMER-TO-FARMER WINROCK VOLUNTEER ASSISTANCE

SUBSCRIBE TO POSTS

Loading

ARCHIVE

  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011

CATEGORIES

  • AET
  • Africa
    • Ghana
    • Senegal
  • Asia
  • Bangladesh
  • Cuba
  • El Salvador
  • Ethiopia
  • Field Staff
  • Guinea
  • Kenya
  • Latin America
  • Mali
  • Myanmar
  • Nepal
  • Nigeria
  • Postharvest
  • Rural Livelihoods
  • Senegal
  • Spotlights
  • Volunteer Feedback
  • Volunteer of the Month
  • Winrock Staff
WinrockIntl
Tweets by @WinrockIntl
Follow @WinrockIntl

204 E 4th Street | North Little Rock, Arkansas 72114

ph +1 501 280 3000 | fx +1 501 280 3090

2451 Crystal Drive, Suite 700 | Arlington, Virginia 22202

ph +1 703 302 6500 | fx +1 703 302 6512

  • Contact
  • E-News Signup
  • Low Bandwidth
  • Code of Conduct
  • Winrock Privacy Statement
  • Site Map
  • Terms of Use
Copyright © 2015- Winrock International
DEV ENVIRONMENT