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Title: YOUTH BUSINESS GUIDANCE CENTER
Location:
, Sud-Kivu,
Categories: Globalization
Education
Media
Popular Culture
Status:
In Progress
Timeline:
Ongoing
Description:
Youth Business Guidance Center is a training and accompaniment program dedicated to deal with the rehabilitation of 1600 vulnerable young women and men aged 15 - 35 from low – income, poorest and homeless families (both rural and urban) from the Eastern province of South – Kivu (DR Congo) into productive life by the end of the year 2018.
Our program clusters under three main components – Training, Incubation and Network. These efforts include the provision of training skills to business development (i.e. we offer a ten month comprehensive Business Development Services Track which focuses on developing market systems and facilitating commercially viable business services that assist the marginalized Micro and Small Enterprises) and the covering of the young entrepreneurs’ roughly $ 300 - $ 3000 start up capital, under the form of micro loans, in order to help them obtain necessary inputs to create decent and productive self – employment in three (of the Five) Emerging Employment Sectors for Youth: (1) On-Farm and Off-Farm Enterprises, (2) Information and Communication Technologies, and (3) HIV/AIDS. In addition, we give participants counseling and accompaniment services in a variety of management, financial, commercial, marketing and administrative areas. And thus, we create a conducive environment and provide a forum through which young practitioners in the Micro and Small Enterprise sector develop strategic networks, share ideas, experiences and best practices and strengthen communication.
This is a unique innovative opportunity for learning, in DR Congo, that offers youth entrepreneurship practitioners in the field important resources connected to life skills, personal development, leadership, social and economical participation into the community development as well.
Each three months, we host plenary sessions that combine the learning from each of the courses and tracks and introduce broader topics of importance to the development field. Plenary sessions are designed to challenge assumptions and evoke lively debate and push what we know and feel about the best practices of the Micro and Small Enterprises development field. Local languages are better for this practice.
Shortly, we focus on how to access to resources which are not easily accessible in the country.
Background:
The inception of Youth Business Guidance (YoBuGuCe project) was due to many lethal wounds caused by successive and plundering wars that our country, especially our areas were victims a couple of years ago.
The vulnerability of the congolese people is not only due to a long period of bad governance since 1965 but also to consecutive plundering and aggression wars called by belligerants « wars of liberation » of 1997 and 1998. According to the draft of the national policy of the population (2001), the average income per day and per person passed from 1.50 dollars (1973) to 0.30 dollars (1985). Though, the DR Congo is naturally richer. Unfortunately, more than 85% of 58 millions of inhabitants forming its population are extremely poverty - stricken in such a way food security, schooling, health care and home comfort within the households have become pending issues. Illiteracy, malnutrition, famine, hunger, unemployment, underemployment, human sufferings, social injustice, HIV/AIDS infections, etc. are the greatest costs to pay. Life has become very awkward in both rural and urban areas. Only 85% of families can have a meal or two meals a day and, 14% of families can provide an unshared bedroom. There are 36% of girls and 27% of boys aged from 18 to 25 who are illiterate. The few young women and men who got the chance to complete the secondary education did not have access to university education due to lack of financial means. Even those who attend the university work find the education system has not prepared them with skills required by the labor market. 80% of youth between 15 and 25 are provided with no schools, jobless or underemployed. They are doomed to begging in streets, use of drugs, prostitution, rapes, sexual violence, kidnapping, mutilations, tortures, and militias activities. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS of people aged 15 – 49 is about 4.5% with extremities varying between 1.7% and 7%. This prevalence varies from 1.8% to 6.7% in rural areas and from 3.1% to 7% in urban areas. The average prevalence of young people between 15 and 24 is estimated to 3.6%. However, this prevalence is varied according to the fact that we are located either in rural places or urban ones and the age group of people. In towns, the prevalence is about 4.6% whereas in the rural areas, it is about 3.8% and it is higher between the age group of 20 – 24 with 4.1% than the age group of 15 – 19 with 3.7%. There are also 700 000 children directly orphaned by HIV/AIDS out of the 3 million of orphans in the DR Congo. The longer we wait the greater the challenge becomes.
Objectives:
To support, host and train to income generation and entrepreneurial ventures to help vulnerable youth create sustainable livelihoods.
Milestones:
The main outcome of this project is to progressively rehabilitate and form a network of at least one thousand young entrepreneurs (women and men aged 18 – 30) who are interested in changing society, but are starting by developing themselves by the year 2018. It is expected that through their behaviors and actions, they will produce a ripple effect on others and thus provide their contributions to creating meaningful social changes in our communities.
Budget:
At least USD 570,000.00
Needs:
Office infrastructures, Materials and Equipment, Teachers, Premises, Salaries/Volunteer stipends, Transportation means, Books, Computers, etc.
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