Underserved urban neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa offer limited educational and work opportunities to the young people that grow up there. As part of a new PriceSmart Foundation grant, Zamorano, a globally recognized agricultural university in Honduras, will train young women and men from these communities to start small agricultural businesses. In October, over 100 young people, most of them young women, began a ten-module certificate course on basic agricultural enterprise development led by Zamorano in collaboration with local nonprofit Asociación Compartir. The training will help them start a variety of small agricultural enterprises in their urban communities as a path to earn income and improve their families’ nutrition. Compartir will complement the technical training with mentoring and skill development in leadership, social-emotional competencies, and gender equity.
As part of the program, over the next couple of years, youth will work hand-in-hand with Compartir and Zamorano to launch and manage three agricultural enterprises. Egg production operations will be set up in three neighborhoods using a cage specially designed, with community input, for use in urban environments with limited space and resources. The cages will be constructed by youth working in Compartir’s metal-working shop. Other young people will help develop and operate microenterprises to produce tilapia and green pepper at a nearby nature center called La Montañita.
All three agricultural enterprises will benefit from technical support by Zamorano in sustainable agriculture, food safety, and state-of-the-art practices in production, marketing, and distribution. The eggs, tilapia and peppers will be sold in local markets where there is a high demand for – and limited supply of - nutritional food, especially protein and fresh vegetables.
Over time, Zamorano will reduce its involvement so that Compartir and the young people can take over independent management of the businesses. The expectation is that the new enterprises will produce enough income for Compartir to sustain an operation that can serve as an ongoing training and workforce site for young people from the nearby neighborhoods. Just as importantly, the work experience and training will help young women and men acquire skills, knowledge, and confidence they can apply in their own small businesses or to get a job. Hopefully this intervention can serve as a model that can be replicated in other communities to provide employment opportunities and better nutrition to more families in challenged urban environments.
