103,318. That’s the number of people who crossed
the Mediterranean Sea to get to Italy from January to August 2017. 103,318
people, most of them youth leaving everything behind, country, wives, families,
to seek a better future, a quest that cost many their lives.
This is what poverty looks like with its
intense despair that makes people risk their life for an Eldorado that often
doesn’t exist. Europe’s promise hides a sad reality for migrants. Most of them
end up in the streets or in migrants’ camps without better prospects than
before.
Faced with growing poverty and food
insecurity, Senegalese youth are among many African youth who lack hope for the
future and are making the choice to leave. This situation is dramatic. The Senegalese
economy relies deeply on cash crops and fishing and the growing exodus
threatens the future of theses sectors.
What can be done to stop the flow of youth
leaving their country? We can revalue agriculture as a viable career and lifestyle
choice attractive to youth.
On my recent visit to Senegal, I met proud
youth working in agriculture, growing a rotation of crops that allow them to
have revenues all year long. These youth took part in the Farmers for the Future project launched by our partner RESOPP with
Crossroads International’s support. One hundred youth, half of them women, were
trained in modern farming technics, agroecology and management and now
understand how it can work. This model is inexpensive and has a high retention
rate with youth who now have steady revenue and activity.
Projects like this one are inspiring and
have proven their worth in other countries like Bolivia, Togo or Tanzania where
our partners, with Crossroads’ collaboration, developed new farming models that
now provide sustainable revenues to youth and their community. I’ve seen
promising results and those projects are real catalyst for change that can
transform the way youth see agriculture and can help them find new sustainable
prospects for the future.
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