Transformed Livelihood Project III – Ikare, Ondo State
Project Period: July 2020 to June 2021
The training and distribution of birds and feed to participants held on the 31st October to 3rd November, 2020
The Transformed Livelihood Project (TLP3) is a 3 in 1 project that is aimed at empowering 40 youths to build and sustain livelihoods that will enable them to earn income, support their families and to become employers of labour hence reducing the number of unemployed youths in Nigeria. TLP3 is primarily focused on these 3 activities:
- Poultry training and distribution
- Entrepreneurship/Capacity building training and
- WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) training
Through these activities, FLEP is aiming to contribute to the general and holistic transformation of the youths we are engaging in Ikare-Akoko. As part of the initiative, is to not only train participants in poultry farm enterprise but to distribute 30-day old chicks and 8 bags of feed to each selected participant, to enable them to start up a poultry farm business.
This means empowering young people to work their own way out of unemployment and poverty, and to become positive contributors to social change. This livelihood Programme is supported by the Children’s Mission and directly administered by Full Life Empowerment Programme FLEP and its partner – The Navigators Nigeria.
Poultry Training:
A 2-day Poultry training was organized by FLEP for the participants and we had a total number of 45 youths in attendance. The venue for the 2 days training was freely donated by a Church, Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Garden of Praise in Ikare.
On the first day, Participants were trained on:
- Housing and Brooding of birds
- Feeding and Marketing of birds
On the second day, participants were trained on:
- Poultry health and Vaccination
- Poultry waste management
Participants were strongly encouraged during the sessions by the facilitator, Funmi Adedotun who was a beneficiary of the recently closed Livestock Empowerment Model Project (LEM Project) implemented by FLEP in Akure, Ondo state in 2019 through 2020.
The sessions were interactive as participants shared concerns, questions and previous insights amongst themselves. It was a good ground to make clarifications and it was more encouraging for the participants to hear from a beneficiary of a similar project from the same organization.
Distribution of birds and feed:
After the poultry training, 42 selected participants received free birds and feed.
These participants are youths:
- Between the ages of 20 to 36
- Unemployed/ underemployed
- Reside in the project location
The Poultry Programme was designed to empower 40 youths with; 30 day-old chicks and 8 bags of feed each (3 starter mash and 5 finisher mash). However, an additional 2 participants received birds because of their dedication to the 2-day training, giving a total of 42 youths. Each participant received an average of 30 birds and all 40 participants received 8 bags of feed – 3 bags of starter feed and 5 bags of finisher feed.
Mrs Adedotun shared with the participants that the 8 bags of feed is very sufficient to sustain their chicks even to the December sales and afterwards. We hope that before the participants need to buy feed again, it will take some time and by then, they should have sold some/all of their birds and earned some income to be able to buy more chicks and feed as they gradually multiply their resources.
The participants saw the feed as the biggest gift received, considering how expensive it has become to buy one bag of feed even in their local community.
Meet Noa
Noa Akande is a member of The Navigator Nigeria and he is serving as the Field Coordinator for the Transformed Livelihood Project III in Ikare-Akoko. Noa supported in the mobilization of youths for the project and he will further assist in connecting FLEP with the participants by organizing monthly meetings with the participants, visit participants to supervise and monitor their progress with the poultry business.
Engagement and Interaction
A WhatsApp chat group was created to keep the participants in constant and easy communication and to foster the “development of a community”.
Through this platform:
- There are further engagement and guidance in the brooding process of the birds,
- Participants share their experiences and best practices as they nurture their birds
- Vaccination schedules are easily shared to all participants
- And in the long run, participants can share further business engagements together
Funmi is also a member of the WhatsApp group and she continues to engage and support the TLP3 participants.
Taiwo Christian, one of the participants who received birds and feed offered her personal assessment of the value of the training and intervention, she said “They said we should come for two days training and after they will give us 30 birds and feeds… it was like a dream, I thought it will not be possible. Since FLEP has empowered us, we should not take this opportunity for granted; we should be courageous to continue with the business. We should see this as borrowed money used to start a business with the intention of paying back”
Transformed Lives
Together with our partners, we believe that this intervention will transform the lives of the young people in Ikare and make them employers of labour – we desire to see them being able to contribute to social influence/change and to help other young people around them live a sustainable life of dignity.
