Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Reignite in Focus, Challenges, perspectives and Mission all Oriented Towards the Development of Tubah

Reignite in Tubah? Starting in Bambui, through the invitation of Bambui United Kingdom Development Association, we aim to achieve high standards and outcomes with our projects, consider Bambui a model village and transfer the same principles of work and approach to other villages in other regions. The results will be monitored by a team of experts. The role of the people and the palace in the first phase is manly focus in: Security – people, infrastructures and travelling; Food and Accommodation. Some of the projects ahead will involve finance contribution and monitoring. In Bambui, Reignite intervention is based in the following fields: Microfinance, Integrated Water Resources Management, Land Management and New Organic Farming Techniques, Food Transformation and Preservation, Skills for life Education. Reignite values People, Resources and Sustainability Reignite’s work and purpose? Empower rural African communities to break their poverty cycle by developing multisectorial programs that reignite their potential and willpower. Reignite collaboratively develops bespoke multisectorial solutions to meet the needs and solve the problems of poorer communities. We use a novel approach by settling in a community, visit each quarter and organization, and find out exactly what people need. Unlike most other development agencies, we devise a 3-5 year all-encompassing program with the local stakeholders, using local human potential and natural resources to propel the sustainable development of livelihoods and the environment. The specific social problem Reignite is working to solve? We aim at improving employability amongst the whole community, especially within women and youth (e.g. youth unemployment in Cameroon is high: in 2010, 13% of young people were unemployed, while their level of under-employment was 72% – 54% in urban areas and 79% in the countryside). By locally sourcing human and natural resources to address the village’s problems, we equip the community with better skills, harnessing their potential and fostering it towards improving their own livelihoods. Programs or products of Reignite? Our programs deal with infrastructural and environmental problems affecting the village. However, by involving local people in the solution we also tackle social issues (e.g.youth unemployment, women empowerment, lack of education). We meet and listen to people, we reflect upon their issues, discuss solutions, network, mobilize human and financial resources, develop partnerships, devise strategic programs, hand them to local partners, monitor their progress and help guiding them through the process. We also do consultancy, organize training sessions (provided either by us or local organizations with insightful knowledge), conferences and workshops. Our work translates into programs such as: Hygiene Promotion, Sanitation Assessment, setting up of Organic Farms, Traditional Jam Production. We provide support/training to: Bee Farmers Group, The Credit House and to Young Farmers. Via microcredit we fund initiatives like: Alfred & Gilbert’s Poultry Farm and Community’s Cassava/Corn Mills. How does this approach represent bold innovation versus the status quo?, In Bambui, we have identified 5 local NGO’s, 3 traditional institutions and 5 agencies involved in the village’s development. However, each of these organizations devotes its actions to a specific area of intervention. The same happens with many other international NGO’s (e.g. Oxfam, Save the Children, CARE, WaterAid): their focus is on specific sectors through which they believe development is exponentially fostered. What we propose with Reignite follows the same underlying principles of poverty alleviation and economic development. However, we deliver it differently: by leading a cross-sectorial analysis of the problems affecting the community, we are able to come up with a more integrated strategy to solve them. The validity of this approach can be seen through the “Millenium Village” concept, developed by UNOPS, the Millenium Promise and the Earth Institute. According to it, “in order to affect lasting change in any one sphere of rural development, we must improve them all”. What impact will your organization have in the world? For example, how many people will you help? In what measurable ways? In what timeframe will this happen? Reignite’s impact is propelled through different continents. Not only do we reach the community in rural Cameroon; but we also transform lives of European youth who by working with us are developing a set of transferable skills and improving their future prospects (our core team is currently made up of people from the UK, Portugal and Germany). Since our projects’ portfolio is varied, we aim at having helped around 80% of the population throughout a 5 year period (taking into account direct and indirect beneficiaries). We will measure this success on a project basis, through monthly reports, quarterly surveys and yearly follow ups. In Year 5 a final report will be written on the village’s development taking into consideration the no. of: youth in full-time/prolonged employment, youth & women involved in small/medium businesses, sustainable community projects successfully developed and fruitful long term partnerships established. Our legacy to the world: reigniting human potential.

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