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We are presently discussing an exciting partnership opportunity with Hands and Hearts International for sponsorship of our School Gardens project.

Hands and Hearts International is a Chicago - US based missionary organization which promotes improved health and sanitation for rural communities in Imo State, Nigeria. In January 2011 we expect to host the President of the organization Teri Dreher, members of the Board of Trustees and members of the organization and take them around our projects in Imo State.

View Pictures of Nnaemeka's meeting in Chicago here

Our Executive Director, Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu spent 1 week with 15 accomplished social entrepreneurs as part of his election into the prestigious Rainer Arnhold Fellowship program of Mulago Foundation. The course was held at a low-key retreat center just north of Bolinas, a little hippie town on the coast north of San Francisco, California, USA.

The week was used to design a model that will take The Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio to reach 20 million small farmer listeners in 1 year. The Rainer Arnhold Fellowship program is an intensive course for social entrepreneurs lead by Dr. Kevin Starr - Executive Director of Mulago Foundation. The course buttresses the constant theme of "design for scalable impact" with focus on:

• Communicating your idea and your work
• Delivery
• Raising money
• Building and managing a board
• Hiring and Firing

The World Summit Youth Awards (WSYA) has selected "The Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio" as one of the most outstanding examples of creative and innovative e-Content addressing the UN Millennium Development Goals in the Category - Fight Hunger Poverty and Diseases. The WSYA selects and promotes best practice in e-Content and technological creativity, demonstrates young people's potential to create outstanding digital content and serves as a platform for people from all UN member states to work together in the efforts to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation.

WSYA is both a showcase to the world for young e-content creators, journalists and writers, application designers, technologists and as well as a contribution on a global scale to addressing poverty, protecting the environment, sharing knowledge and empowering young people.

The Smallholders Foundation has been invited by WSYA to participate in the Winners Event taking place September 18th - 22nd in New York City alongside the UN Millennium Review Summit.

Follow the news here

Our Executive Director, Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu participated in the maiden Unreasonable Institute, in Boulder Colorado.

The Unreasonable Institute is an international accelerator for early stage social entrepreneurs. This summer institute has united 22 young social entrepreneurs, working on ventures in 15 countries and hailing from 6 continents in Boulder, Colorado for 10 weeks. At the Institute these entrepreneurs, deemed Unreasonable Fellows, are matched with 60 expert mentors and the skills, training, network, and capital needed to take flight. Unreasonable only works with ventures seeking financially self-sustaining models that are effectively meeting a social or environmental need and that can ultimately scale to meet the needs of at least one million people.

Follow the Unreasonable TV feature Nnaemeka

Unreasonable TV: Episode 6 - My Country, My Community, My People from Unreasonable Institute on Vimeo.

See the Unreasonable Institute here

The Smallholders Foundation was chosen by UNDP Equator Initiative as one of 25 outstanding winners of the Equator Prize 2010.

The Equator Prize is awarded to recognize and celebrate outstanding community efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation of biodiversity.

According the Jury, this year's competition was extremely high and the depth of nominations received was truly impressive.

The Smallholders Foundation was invited to the Equator Prize Award Ceremony in New York, New York, USA on 20 September, 2010, which is part of the 2010 United Nations General Assembly and Millennium Review Summit taking place in New York.

Through this recognition, The Smallholders Foundation joins an elite group of Equator Prize winners, now numbering 128 and constituting an influential grassroots movement of local and indigenous best practice in biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction.

Follow the news here

United Nations Center for Human Settlements (UN - HABITAT) is supporting us to train 335 junior and senior urban secondary school students, aged 12 - 25 in practical crops cultivation and animal husbandry techniques. This is being done through the establishment of an ultra-modern school garden at Development Secondary School, Douglas Road Owerri. The students will manage the garden entirely, sell the school garden products and use the profit to give themselves microcredit to establish similar gardens at home. The hands-on training equips urban youths with entrepreneurship skills to establish small gardens at home, earn direct income and eventually take up careers in agriculture.

This approach demostrates to young people the underlying factors in urban gardening - the concept of every space counts in urban agriculture.

See project pictures:

Through the support of International Youth Foundation (IYF) and Starbucks Coffee we trained 435 girls selected from junior and senior classes of St Catharine's Girls Secondary School, Nkwerre, Imo State with sustainable crops cultivation, harvesting and animal husbandry techniques. This was through the establishment of an ultra-modern school garden in their school. The girls entirely manage, sell the school garden products and use the profit to give themselves microcredit to establish similar gardens at home. The training equipped the girls with entrepreneurship skills to establish small gardens at home, earn direct income and eventually take up careers in agriculture.

See project pictures: