Sowing the Seeds for Education

Introduction

This program was initiated on August 03, 2014. This program included the direct participation of youths in farming. The money earned was collected in a fund which will be utilized for educating poor and underprivileged children. This program was all about learning new things; experiencing the modern farming methods and simultaneously helping needy children in their education.

Structure of the program

This program mostly consisted of working in a farm, The Green Farms Ville, located in Bhimdhunga, Kathmandu. Volunteers registered their names by calling us in the numbers provided. The event was organized regularly for Saturdays and Wednesdays. Similarly the program was also organized on other public holidays; in Dashain for an instance. The volunteers who registered would be informed for the day by the means of different Social Medias and by phone where possible.

Volunteers worked in the farm with a minimum time of 4 hours per week. In this time they primarily worked with tomatoes; planting, trimming, harvesting and other related tasks. A break-time of 30 minutes would be placed in the middle of working time as everybody is not capable of working 4 hours straight. Snacks will be provided to the volunteers during this break time. The snacks was provided with the money collected in the fund, so the volunteers did not have to pay for it.

After completing their time of 4 hours, volunteers were free to leave the farm. Then they could make their own routine regarding which days to work and how many hours to work. They would regularly attend the program until they reach 50^th hour of their work. After 50 hours they were credited to a certificate from the organization for their 50 hours of volunteering. They also got 50% of the money they raise as stipend of their work. 

Objectives

There were two primary objectives of the program, as listed below:

1.  Increase youth’s participation in farming and other agriculture related tasks. More than 60% of our population is engaged in agriculture through direct farming. The product of the large number of people is not even enough to feed themselves i.e. 60 % of the population. Yearly many tons of vegetables and grains are imported from India to feed the population. The sole reason for this is the traditional method of agriculture. Traditional farming methods of Nepal needs change which is possible only through the participation of youths. So, increasing the participation of youths in agriculture was one of the objective of this program.

2. Use the generated income for some philanthropic task. The money we got from the farm after we work is divided into two parts. 50% would be given to the volunteer as a stipend, and the remaining 50% would go to our fund. The money collected will be used to educate children from poor and underprivileged families. This was a good reason to spend the money as we will be educating the children of Nepal through what we earned from our direct participation in agriculture.

Benefits to the society

The program had numerous benefits to the society, some of them are listed below:

1. After gaining the experience in the field of agriculture many volunteers might set their target to work in the field of agriculture. This is a good thing as young minds in agriculture can increase the yield by many times with their innovative ideas and modern techniques in farming.

2. Some poor children who had not got a chance to pursue education due to poverty will now get a chance to learn and explore new things. Although by a small number, the literacy will increase which is a direct benefit to the society.

3. This program will drag the attention of volunteers towards many other things which they can do for the society. Our country is going through many hindrances, participation of youths will help to reduce them and will direct the country towards positive change.

4. Youths doing agriculture will encourage the people working hard in foreign countries to return to their homeland. They can use the skills that they have learnt in foreign countries and ease the development process of our country. 

Completion of the program

The program was organized continuously for 3 months every Saturday and Wednesday in The Green Farms Ville, located in Bhimdhunga, Kathmandu. Throughout this program we gathered huge number of participants. More than 200 people registered for our program of which 50 energetic youths worked with us regularly. We terminated the program after completing more than 700 hours of work in the farm; collecting more than 14 thousand rupees.

All of our regular participants were learning the modern ways of farming and simultaneously earning money for other’s benefit. Almost all of the participants told us that they were very happy to see the real face of agriculture like never before. Some of them are even thinking of taking up agriculture as their career. This program was a huge success for us, the organizer, as we gained a huge acclamation for this idea. We will be handing the money over to an individual or an organization when the new educational session will begin from next Baisakh (Mid-April).