Originally posted on 3/21/2012
Njideka Harry, founder of Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF), was recently named an Ashoka Fellow. This honor highlights YTF’s social enterprise program, Agricultural Platform Offering Women Empowerment Resources (Agric-P.O.W.E.R.).
Agric-P.O.W.E.R employs area youth as agricultural information workers, delivering resources and technology to rural women farmers. Agric-P.O.W.E.R. creates a distribution network to give rural women access to high yield crops while also helping to access lucrative regional markets.
By allowing youth to develop a stakeholder role in their community’s economic development and food production systems, opportunities to stay in rural areas are created and distribution channels are opened for the most vulnerable demographics.
“These youth are change agents in their communities while providing access to dependable agricultural information,” Harry stated. “YTF’s investment in youth and their communities generates a lifetime of income for their mothers and a path out of poverty for entire families, and I am honored to be named an Ashoka Fellow to help continue to lift up YTF’s important work through this program.”
According to the Ashoka website, “Ashoka Fellows are leading social entrepreneurs who we recognize to have innovative solutions to social problems and the potential to change patterns across society. They demonstrate unrivaled commitment to bold new ideas and prove that compassion, creativity, and collaboration are tremendous forces for change. Ashoka Fellows work in over 60 countries around the globe in every area of human need.”
You can view her page on Ashoka here: www.ashoka.org/fellow/njideka-harry
