Rural women and the youth, solution to socioeconomic problem

Socioeconomic empowerment of women and the youth through art, culture and technology in their rural community setting.

1. The solution is to empower women and the youth with knowledge and skills so that they make goods and provide services. This includes the use of tools and machines that they will use to convert natural resources into items they need.

Assist the participants searching for markets for their products both locally and internationally, so that they can improve their lives financially and health wise because the skills gained will help to keep them busy at the same time avoid immoral bad behaviours which can spoil their lives.

2. As technology is the purposeful application of information in the design, production and utilization of goods and services, this has been regarded to be one of the most powerful agents of change in our society, so the sharing of knowledge and teaching the women and youth of the new inventions will bring new ways of doing things which will help to add value to the knowledge they already have, bearing in mind that technology is now moving at a faster pace than ever.

3. It will affect the world by having women and the youth who can be self reliant and who could be interacting with others from different countries globally. This will reduce the spread of some diseases like HIV/AIDS as most of the people who are infected are in that status because of poverty.

It will also help to reduce maternal deaths among the youth as this mostly happens because of early marriages as most of the people in this age group are victims of teen age pregnancies due to lack of skills so they are just idle.

The coming in of technology will reduce early pregnancies, early marriages and the spread of HIV/AIDS among the youth including women especially in the rural areas.

This will solve the problem in the sense that most of the youth have been involved in the problems mentioned above due to lack of the following:

1. Lack of extra activities after school hours and lack of knowledge and skill to engage themselves into production using the local materials available.

2. Lack of employment after school

3. Poverty

So if this solution passes most of the people will be engaged in different activities.

This proposal will solve the problem because Tsogolo Foundation on its own has already started doing some of the activities in order to reduce the problems which are out in the rural areas.

This has brought in a very positive impact according to the response of the members in the pilot project.

This is in line with Tsogolo Foundation objectives which are:

• To promote social and economic lives of the community through Agriculture and technical knowledge.
• To develop the lives of less fortunate
• To promote educational culture and technology.

There will be an improved knowledge on modern practices among the community which will improve them socially and economically. This will also help them to be making better decisions for themselves and their families.

This will benefit the vulnerable women (including widows and elderly), the children and the youth.

The Foundation will be working with the participants starting with small groups at local level, all the way to national level in collaboration with the

Local Level Project Management structures such as the Village
Development Committees (VDC), Government Departments and any other organisation which comes across.

Number of businesses initiatives - Improved knowledge

Number of products on the markets - Locally produced goods and services

Reduced number of maternal deaths - Reduction of maternal deaths

The involvement of culture in the solution makes it unique because it is a new innovation around used as a participatory and prosperity strategy in economic world.

Technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods and processes used in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation, therefore this solution will use the art and skills to accomplish the existing problems in line with the Foundations objectives.

Tsogolo Foundation solution is unique as it uses basic and locally found materials. The group of women in baking, use locally made ovens which are built with bricks by the women themselves.

Tsogolo Foundation is working with vulnerable people through coordinating and facilitating primary health care services, food security and socioeconomic empowerment. That is why we are established in the rural area so that we listen and discuss their problems so that we share hope with communities, uplift their lives and give a hand where government cannot reach. Tsogolo believes that the quality of our organization lies in the wide spectrum of passion, determination, understanding and selflessness to touch someone’s life.

The technology meets the values as it is measurable, has time frame, includes monitoring and evaluation to improve wherever necessary.

The solution will be deployed by continuing working hand in hand with the local Village Development Committees (VDC) alongside their own established local level project management structures and the government departments and other stakeholders.

The solution will be affordable by continuing using local, user friendly (materials which are not health hazardous)  and reasonable materials in the rural setting, so that participants could easily acquire them.

It will be accessible by coding some information and put it in the resource centre, by using drama, film shows, poems to disseminate the information to the targeted population.

To come up with questionnaires and community participatory approach to be administered in the targeted areas, especially using in-depth interviews to get feedback on the solution offered. Seeking sponsorship from well wishers and other organisations willing to partner with Tsogolo Foundation in the first year.

In the following years Tsogolo Foundation participants would be continuing involved in fundraising  by showcasing the products they shall come up with after gaining some knowledge.

The participants will also continue with production of goods in large quantities after graduating from the pilot phase and identify markets for the products that would be produced.

Lack of material and financial resources for training the communities different skills and lack of human resources.

There is a very big response to the activities on the ground, which is evident enough from the outcome.  The participants available now started as a pilot project and so many people are asking that their villages should also have the same activities, but the organization cannot accommodate them due to the insufficient resources. They feel their social-lives could be improved for the better after joining the groups and contribute towards the proposed activities.

https://web.facebook.com/Tsogolo-Foundation-1861290480865076/

Tsogolo Foundation expects Solve to be highlight and put it the limelight so that some organisations and individuals would appreciate what the Foundation is doing and may want to partner and work together from the piloting stage through implementation.

Tsogolo foundation hope to achieve through facilitating and and implementing the social economic problems by working hand in hand with the stakeholders and Government entities.

The Zomba District council and the grass root structures like Area Development committee A.D.C, Village Development Committees  V.D.C. other Community Based Organisations (CBOs) with similar objectives and strategies.

Some of the existing CBOs with passion to serve the communty needs.