Her name is Agness David Daudi, a member of ‘Vijana tusonge mbele’ (Youths, let’s press on) YSLA group in Kilombero and a secondary school student drop-out. She lives in a family with parents who could afford private school fees and so she had to remain at home after the incidence. During 2022, in a community mobilization meeting held at Ifakara, their guardian, Mr Mosha (teacher at Kilombero Secondary School) informed 40 of these socially excluded adolescents including Agness about CARE’s Penny to Power, UCHUMI agribusiness opportunity. Mr Mosha, went further and sponsored group of 15 youths who were thrilled about the opportunity and wanted skills for employment training but could not afford the training fees. To those he paid Tshs. 150,000 (US$ 65) equivalent to Tshs. 10,000 per participant for poultry training short course.

“I accidentally got pregnant while at school and this experience ruined my future because I was discontinued from studying” says Agness. “I want to thank CARE International for bringing to us this training and space for practical learning, it is an opportunity for us to grow our businesses and change behavior” she adds. She is one among 40 marginalized youths faced by persistent challenges of either early pregnancies, lack of money to pay school fees and/or community stereotyping against, especially, girl-child and young women.

Agness and her ‘Vijana tusonge mbele’ group have committed to grow poultry business and help other disadvantaged youths to thrive. In her group of 15 youths, majority young girls who came together for skills building through P2P training, they aspire to grow as business giants. She has dreams for her future and that of the community as she asserts “Through this opportunity, first I want to improve my own life by applying the skills gathered from the training to grow. I want to become a giant poultry farmer by starting small but professionally as we did here in this practical unit.” She proceeds to say, “I also want to spread this knowledge to my community about the skills found through UCHUMI project. I wish to help others to commercialize poultry farming for income generation because traditional farming does not benefit us like this one. So first, I have changed my own life and second, I will be an ambassador of change in the community in how they can as well do to transform their lives. Agness concludes with the project slogan saying “Kijana, Weka akiba, Inua Uchumi kidigitali” meaning “Youth! Save and improve the earnings digitally”.