Think Creative Fall 2024

building futures

While working as an extension agent to help Nigerian women get involved in agriculture, Rakiya Ali decided to start cultivating her own plot of land.

started a WhatsApp group to share informa tion about free classes, scholarships and other educational opportunities. “Starting a WhatsApp group may not seem like much, but the members who have joined have told me that they have benefited from various scholarships, calls for applications and free classes, such as free English courses,” Torres says. Creating online opportunities for youth to access information and participate in their communities makes them stronger, more engaged members of society. Engaging private sector partners to boost youth Rakiya Ali is an agronomist who rarely dirtied her hands. Instead, she focused on the scientif ic aspects of farming, seeds and other agricul tural inputs. It wasn’t until the 30-year-old had an opportu nity to provide hands-on technical support to women farmers in northern Nigeria that she decided to get her hands dirty. Literally. The USAID West Africa Trade & Investment Hub partnered with West African and U.S. companies to generate new private sector investment, create jobs, increase trade, protect natural resources and boost food security. The Trade Hub partnered with Ali’s employer, Premier Seeds, in Kaduna State, Nigeria, to boost women’s opportunities in agriculture, from the research lab to the fields to the market. The program needed women with technical expertise to engage other women in this conservative part of northern Nigeria and encourage them to try their hands at farming. Ali jumped at the opportunity. “You’d go to [women’s] houses, and their hus bands will tell you that a male cannot enter,” Ali says. “They call those houses ‘ bashiga .’ That loosely translates to mean ‘no entry.’ But as a woman, I can easily enter and interact freely with those women and try to pass the message and the knowledge of what the projects are about, what you’d like them to do and what the whole farming activity is about. The Trade Hub actually made that possible.” Working alongside scores of women tilling, planting and harvesting their small plots encouraged her to give farming a shot. “I loved what I saw,” she says. Following her own advice, Ali now cultivates

Creating opportunities online Youth are also mobilizing their peers and building opportunities and community in digital spaces. Twenty-year-old Leticia Torres is smart, speaks quickly and is naturally outgoing, which has led her to use these talents for social good. “Since I was very young, I have had this dream of getting involved in society, and that also implies being able to raise my voice for those who still cannot or perhaps could not do so,” says Torres, a Maya K’iche from an Indigenous community in Guatemala’s Western Highlands. Torres’ activism made it natural for her to join the Red de Voceros y Voceras Juveniles para la Paz (Youth Voices for Peace). With more than 225 members from 15 municipalities, the group receives training on conflict transforma tion, cyber-activism and the risks of irregular migration. With the support of USAID’s Tejiendo Paz (Peacebuilding Project)—which seeks local solutions to improve social cohesion, reduce conflict and address drivers of irregular migra tion— Voceros y Voceras Juveniles has sharp ened Torres’ advocacy skills and enabled her to become integrated into a larger network of like-minded youth who collaborate to contrib ute to society.

Youth activists Leticia Torres (left) and Cesar Morales are engaging their peers with support from USAID's Tejiendo Paz .

“I learned that I could express my vote, start motivating other young people to share their opinions and together we could start proposing solutions,” Torres says. “This has helped me a lot to support others in questioning the social reality and thinking about what we can propose or plan in society. I consider this a very import ant foundation for me to make an impact.” Voceros y Voceras Juveniles were trained to identify topics and work with local officials, such as addressing education in rural Guate mala, where school attendance and graduation levels are among the lowest in the country, particularly for Indigenous girls Torres and her chapter in San Andrés Sajcabajá

Photo by Jim Huylebroek (top); Benjamin Lezama (center)

18 | Think Creative | Fall 2024