Junior Shapers Africa Empowers African Boys Through Agro-based Initiatives

Junior Shapers Africa, a non-profit social enterprise championing male child personal development in Ghana and Africa has launched its new program at The Tema Parents' Association School dubbed African Boys Leading Change Schools Challenge. Since its inception in 2015, JSA has been known for grooming and mentoring boys in Accra and some selected communities in Ghana through their structured flagship program known as Junior Boys Mentoring Clinic.

JBMC is very passionate about shaping the mindset, attitudes and values of the the 21st century African boy to take responsibility for his actions as the future head of his family, become gender sensitive ie treating women and children right and become the conscience of his community.

The vision of JSA is to see an Africa where every young man upholds high standards of integrity, has strong family values and responsible for himself and his community. Our foundations at JSA are firmly built on key values being Integrity, Foward Thinking, Sense of Ownership and Personal Growth.

WHY ABLC SCHOOLS CHALLENGE?
In an interview with Mrs Ethel Marfo the founder of Junior Shapers Africa she expressed concern about how Africa is under developed because of our compromised values and our theoretical approach to solving problems instead of adopting pragmactic and proactive solutions to move Africa to the next level. JSA is therefore introducing a hands on project that would energise young boys in Ghana and Africa to focus on providing solutions at the same time shape up their values in life.

According to Mrs Marfo, "the objective for ABLC is to challenge school boys to develop innovative ideas, projects and products with Agriculture in mind. Agriculture is the next gold mine for Africa and we seek to develop a high interest in agriculture in our young ones in support of our national initiative to plant for food, add value and build innovative businesses through Agropreneurship".

Mr. Kodwo Baidoo, a Faculty member and Coordinator of JSA Social Programmes, reiterated the novelty of the vision and objective of the program. "Our quest to nurture our children and their strive to stay upright and focused is squarely being competed with my the distractions of technology and thus leaving the boy child all by themselves throughout the vacation holidays is not helpful", he said in his interview.

With this ABLC program, our boys will think through their ideas, ask questions and look for answers, research and engage technical minds, write out reports, design and produce something tangible. This he believes, will keep our boys busy and free from the threats of social media and television.

JSA shall select a total of 5 public and private schools in Accra and Tema to participate in its first edition. There will be a special training session in schools to take the boys through the basics of Agropreneurship. The boys will then be supervised on how to present their project proposals and sample products which will be collected at their schools on 29th September 2017.

A technical jury will be responsible for selecting the 10 most innovative Agropreneurship Projects Proposals. Shortlisted boys will be given the opportunity to publicly present their project at the ABLC Awards on 1st November 2018. The Junior Agropreneur of the year will be handsomely rewarded and encouraged to build on his project through relevant mentorship and exposure. The other winners will also be rewarded by our partners and motivated to build on their projects.

HOW WOULD OUR BOYS BENEFIT FROM ABLC?
JSA is highly passionate about the personal development of our boys and we believe The ABLC Program is relevant in teaching our future men to appreciate agriculture as the next big thing and therefore the need to place a higher value on it in order to transition Ghana from our long standing position as a developing economy to a high value economy with high standards of integrity through Agriculture. The ABLC program seeks to unearth and develop, Agropreneurship skills and essential values.

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