HABESHA, Inc: Black to Our Roots, helping Africa by establishing schools

HABESHA, Inc. is a Pan-African organization that cultivates leadership in youth through practical experiences in cultural education, sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship, holistic health, and technology.  Official Website: Habeshainc.org

The Journey of Self-Discovery Has Begun Again…
Black To Our Roots.

Black To Our Roots is a year-long youth leadership and rites of passage program that promotes African cultural values through media production, community service, and fundraising. This program was specifically designed to reduce the negative impacts of poor education and community apathy that exists in so many urban environments. This year-long program provides youth with the tools to become active participants in the unity and development of in their local communities and the global African community. The program culminates in a 4-week travel study to Africa during the summer in which students apply their learning to community service projects, while exchanging ideas with African youth. Annually, for the past 8 years, HABESHA has facilitated the Black To Our Roots program, and has assisted over 60 youth in making this journey of self-discovery.

The mission Sustainable Seeds is to expose youth to interactive learning of mathematics, science, nutrition, and environmental sustainability through the design and maintenance of an urban organic garden. Sustainable Seeds is a curriculum that engages youth in interactive learning in the areas of mathematics, science, environment, and health and nutrition. It is a learning model created to increase academic achievement, while also exposing youth in the urban environment to agriculture and healthy living practices. Through activities centered on the maintenance of the garden, youth are taught about the process of food cultivation.

We are now recruiting for the 2016 HABESHA Works Program.  HABESHA Works is a green jobs training initiative that teaches basic skills in urban organic agriculture and agro-business development.  HABESHA Works promotes sustainable agriculture as a tool for economic development within communities lacking adequate job resources and those experiencing barriers to healthy, fresh, high quality foods.  The components of HABESHA Works focus on three primary objectives.  They are:

• Providing new skills and professional development training and education in sustainable agriculture to young adults.
• Developing a community-based approach to health disparities by training individuals to produce and distribute organically grown vegetables in the local urban environment.
• Establishing an economic development model that creates social entrepreneurship opportunities for participants to continue utilizing their training.

Since 2004, HABESHA has taken over 100 youth and adults to Ghana as a part of the Black To Our Roots program. During that time, a special relationship has grown between the village of Liati Wote in the Volta Region of Ghana near the Togo border. During our 10th Anniversary journey in 2014, the village leadership urged us to become more than visitors, but to be a part of the family and make a home for ourselves! We have accepted the challenge, and embarking to develop a research and training institute that will be a hub for the sharing of indigenous African knowledge around sustainable living.