The long awaited day finally arrived and YPARD-Peru founding team welcomed fifty enthusiastic young people (students and professionals) most of them with a background in agricultural, social and political sciences. The first YPARD-Café took place in Lima, on the June 30th, closing the semester in the best way possible!
Seeking to interact with new Ypardians in Peru, we invited three social entrepreneurs committed to agricultural and rural development to talk about their experiences specifically how they are trying to involve more young people in agriculture.
A rural life is a richer one
In Pecha Kucha style (twenty images in twenty minutes), the social initiatives #Zoostener, #MakeSense, #CafeCompadre and of course our own team and organizers of the event, #YpardPerú, presented their challenges and hopes about the issue, as well as the actions they are taking related to the reducing amount of young people in rural areas of the country.
The event also served as a showcase for what YPARD is all about, both at the global level and in Peru, and it was the ideal opportunity to get more people to know about our two projects: “More young people for Agriculture” and “ Young people as agents of change” - both of which won a funding competition organized by the YPARD-LAC representative, hosted by CIAT, the international centre for tropical agriculture.
“When you think about it, we all have rural roots. So let’s continue celebrating that heritage #Agrodescendiente.” Those were the closing words of the event by Diego Valencia, leader of the strategic line of partnership building.
With that in mind, the fifty participants took their time to talk with the leaders of the community of young people for agricultural development in Peru. It felt incredible to feel their eagerness and interest to get to know and become involved in future activities along our strategic lines of work. The results of the event quickly became tangible: after only one week, the number of members of the facebook group doubled, from a hundred to almost two hundred. This is a testimony to the existing need for a group that strengthens and empowers youth in Peru.
Stay tuned for our next events. YPARD-Peru has only just begun!
Watch the YPARD Peru cafe video on YouTube