Although Anza founder Krupa Patel started life in Porthcawl, she was exposed to a world unfamiliar to her own from an early age.
Krupa said: “My mum persuaded my Dad to let her take all four of the kids to a rural community in India for a summer… we lived for the whole summer in this very, very basic mud road village. We didn’t do the typical tourist route and that was my first real encounter with poverty.”
Baffled by the inequality that existed between her and a young girl she befriended there, it was on this trip where the seed was planted which would later lead Krupa to start a charity called Anza in Tanzania.
In Tanzania unemployment among youth stands at over 50%, a worrying figure in itself, but one made even more so when you realise that the population of Tanzania is made up of 61.7% youth.
Krupa explains: “In rural areas of Tanzania many young people face the choice of leaving their families to go in search of opportunities in the city, or staying with little chance of earning an income.”
Anza has set about creating a programme that is working to; ‘Equip and empower young people with the skills, knowledge, mentorship and seed capital to enable them to start their own small scale agricultural projects and businesses’. They have done this with the support of a grant from Hub Cymru Africa which is funded by the Welsh Government.
Cat Jones, Head of Partnership at Hub Cymru Africa said: “Youth unemployment is a major issue in Tanzania, Anza’s project work is fighting this by creating sustainable long term employment opportunities.
“As part of the shared learning Anza are also working with a number of secondary schools in Cardiff to teach them about entrepreneurship, social businesses and economic development so they can develop their own skills as well as an understanding of how it can be used in countries like Tanzania.”
To date, 104 young people (32 in-school students and 72 out of school) have completed the two year training programme which covers team work, leadership, entrepreneurship and marketing.
The results? A total of 39 new businesses have been established, run by a combination of individuals and cooperatives, including two in-school businesses designed to provide an additional income for the school.
It is not just those who are a part of the programme who have benefited. Encouraged by their own success many of the entrepreneurs have started sharing their knowledge and skills with other young people in their community.
One of the young entrepreneurs called Rahema, who has created a sewing business said: “Now we have six students who we are training to become sewing experts and gain employment like us. The entrepreneurship training we [were] taught… is the first training we provide our students before starting actual sewing practice. I am happy to share my knowledge.”
