A Pan-African non-for-profit organization has launched its “I Lift Africa” project in Liberia, with a commitment to cast out Africa’s curse of food insecurity.
Launched at the offices of the Center for Media Studies and Peace-building on Tuesday, May 25, 2020, which marked African Liberation Day, a representative of the NGO said the this is a pilot project for the entire African continent to wake up to the reality and drawback: its inability to feed itself forms the basis of its many problems.
According to “I Lift Africa’s” Chief Executive Officer, Jerry Topoe Boweh, he is tired of seeing African countries survive on hope, but never see such hope materialize into something greater in their pockets.
“I am tired seeing glimpses of freedom but never seeing that materialize in the act of unity, oneness for people’s progress and pride,” said Boweh. He continued that “hearing promises of Africa rising but not echoing this rise through our present situation and the future we envisage is something so sad that must change before it is too late”.
“I Lift Africa”, he announced at the launch, is in collaboration with philanthropies, individuals, partners, organizations, stakeholders and governments on the continent and outside to initiate a series of programs to end food poverty crises on the continent.
As part of the initiative, he noted that “I Lift Africa” intends to secure mass plots of land on which it shall build charity farms, a root project that would enable others strands on which holistic activities can be attached.
This will not only provide produced food that will be used for the most vulnerable, but will also, according to Boweh, help government to provide free school meals in every African country with a minimum of 10,000 acres of land.
“We believe this free school meal will encourage learning participation to advance the potentials of the youth and drive the right energy and impact for a better Africa,” Boweh stated.
“I Lift Africa” also plans to use extras from these farm sales on product shelves across the continent to eventually provide sustainable employment through the established process chain mechanism.
Boweh said the public private partnership with governments across Africa, especially Liberia, will help achieve such deliverables by targeting a minimum of 10,000 acresof land in each country, not just for farming but also for the provision of training and other skill development strategies.
Speaking on the sustainability of the project, he said, “Continued request for the same needs will not give us the dignity and progress we seek to have and maintain; therefore, we intend to sell a huge proportion of the products produced or manufactured to the markets and the outside world,” the Chief Executive Officer explained.
Boweh also disclosed that the organization has developed a series of programs that will involve the diaspora communities of African nationals and enhance the condition of the African Diaspora, while directly helping the Pan-African Diaspora Youth Organization (PADYCO).
“PADYCO will launch chains of groceries shops in various diaspora countries that would directly buy products and other produces on the African continent,” he said.
The “I Lift Africa” officially branded his organization as a bold vision step for a better Africa tomorrow, which targets a ten-year drive focusing on eliminating food poverty on the continent, beginning with Liberia.
Due to the inability of Africans to first feed themselves, he noted that millions across the continent are striving and working hard to get somewhere, yet see themselves in the same circles, “a pattern to waste our precious time, energy, money and resources”.
In his deliberation, Boweh cautioned Liberians to take the lead in seeing themselves weary of being driven like birds that are adapted to swim instead of flying or a fish adapted to fly instead of swimming, warning further that “Africans should follow their own culture dynamics and dimension, explore communitarianism, collectivism and advance ourselves and lives of our people now and always”.
The world, according to him, is looking down on Liberians and many African states because Africa is retrogressing to deeper insignificance, instead of achieving higher heights in positive retrospection.
Boweh concluded that he was in Liberia to celebrate African Liberation Day, to specifically appeal to all Liberians to embrace the idea of closing strangled holes and the pitfalls that constrain the people and the continent of Africa from achieving their potentials as a super continent or as “God’s great people who are determined to overcome the stigma cast on Africa as a food-poverty continent of the world”.