YSEALI Grow

While sustainable farm tourism and agricultural livelihood are not usually synonymous with peace-building initiatives, AGREA and the U.S. Embassy are implementing a program that is effectively weaving those three themes: YSEALI GROW.

Now in its third year, YSEALI GROW is a week-long leadership/agri-preneurship training that has enabled a total of 68 young leaders from Mindanao (18-25 years old) to recognize their potential.

This Mindanao Youth-focused workshop is sponsored by the U.S. Embassy Manila and administered by AGREA.

Within the framework of Haraya Manawari, “Dream and Make It Happen,” YSEALI GROW empowers out-of-school youth, young women, and representatives from Muslim and indigenous peoples to uplift their communities through agriculture.

Like its previous YSEALI GROW iterations, participating youth leaders also implement agri-projects in their own communities in Mindanao.

Watch the highlights of YSEALI Grow 1.0 and 2.0 here:

Watch what happened in YSEALI Grow 1.0 last year in the video below.

"Dream Awake, Cultivate"

YSEALI Grow gathered 30 youth leaders 6 USG alumni mentors from Lanao del Sur, North Cotabato, and Bukidnon.

YSEALI Grow’s framework is “Haraya Manawari,” meaning “To dream and to make it happen”. After the training and with seed money from the program, the YSEALI Grow youth leaders implemented 6 agri-projects in their own communities in Mindanao.

Background
Due to successful prior projects by USG alumni in otherwise hard-to-reach communities in Mindanao, we have an unusual opportunity to engage youth in these conflict-affected areas from a position of trust. This workshop is focused on youth aged 18-25 years old from Mindanao, particularly out-of-school youth (OSY) from Muslim and indigenous peoples (IP) communities.

Out-of-School Youth are often marginalized populations, yet in many rural communities these populations outnumber the in-school youth populations. These youths are untapped resources who, when encouraged to dream and actualize those dreams, can make a real difference in their communities.

The program leveraged the expertise of Filipino USG alumni in agriculture, development, interfaith dialogue, Muslim culture, and indigenous peoples.

YSEALI Grow Overview

The workshop facilitates dream building and taking action sessions for the participants and assisted by carefully-selected USG alumni.

YSEALI Grow sessions cover these components:

Haraya: Dreaming awake

Journeying Within
Spiral of Life
Dream building

2. Manawari: Practical tools to cultivate your dreams

Leadership
Agriculture
Call to Action