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“In
the last 50 years, over $600 billion has
officially been spent by the developed world,
providing aid to Africa.
Yet, poverty levels today are still
staggering. It is time for a new approach - a
private-sector led, job creation-focused,
economic development activities. Africa does not
need a hand out, she needs a hand up.”
-
Eugene Nzeribe, CEO
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ICA
Program
Our
program is simple and not complicated. It is a Micro
Enterprise Development system designed to
assist bright micro entrepreneurs to grow their
ventures and create jobs for the currently great
numbers of unemployed people and
thereby helping to reduce
extreme poverty. Our Entrepreneur
Assistance for Jobs Creation (EAJC) ) program,
is the principal tool by which
ICA is delivering this poverty alleviation
service. The program will make it possible for massive
numbers of people,
whose economic potentials are currently being
under-utilized, to have jobs and contribute their
individual capacities to their local economies.
Our
current mandate, is
to identify and assist the hundreds of
thousands of promising grassroots African
entrepreneurs with drive and passion, to grow
their small business ventures to success. ICA will assist these
entrepreneurs with all the necessary business management
and growth services
so that they can expand and begin to hire more workers.
In the years between 2008 & 2013, we
estimate that our EAJC program will, at
the least, assist 200,000
micro-enterprises and create 3,000,000 direct
and indirect new jobs, effectively moving 10
million people above the poverty line.
(Note that over 500 million people in
Africa are today (2008), living below the
poverty line of $1/day. A lot needs to be done
by ICA and stakeholders, governments and other NGOs to help achieve the
continent's millennium development goal by
2015.)
How
can ICA's EAJC Program achieve this?
By mobilizing all the "little engines"
of promising and capable local entrepreneurs
into a large force, to drive the economy of the
region (as China and India has done), towards sustained
economic development. ICA's role is to provide
the coaching and the resources needed by small & micro enterprises to grow and
generate the required jobs for the masses,
through several complementary projects.
Projects to support EAJC
Program are based on current needs on the
ground in several African communities. They
will continue to evolve as conditions
change.
(see
our projects page)
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Small
& Micro-business
support
Our
primary area of service is
focused on how to reduce poverty on the continent
through the creation of massive numbers of jobs.
We will do this by providing the necessary support
to the hundreds of thousands of promising but
financially
handicapped micro entrepreneurs and farmers, so that
they can expand their small & micro businesses, create new jobs and hire more
workers.
We assist these entrepreneurs with coaching, business support,
product & market development and micro
financing.
Skills
Training
For
unemployed and unskilled individuals, we will provide skills training to
enable them find jobs in enterprises.
"Most working
families earning
reasonable wages, will move out of poverty; and take care
of their children's needs in food, housing,
clothing, education, etc."
Other
charitable services
During
the cause of working with entrepreneurs to create
jobs, we also run into other areas of human needs
which we cannot overlook. Outside of our core
program, ICA devotes 10% of it's resources
to services that impacts on the "improvement
of the human condition" in general.
It could be: community water projects; disaster
relief; HIV Aids support; school feeding programs;
computers for schools; books & community
library projects; literacy programs; community
health & nutrition; orphanage care; housing
for the poor, etc.
If you would like to donate to
our general fund for the improvement of human
condition or would like to receive assistance in
this area, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Write to admin@icafrica.com
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For
more information, please write to:
The Director
ICA - International Charity for Africa
P, O, Box 26012
Ottawa, ON
Canada K2H 9R6
email: admin@icafrica.com |
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