Assistant de Programmes

Internship Project Description I: Youth Garden Entrepreneurs' Project

Intern Request: 2 to 3

Description:

NOVI is working with a local gardener, a Peace Corps Volunteer, and 10 high school students to turn a vacant lot into a vegetable garden. The students organized themselves in two groups of 5 to manage the garden. Each group is given a plot, gardening training, business tips, and all the tools they will need to grow their lot. Once the vegetables are ready, they will sell them in the market and use the proceeds to pay for their school fees, buy their school books, or reinvest it in a new garden.

We hope to expand the project and work with 30 to 60 kids a year. The project is an opportunity for them to learn the importance of gardening, the ABCs of entrepreneurship, team work, leadership, and healthy diet.

Responsibilities:

The interns will help the gardeners improve their garden techniques, research new garden practices on the web or through workshops. The interns will be in charge of initiating and implementing new beds and potential seeds that could increase nutrition and/or revenue. The interns have the flexibility to try new things or expand existing gardens. But they will first need to observe and learn the local dynamics, the cultural differences, the ABCs of tropical gardening, and the goals of each one of our young garden entrepreneurs. Before coming to Benin, the intern will research the farming practices of Benin, read the materials we will be sending out to all interns and volunteers, and start connecting with the participants in her/his project via skype and/or email.

Toward the end of the first 4 weeks of intense immersion in the Benin culture, NOVI, her/his project, the interns will begin designing a short initiative that they could implement within two or three weeks. The second 4 weeks, the interns will work on their own short projects while still assisting with the gardens and the training of the young entrepreneurs. The interns during these 4 weeks will have the opportunity to not just assist with existing projects but to design something on their own and with the help of our local staff, the students, and other leaders in the community, be able to implement it.

Internship Project Description II: Marketing and Communication Strategy for NOVI's Village of Artisanship and Innovation

Intern Request: 1 to 2

Description:

The Village of Artisanship and Innovation is a center for NOVI's artisans from Togo and Benin. It is a space where artisans come together to share knowledge and best practices. The village hosts 5 artisan workshops and an exhibition center. The artisans of the village make everything from hand-woven table linen, handmade eco jeans, hand woven fashion accessories, wooden sculptures, natural shea butter soaps, toys made from recycled materials, vegetable garden, household solar energy generators, etc.

The center also hosts training and workshops on sustainable design, renewable energy, healthy food, green living, gender equality, financial literacy, and cooperative life.

Responsibilities:

The interns will focus on gathering information and designing a marketing and communication strategy for our newly launched Artisanship and Innovation Village in Savalou, central Benin. The interns will organize brainstorming sections to discuss the vision of the village together with the staff, the artisans, and selected potential customers. From the multiple brainstorming sections, the interns will have a deeper understanding of what each stakeholder envisions for the center and how the center can better reach and attract customers. The interns will then spend 2 to 3 weeks with the artisans helping out with various tasks while interviewing them on their work, their stories, and their aspiration. The interns will also take pictures of the village's products, the artisans at work, and the landscape surrounding the area. Those interviews and marketing materials will be the lenses through which they will be able to see the direction our marketing efforts should take for the coming years. They will then spend the second 4 week or the second half of the second 4 week, developing the marketing and external communication plan. After approval of the marketing plan, the interns will initiate the implementation in collaboration with our local staff.

Internship Project Description III: Cooperative development and Moringa Packaging and Marketing

Intern Request: 1 to 2

Description:

NOVI is working with a Moringa Producers' Cooperative (Groupement Nagbemandon) in Savalou (a village in central Benin) to help them produce, process, and commercialize Moringa powder and leaf. We hope to bring their products to the international market by July 2013.

To learn more about moringa, please visit www.noviafrica.com

Responsibilities:

The intern(s) will be in charge of designing and implementing a Moringa branding strategy, product diversification plan, packaging, and distribution channels. This work will be done in collaboration with the producer's cooperative. Before traveling to Benin, the intern(s) will need to learn about Moringa and its nutritional facts. It will also be advantageous to learn all about West African Moringa movement and its impact on health and nutrition in Africa.

The intern(s) will work closely with Hervé Binazon to strengthen the cooperative; organize cooperative development workshops, empowerment training for the women in the cooperative.

Internship Project Description IV: Young Entrepreneurs Training Program

Intern Request: 1

Description:

Through the Young Entrepreneurs Training project we work with selected high school students who are the top of their classes. We are running a pilot project where we selected 21 11th grade students from 2 schools and put them in teams of three (7 teams). In each team there is a student who is good at biology-chemistry, a student who is good at mathematics-physics, and a student who is good at creative writing-economics. We train them for 3 months and give them seed money ($100-$200) to invest in a lemonade stand, a cocoa store, a small garden, etc. Each one of them will have to repay the capital within a deadline. It is only after successful completion of their project that they will receive a certificate of entrepreneurship from NOVI. They will then be ready to make money for themselves, their families, and their village. We hope to supervise and coach them in their trade for a period of 2 years. We aim to turn them into social change leaders.

Responsibilities:

The intern will be in charge of expanding the Young Entrepreneurs Training project. We started with 25 youth in 2012 and we hope to grow the program and train about 60 kids this year. The intern will work on improving the program and help us develop an expansion plan for the coming years. We hope to also put her/him in charge of the design and innovation section of our training so that she/he can experience first-hand the difficulty our kids have to creatively think because of fear and the academic system. The intern will be part of our fundraising team to help develop a strategy to increase funding for the expansion of the program.

Our internship provide a life-changing experience for those who volunteer abroad by triggering a life-long journey to promote cultural diversity, foster understanding, and confront national and international social inequities in order to bring together a society that is growing apart.