Having worked with the internally displaced persons in different local governments of Plateau State for over two years, The Platform Foundation in their quest to support the less privileged/ victims of crisis in the society came up with the IDPs Farming Initiative.

The goal of this Initiative was to’ teach them how to fish’, not just give them fish. It was a sustainability plan for these people whose sources of livelihood have been forcefully taken away from.

With agriculture being perceived as the next oil business in Nigeria, we decided to go into it with the hope that it would yield a good reward following our research.

We sought support from individuals to enable us to kick start. Although we could not support as many families as planned due to limited resources. However, we were able to support about 6 families with Irish potato seedlings, bags of fertilizers, a rented parcel of land, bags of animal manure, and a pumping machine for irrigation.

For the IDPs, this was a great and fulfilling opportunity for them being that they could not afford a piece of land, seedlings, or fertilizer to plant for themselves. They had to depend on their host communities for daily menial jobs in exchange for a meal per day or a token.

The Farming Initiative kicked off in October 2020 and planting in December. It takes about 3 to 4 months for Irish potato seedlings to mature.

It was with great joy and gratitude that the beneficiaries came together to harvest their crops in February 2021.

In our interview with them, they said they said they had a bumper harvest.  They all expressed their gratitude to God, The Platform Foundation, and everyone who supported them. They added that they will reserve some of their crops for rainy season planting.

One of the beneficiaries, a 16-year-old Magdalene, a secondary school student who is presently on our scholarship list, expressed her gratitude for being one of the people who benefitted from this project. She explained that this would go a long way in meeting her personal needs.

We at the Platform Foundation would like to thank all our donors and supporters. This was indeed a worthwhile event!

“Helping people who cannot help you back is the real help”.