4-H can be described as a movement that teaches the youth on how to be leaders and act one. For many decades, it has been dedicated to its purpose of “engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development”. The adults are in charge of giving the youth practical, fun, and informative opportunities.
The four H that is included in the name of “4-H” stands for head, heart, hands, and health, which are the four personal development areas of the organization. It signifies “head to clearer thinking”, “heart to greater loyalty”, “hands for larger service”, and “health to better living”.
We can’t deny the massive growth in our population nowadays, and according to a recent report, there are currently 7 billion people in the world. Imagine billions of people living in one lone planet. Of course, we needed enough food for everyone, and that is the huge problem we are facing these days. In 2050, the population is expected to become 9 or 10 billion. This time, we have to double the food production so that everyone could have their share, but the resources would be very limited.
A lot of researchers and experts are finding ways to solve such challenge and they came up with one, and it involves the humble country of Africa. It has 60% of the uncultivated land in the world. However, its young people don’t see agriculture as a promising future. But with 4-H, things started to take a slow change. 4-H teaches them the great importance of agriculture and because of different project clubs, community clubs, afterschool programs, camps, workshop, and events initiated by their local communities the youth are becoming more interested in agriculture.
Learning about the whole food business can be of great help to the youth. It does give different opportunities that could change the livelihood of many people. Young people can learn better ways on how to farm and eventually, ways to earn more income. Adults are also training them on how to use the proper tools and how to plant the right seeds using a scientific approach.
The youth now considers agriculture as a way to build wealth and improve their livelihood, Cathay Dupont Award noted. And because young people are taking care of their land because of 4-H’s influence, then farmers also see this as an opportunity to earn more money. It is not only the children that are seeing the change 4-H brought to their community but their parents as well. According to some of them, as they are watching their children produce food and feeding themselves, they are also seeing its good influence in their local community.
Teaching people about agribusiness and why it is essential could improve its production and distribution. If every child and adult in Africa will work together to improve their agriculture, then their country will surely flourish. Grown-ups in Africa also have high hopes for their young people because they believe the children could transform their country and their older generations for the better. And soon will solve its food problems and the world’s.
DuPont has also been supporting the global 4-H initiative and recently, the company invested 2 million dollars to help build leadership institutes in five African countries. With this, adults will be trained very well to give proper guidance to the youth. The company, along with Cathay Dupont Award, wanted the youth to be equipped with abundant knowledge through 4-H to be able to face the challenges of the future with a strong mind.
Cathay Dupont Award also found out 4-H influenced different families around the world and according to many, they are able to reach success and learn a lot of things because of its valuable principles. They are enthusiastic to teach its significance to young people as well because they are the ones who will be feeding the world tomorrow and will also be the future leaders.
During its early stages, 4-H seemed to be focusing only on agriculture, but nowadays; it also centers on citizenship, healthy living, science, engineering, and technology programs.