Harnessing Opportunities to Promote Entrepreneurship (HOPE)

The HOPE program in Liberia aims to:

• Empower 200 youth and young adult entrepreneurs with education on Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Training (culturally-relevant Business Planning & Entrepreneurship Skills, Financial Literacy, Internet, and Digital Literacy) to turn their small commercial activities into viable revenue generation for self-employment.
• Positively impact at least 5 members of each participants’ family’s livelihood and wellbeing, bringing benefits to an estimated 1,000 people across 55 communities.
• Provide ongoing support and mentorship through its program structures to remove barriers and strengthen positive coping mechanisms.
• Facilitate the sustainability of relevant skills by providing small seed grants with the expectation of investment return to facilitate skill development.
  
  

To date, 132 participants have enrolled in the program! The 42 graduates of Cohort 1 were school students of Voker Mission school, whose grant awards have facilitated the launch of their new businesses. All participants developed an initial business plan and are working towards displaying their businesses at the post-cohort trade fair during January. Loan amounts of US$400, with contracts stipulating a 50% repayment within 1 year, have been issued to the student entrepreneurs. Ongoing and wraparound support is available to the participants through their facilitators and the staff at the LLC.

Cohorts 2 and 3 are running concurrently, serving 90 participants who are community members with existing small businesses on which their families are reliant. Our 4th and final Cohort 4 will return to the focus on student participants and will consist of 66 participants.