Future prospects through horticulture

Impressive report provides insights into the project in The Gambia / Mentoring program starts in February

Shortly before worldwide travel came to a standstill due to the Corona pandemic,the presenter, journalist and author Jens Haentzschel had the opportunity to visit the project “Career Prospects for Returnees” in Ballingho, Gambia, and to get to know the people on site. He wrote an impressive report about his visit, which was published as an article in the magazine DEGA Gartenbau at the beginning of this year. You can find the article further down on this page. Please note that it has been published only in German.

In the report, Jens Haentzschel gives exciting insights into camp life and describes why horticulture gives young people the chance of a better life. He also reports on the business courses prepared by Lufthansa management trainees in Germany and then taught at the camp. However, due to the Corona pandemic, this aspect of the program had to be stopped for the time being and the trainees with whom the author was in Ballingho were the last ones to bring the prepared contents closer to the Gambian students on site.

However, since the curriculum has planned further entrepreneurship modules, another solution had to be found. Without further ado and with the great commitment of project manager Edith Lanfer and the support of other Lufthansa Group trainees and colleagues, the remaining modules were prepared in a very detailed and creative way allowing that local teachers could teach the contents. In the meantime, almost all entrepreneurship modules have been taught and the students of the first year are on the home stretch of their training. In order to support them in this transitional phase and in their first steps into professional life, help alliance is currently developing a mentoring program. Since November of last year, twenty dedicated colleagues of the Lufthansa Group have been preparing for this unique task, because it is not only the communication, which will take place exclusively digitally, that will challenge the participants in the run of the program. The mentoring program will be launched in February.

Please note that the article “Gartenbau als Zukunftsprojekt” has been published only in German and that the following sources apply: