The Socio-Economic Awareness Program is the new program developed by Junior Achievement Mascareignes. Its aim is at making young adults, living in “Pockets of Poverty”, of the island become aware of opportunities existing in their community in order to ensure their economic sustainability.

The program was implemented on a pilot basis with the beneficiaries of the OLEA Project, a social support project for 50 families in the Moka region. Most of them come from the region of Alma and Vuillemin. These are areas of Mauritius where many people are unemployed, low skilled and live in difficult conditions. Unfortunately, many of them expect the authorities to provide them with the means so they may get out of their present situation.

JA Mascareignes seeks to address this issue by making them aware of the opportunities which are available to them. Socio-Economic Awareness Program is as a wakeup call to get them to take their future in their own hands and to stop being a spectator in their own  life.

For Mrs Pierette Fineau, a beneficiary of the OLEA Project, this had the positive expected impact. “It made me realise that I had been complacent in the past. I was waiting for someone else to get me out of my situation but realized that I was the one who had to make the first step. JA Mascareignes Socio-Economic Awareness Program, provided me with the necessary knowledge and made me understand that I had the tools to extricate myself from my present condition and move up the economic ladder”.

The new Program has done a lot to motivate Mrs Fineau and to give her back the self-confidence that she had lost. “I feel ready now to face the difficulties of having my own business. I learnt, for example, about financial management both as an individual and as a business. I know that I can do it now”.

She used to have her own business, rearing poultry and selling vegetables, but stopped due to various difficulties. “I have now started a rabbit and poultry rearing business. The….