MANDEVILLE, MANCHESTER — Douglas Ragan, Unit Leader for Youth and Employment for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), has hailed as “visionary and far-reaching” the work of Manchester-based group Young Women of Purpose/Young Men of Purpose (YWOP/YMOP).

The youth group, which started as the community service project of former Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) festival queen for Manchester, Lanisia Rhoden, became the first Jamaican organisation to receive a UN-Habitat Urban Youth Fund Grant in 2012.

The funding enabled 50 young entrepreneurs in the parish to benefit from relevant training and following a competitive business pitch session, fourteen of the participants received a grant of US$500 each to assist in the growth of their start-ups.

Ragan, in an address to members of the group and partners at the Manchester Youth Information Centre at Brooks Park in Mandeville earlier this month, during an official visit to Jamaica, said that the efforts of YWOP/YMOP are commendable.

“One of the projects (that) we have been proud of is this project here. Specifically because of the impact, the professionalism (and) how it is being developed. It is very much focusing on this issue of entrepreneurship, which a lot of UN agencies and every level of government (have) been focusing on,” he said.

The United Nations representative who resides in Nairobi, Kenya, said that the other element of the entrepreneurship project that he found impressive was the social impact because the aim was not to create “jobs for jobs sake” but it is transforming communities.

Ragan said that he believes involving young people in entrepreneurship is a “super-charged” way to make an impact.

He noted that youth work and social entrepreneurship was a challenging path because it is ongoing.

“It’s a really tough road. It’s not 20 hours a week, it’s not 30 hours a week, not 40, 60, it’s your life…,” he said.

Shamoy Hajare, project manager of the UN-Habitat funded entrepreneurship project carried out by YWOP/YMOP said that being the first organisation in Jamaica to receive the fund has “opened the doors” for others to believe that they too can go that route.

She said one of the ways in which the success of the project has been measured is by the employment that the start-ups have been able to create.

Some of the participants, Hajare said, have already taken that path of being employers.

A leap for one of the 14 grantees, Javin Williams, is the chance to pitch his business idea at the United Nations headquarters in New York in July.

The Northern Caribbean University student started his herbal cosmetic company, Herboo Enterprise, making an organic two-in-one conditioner and shampoo from his home in Cedar Grove, Manchester, and has been gradually making strides.

He will be making the presentation at the Nexus Global Youth Summit, which is an opportunity to interact and network with global leaders including social entrepreneurs.

Williams qualified for the international opportunity through a successful pitch this month during the three-day Nexus Caribbean Youth Summit in Montego Bay; made possible by partners including the Sandals Foundation.