Seedlings 2008

In 2007, Banyan Tree launched Seedlings, a group wide initiative to support communities by building capacities of young people. A concerted effort to harness Banyan Tree’s core competencies to support enhanced long term prosperity within communities, Seedlings aims to guide youths at risk of societal exclusion to achieve what may have otherwise remained beyond their means. The effort starts with mentorship, continues with scholarship, and completes with internship as a means to provide young adults with the motivation and means to complete their education and successfully enter the labor force as adults.

In 2008, Seedlings completed its first full school year, and we took this time to carry out a review of the effectiveness of our efforts. Initial feedback from the participating youths included encouraging reviews such as “I feel livelier and hope to be a successful person”, “I want to be like my mentor, a successful person”, and “My mentor made me more enthusiastic about studying. I hope that my future will be better than before, so that I can make my parents happy”.
 

Key Results

In 2007, at the start of the Seedlings program we had enrolled a total of 21 students in 7 locations. In 2008 the program was expanded in include three additional students. Following is a breakdown of the intake into the Seedlings program for 2008.

The end result is that by the end of 2008, we had expanded Seedlings to include 24 youths across seven locations.