IN a bid to create agricultural resilience, Serengeti Breweries Limited (SBL) has opened a new scholarship window to assist children from low-income families with their college education.
The agro-industry scholarship programme is commonly referred to as ‘Kilimo-Viwanda Scholarship Programme’.
It offers scholarships each year to students studying agriculture-related courses at local colleges, covering the entire tuition fee for the duration of the student’s studies.
Through the new window, SBL has reiterated its commitment to provide employment opportunities to successful young farmers after they graduate.
The SBL Managing Director, Mr Mark Ocitti, had this to say; “for years, Kilimo Viwanda has been amongst our pinnacles in creating resilience in the agricultural sector by helping young experts in technical education of crops such as barley, sorghum, and maize, which are used for beer making. We are proud to announce that the program has been successful in helping over 200 students.”
Some of them have joined us as interns in our brewery in Dar es Salaam and some will be joining us elsewhere in later days. We want to ensure our programme has a long-lasting impact on these young farmers through the employment opportunities we offer.
Hillary Gilbert and Winnie Mollel, who joined as interns at the Dar brewery attested their experiences.
“It is a dream come true to join SBL internship programme, I have come a long way to get here, thanks to Kilimo Viwanda scholarship. I won’t let anyone one, I will do my best every day to make this great company bigger,” Mollel said.
According to SBL, the scholarship supports young farmers through training by developing their agricultural practice on and off the field. SBL selects beneficiaries of the programme based on their underprivileged backgrounds and those originating from societies that supplies them with local raw materials.
Four colleges benefiting from this program are Kaole Wazazi College of Agriculture in Bagamoyo, Kilacha Agriculture and Livestock Training Center (KALTC)in Moshi, Igabiro Institute of Agriculture in Bukoba; and St. Maria Goretti Agriculture Training Institute in Iringa.
