Mr Jacky Foo of Stockholm, Sweden, has won the
Grand Prize of the Africa Rural Connect (ARC) four-month online contest with his commercial rabbit farming idea, the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) has announced.
All round winners of the, including runners-up, competed for the grand prize this month where a panel of judges selected the best idea and Mr Foo will receive $20,000 to implement his plan.
Mr Foo's idea, called the Ndekero Challenge, is to develop a community rabbit-keeping system that can work in partnership with a rabbit
agri-business farm.
He will implement the project in the small town of Ndekero in Meru, Kenya, through Globtree in Sweden, where Mr Foo is a program officer for
environment and sustainable development.
A rabbit farm will be established at the 30-acre farm of the Nazareth Sisters to produce 100 kg of rabbit meat every month. Mr Foo will provide part-time, income-generating jobs to several parents in the community so their children can continue going to school instead of dropping out to help the family earn money to cover basic necessities.
"Our judges spent several days deliberating on the final ideas to ultimately select the $20,000 grand prize winner," says Molly Mattessich, manager of Africa Rural Connect and a former Mali Peace Corps Volunteer.
He said Mr Foo's winning idea would serve to inspire others to develop effective and innovative ways to help remedy the continent's agricultural issues from the ground up.
NPCA launched ARC this summer as an online community that fosters collaborative thinking to generate ideas to help solve rural Africa's
greatest challenges.
"I was impressed with the range of ideas that made it to the final round," said Carol Bellamy, president and CEO of World Learning and one of
the four judges on the panel.
The other judges on the panel were Wilber James, managing general partner of Rockport Capital, Angelique Kidjo, a singer, songwriter, UNICEF goodwill ambassador and founder of the Batonga Foundation and Bruce
McNamer, president and CEO of TechnoServe.
NPCA is a non-profit organization connecting, informing and engaging returned Peace Corps Volunteers, former Peace Corps staff and friends of Peace Corps committed to fostering peace through service, education and advocacy.