Monsanto Provides Job Skills for Poor Teens in Honduras

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras, April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Children International, together with the Monsanto Fund, is helping impoverished youth in Honduras escape the trap of poverty.

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"We are thrilled about reaching out to help poor youth around the world become better educated and trained adults," said Deborah Patterson, President Monsanto Fund. "By providing youth with real marketable job skills, we create stronger, successful members of their community."

The Monsanto Fund has approved a major grant to provide job-skills training through Children International, a Kansas City-based humanitarian organization. The grant supports a 14-month program that provides teens with technical training they need to get decent jobs.  Impoverished youth from 17 to 21 years of age are eligible for the program.

According to the United Nations' World Youth Report 2007, employment and income levels for Latin American youth are at the lowest levels in 15 years. Without the grant, the youth accepted into the Children International, whose families live on less than $2 a day, would otherwise leave school and find work to help support their family to help alleviate the crushing blow of poverty.

Instead, with training in areas such as welding, electricity, refrigeration and industrial mechanics, the youth will also receive instruction on certain skills needed to find a job. Those skills include resume writing, job search and job interview techniques and how to dress and speak in the workplace.

The Monsanto Fund support for this program not only allows teens to acquire the technical skills they need to compete for the best jobs in a modern economy, it will also allow them to transition to adulthood with the potential to earn much more than their parents and at the same time, contribute to progress in their communities.  

Children International's President and CEO Jim Cook said, "Monsanto has proven its commitment to helping children, teens and their families living in poverty. Monsanto should be commended for helping youth become self-reliant adults."

About Monsanto Company:

The Monsanto Fund is the philanthropic arm of the Monsanto Company. Incorporated in 1964, the Fund's primary objective is to improve the lives of people by bridging the gap between their needs and their resources. The Monsanto Fund is focused on grant-making in three main areas: nutritional well-being through agriculture; science education, primarily on professional development for teachers; and improving the quality of life in communities where Monsanto employees live and work.  Visit the Monsanto Fund at http://www.monsantofund.org/asp/welcome.asp.

About Children International:

Established in 1936, Children International is a humanitarian organization with its headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. Children International's programs benefit more than 335,000 children and their families in 11 countries around the world including Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Zambia, Honduras, India, the Philippines and the United States. For more information about Children International or to sponsor a child, visit www.children.org.

SOURCE Children International