Ibrahim Siaka

Farmer

Bauya, Sierra Leone

Ibrahim Siaka, Bauya, Sierra Leone

Ibrahim Siaka was one of Just Hope’s first employees in 2012, when we first started working on a pineapple farm in Bauya. Sullay Turay, Liaison, calls him an “honest, hard worker and a fast learner,” and to that we would add a husband and father with a powerful desire to improve his family’s quality of life.

Working for Just Hope and earning a steady income was a new experience for Ibrahim, whose previous income was spotty and inconsistent as a mason for hire. An entrepreneur at heart, Ibrahim took some of his Just Hope income to buy a generator and a television, which he turned into a cottage business of phone charging and movie watching.

With the pineapple venture concluded, Ibrahim has been inspired to put his new knowledge to work for him, and has planted his own pineapple farm of 1,445 plants using techniques he learned from his employment with Just Hope. What’s remarkable about his farm, and speaks to Ibrahim’s strong entrepreneurial drive, is that he didn’t want to wait for the suckers from the Just Hope farm to mature to the point of replanting. So eager to begin his farm and get to work, he asked for the pineapple crowns from the spoiled fruit in the field that would have been allowed to rot otherwise. Knowing that the crowns take longer to mature into plants than suckers, he figured out that by the time the suckers matured, that the crowns would have just about caught up with them, and he would have that many more plants on their way to maturity.

In addition to the crowns already rooting in the ground, he is preparing land to receive suckers, when those are ready for replanting.

“My plan for my pineapple plantation is to be a major pineapple producer by planting more acres and to be able to meet the demands of the market,” said Ibrahim, whose wife, five children and extended family help him with his growing farm.

Current Programs

Business Building
Bauya, Sierra Leone

Most Recent Updates

September
26
2016

Business Ventures of Former Pineapple Crew Show Progress

  • Dauda Koroma in his three-acre palm farm
    Dauda Koroma in his three-acre palm farm
  • Abu Momodu’s cocoa plantation
  • Borbor Pessima with his goats
  • Fatoma N’denema's goats
  • Musa Macauley stands by one of his palm trees
On our recent leadership visit, we visited the farms of many of our former employees. See how they are doing...
June
27
2016

Preparing Land for Pineapple Suckers

Ibrahim Siaka, the farmer who showed enormous initiative by planting the crowns of the rotten pineapples from Just Hope’s harvest last year, is now preparing additional land to plant suckers he and the others will harvest from our original plants.  With raining season upon them, it is safe to transplant these now and in the next 15 months he should have a harvest.  
May
20
2016

New Agricultural Ventures Underway

Eight farmers we worked with on the pineapple farm are about to embark in new agricultural ventures. Musa Macauley, Abu Bangura, Dauda Koroma preparing fields waiting on rains to come and will soon plant the palm farms, and Abu Momodu has planted a coco farm, all with startup assistance from Just Hope. Joe Lassayo, Saidu Conteh, Ibrahim Siaka and Joseph Mboka have planted new pineapple farms.
November
18
2015

Pineapple Project Wraps Up, New Businesses Launch

With the culmination of a three-year pineapple farm project, we are excited to see what our friends in Bauya will do now. While our original goal of selling five acres of pineapples (about 90,000 fruits) was derailed by the nation’s year-long Ebola epidemic, dozens of local workers acquired valuable job skills while they were earning an income, but most importantly, they were inspired and enabled to envision possibilities for themselves. Former long-time employee Ibrahim Siaka has planted his own pineapple farm, using the discarded pineapple crowns and the knowledge he gained from working on the Just Hope pineapple farm to start a business for himself. Others, encouraged by earning a steady income, are entering into other ventures, such as goat farming. Our boots on the ground in Bauya, Sullay Turay and Joe Lassayo, have shifted from crew management to business mentoring, and we are excited to report that Sullay and Joe have purchased and delivered 17 goats (by motorbike!) to former employees. Follow these entrepreneurs as they start new businesses on our Business Building project page.

Give a hand up to someone like Ibrahim Siaka.

The hand up you provide could be the turning point for an individual who has expressed a genuine desire to improve his or her circumstances.