Our local staff in Africa help families develop a shared vision for their home. Women in particular are supported to raise their aspirations beyond subsistence farming. We help husbands and wives work out how best to share the workload and decision-making to achieve their vision. Families become more harmonious and prosperous, and children grow up happier, better educated and with wider horizons.
In three out of four households, women and men are now equal partners in making decisions about how to use the family's land, and how to share the workloads.*
We help farmers understand and map out the resources available to them within their community. Then we teach them the organic agricultural principles and skills they need to integrate these into a sustainable, biodiverse farm – without expensive artificial fertilisers or GM seeds.
Techniques such as water harvesting, composting, vegetable growing, tree planting and animal husbandry are easily adaptable to each farmer’s own land and needs. As farmers start producing enough food to feed their families and sell a surplus, their confidence and self-esteem are boosted.
Once families are eating well and earning enough to send their children to school, we encourage them to think bigger. They learn money management and enterprise skills so they can access savings and credit services. They discover how best to add value to their produce, and how to store it.
They even group together into cooperatives, allowing access to more training, better infrastructure, and more reliable markets. They become resilient entrepreneurs, capable of making choices and in charge of their own futures.
