WORK
INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES
A wide variety of programs and strategies are employed in order to empower the poor and eradicate poverty from their lives and their villages. We support democracy in our relationship to the poor by treating everyone equally. This especially includes respecting women's rights and involving them in the process and working with local people and institutions in this commitment to poverty eradication.
Economic opportunities typically target women in the household to allow them to earn additional income to support her family, particularly if they are the head of the household. Each opportunity is determined by the family depending on their existing skills and interests. A very popular activity is raising livestock. We provide cows, goats, chickens and/or ducks for families to raise at their homestead. They grow and can reproduce quickly, generating income for the family within months. Other opportunities are in the form of a small business nearby or a cottage industry in their home such as sewing. Groups of women work together often, combining their skills to produce enough inventory to be financially successful. Examples of these industries are making quilts, mosquito nets and bedding.
Other types of economic opportunities include:
Forestation programs, including the planting and caring for a plot of fruit or hard wood trees at their homestead or on the roadsides
Agriculture programs such as planting vegetables, fruit and other crops; creating fish ponds and fisheries; families keep some of what they grow and raise to consume and sell the rest at local markets
Women are taught to understand finance, learning how to grow their assets and how to save money. Once families show responsibility and success in acquiring and maintaining their assets, they have availability to small loans to grow their assets and speed up their uplift out of poverty.
Here are a few examples of what your donation can provide:
$ 5 can provide vegetable seeds for a family to grow a garden, providing nourishing food for the family and to sell locally
$25 small grant can purchase fabric for a woman to begin a tailoring business
$75 can purchase a pair of goats for the family to raise and sell for a profit, reinvesting in another asset for the family
$125 can purchase a sewing machine for a woman to begin earning a sustainable income for her family
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Addressed: Goal #1 - No Poverty; Goal #5 - Gender Equality; Goal #8 - Decent Work & Economic Growth; Goal #10 - Reduced Inequalities; Goal #17 - Partnerships for the Goals
Meet Sharmin
When we first visited Sharmin’s family, we learned that she could sew, but she couldn’t work in a garment factory because she had small children to care for at home. We purchased her a sewing machine for her hut. She can now stay home to care for her young children while providing an income for her family. We have provided hundreds of women with sewing machines to begin a cottage industry in their hut, like Sharmin, transforming their family for generations to come.
Sharmin is a success story.
“If you want to lift up humanity, empower women. It is the most comprehensive, pervasive, high-leverage investment you can make.” — Melinda Gates
