‘When I wake up I go to my fields,” says Barbara Chintino. “I have always been a farmer, and I always will’, says the 47 year old farm householder from Balaka district in southern Malawi.

Barbara and her husband Patrick are farmers with a difference.  Alongside growing cassava and maize on their small farm  at Chindikiti village, they produce pigeon pea seed, which they recently harvested and sold, earning 69,000 Malawi Kwacha (€120).

Alida and Lofta Zulu have been farming together since they were young women.

30 years on from the death of their father and the two sisters are still using the one-acre plot they inherited on the death of their father to earn a living for their families and themselves.

An enterprising peanut project is transforming the lives of close to 800 Ethiopian farm families, with producers earning a premium by trading not just their raw nut crop, but also processing and selling peanut butter to supermarkets in the region.

Just eighteen months after 770 farmers in districts of the East Haraghe region of Oromia province were enrolled and trained by Self Help Africa to participate in the pilot groundnut (peanut) project, they are seeing three and four-fold increases in their harvests of improved nut varieties.  

This Valentine’s Day, why not give that someone special a gift with a difference – by giving one of our ‘Bee Mine’ bee hives or ‘Give us a Peck’ pair of chicks, you can show your loved one how much you care as well as helping an African family to eat better and to make a living from their farming.

The United Nation’s International Women’s Day (IWD) takes place annually across the globe on March 8th, and at Self Help Africa it is an opportunity for us to both celebrate the successes, and highlight the challenges and obstacles that remain for millions of women in sub-Saharan Africa.

IWD is an occasion when women are recognized for their achievements. It’s a time also to highlight the struggles, and look ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women across the globe.

Profit earned from trading vegetables that she produced on her small farm has allowed widowed mum-of-four Shifine Mamo to send all of her children to school. And following the recent graduation of her son from technical college, she is determined that her other children will too finish their education.

It was a proud day for 45-year-old Dorothy Sijambo Habat when her daughter came home with a university diploma. Unable to finish high school herself Dorothy has made it her life’s work to ensure her children get the opportunity she missed out on.