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After receiving a small loan of just 360birr (€14) from a local savings and credit cooperative, Meskerem Niname, resident of Buie in Ethiopia, has turned her fortunes around by plying her trade and becoming a successful entrepreneur. The loan allowed her to establish a textile shop from which she produces and sells garments for men and women as well as various other household items including bed sheets and pillow cases.

Shortage of improved seed is a major bottleneck for agriculture in Ethiopia. We have been working on improved seed production in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region. Better known as SNNPR, it is a huge region with an estimated 14 million people, the vast majority of whom are smallholder farmers.

On March 3rd Broadway for Self Help Africa will bring together some of Broadway’s biggest stars for a night of song and celebration benefiting Self Help Africa Inc. at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City.

Christine Mwale predicts that the income of women in her village can double when they become full-time suppliers to the new Banana Enterprise Project being supported by Self Help Africa in Nyimba, Zambia.

Established by Self Help Africa in collaboration with Nyimba District Farmers Association, the project will buy banana from 600 women farmers with small plantations in the area.

‘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.  

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.

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.