March 3, 2015
Meet Ines Sagui from Las Quebradas, Guatemala

Ines Sagui is an 18 year old who lives in Las Quebradas, Guatemala.

Despite her parents efforts to earn an income through day labor and domestic work, the family didn’t eat every day. “When there was no food,” Ines says, “we just had to get through the day without it.”

When World Renew’s partner ADIP offered training in their village, both Ines and her father got involved. Her father learned to grow crops successfully on the family’s sloped land. Ines joined him, and in 2013 she was elected as a promoter for health, nutrition, and home gardening in Las Quebradas.

Realizing that their situation was better, and that she could contribute from the stipend she received as a promoter, Ines told her father her dream: she wanted to complete middle school. Her father agreed, and in 2014 Ines completed 9th grade and received her diploma.

“Without going through the process of learning to support ourselves—from learning about the soil, to agricultural techniques, to marketing—it would not have been possible for me to study,” Ines said. “My dream came true” (click to tweet!).
 

March 4, 2015
Meet Janet Ekau from Acalmir, Uganda

Janet Ekau and her husband David are members of the Abilemeleku farmer’s group in northern Uganda. They resettled there in 2010 after being routed from their home by LRA rebel violence and living in a displacement camp.

A World Renew partner in Uganda with support from the Foods Resource Bank, provided the Ekatus and other displaced families with a goat to help them get restarted in their new location. 

From that one goat, Janet has raised six additional goats and invested the profit in purchasing two cows. By attending agriculture training classes, Janet and David have also started to cultivate a highly sought-after variety of bananas that they will be able to harvest ten times in the next two years. She earned 50,000 Kshillings ($20 US) by selling just two bunches of bananas.

Janet recognizes that, after years of depending on hand outs in a displacement camp, the opportunity she got to earn her own living again was life changing. “I have come to believe that it is better to get a hook then it is to be handed a fish,” she says. “If we had continued to get relief, we would have remained dependent. Instead, we have worked to transform our own lives” (click to tweet!). Janet is a woman who made it happen.
 

March 5, 2015
Meet Soam Si from Cambodia

Today’s woman who Made It Happen is Soam Si (click to tweet!).

She is a 48-year-old mother of two in Cambodia who is raising chickens to supplement her family’s income in subsistence rice farming. Soam Si received a loan from a World Renew partner to buy baby chicks and build a coop.

As a result, their income has improved as has the family’s health. Soam Si is also using their chicken’s manure to fertilize her home garden where she grows cucumbers, beans, lemon grass, and herbs. Now her family has enough food to eat year-round, and her husband no longer has to migrate to Phnom Phen for work in the dry season.

Soam Si is working on expanding the farm and has become a role model for other women in her community.

 

March 6, 2015
Meet Women Who Make It Happen in Kiganjo, Kenya

Today’s Women Who Make It Happen are expectant mothers who live in Kiganjo, Kenya.

Through their World Renew community group, these women meet quarterly with staff at their area health center for “A Friendly Cup of Tea.”

At the meetings, the women and staff discuss ways to improve pre-natal care and delivery services at the clinic. Their goal is to make the clinic’s services available to more women for safe deliveries, and to improve the clinic services.  

As a result of the Kiganjo group’s actions, the number of deliveries at their area health facility has increased and from an average of two births per month a year ago to 12 births per month today. These women are organizing themselves and using their voices (click to tweet!) to improve their health and save the lives of the women and babies in their community.

 

March 7, 2015
Meet Assetiou Kienou from Boura, West Africa

Assetiou Keinou is today’s woman who is Making It Happen. Five years ago, Keinou, a 53-year-old wife and mother of five, participated in a women’s microcredit program with World Renew and a local partner group.

Keinou was chosen to participate in the group as one of the poorest families in the village. The women began a savings group and started to make loans to eachother. With her loan money, Keinou began to raise and sell small animals. Eventually, the group became self-sufficient and no longer needed World Renew’s help.

“My group and I are still profiting from our microcredit fund,” Keinou said. “We do not receive assistance from World Renew or other agencies. We continue to grow our businesses using our own funds. I now own five goats and several chickens, and I make a profit from their sale.”

Keinou is still Making It Happen for her family, even after World Renew is gone, and that is a way to gauge success in community transformation. “Raising animals provides enough income for my family to prosper and be part of the economic system. As a woman living in a rural area, I am self-sufficient and respected by others (click to tweet!) in my community.”

You can support women like Assetiou Keinou through World Renew’s gender justice programs. Click the button below to learn more!

 

March 8, 2015
International Women's Day ~ Fama Fané Makes Her Dreams Happen

“When her father died, I had to take my daughter Fama out of school because I did not have enough money for tuition,” says Rokhyay Diop.

Fama Fané is an 18-year-old West African teen who is an example of Make It Happen, the theme of International Women’s Day (www.international womensday.com) in 2015. The day marks the economic, political, and social achievements of women around the world.  2015 is the 45th annual commemoration of the United Nations celebration of the achievements of women like Fama who help move our cultures and societies toward greater gender equality.

In most places the odds are stacked against young people from poor families, but they can begin make their hopes for the future come true with opportunities like World Renew’s adolescent health and rights program, in partnership with Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development,  in West Africa.

After her father passed away, Fama Fané stayed at home to help Rokhaya Diop with household chores and to make food to sell at the market. The family managed to survive from day to day this way for several years.

But Fama’s projected future was grim. As the illiterate daughter of an impoverished widow, the best she could hope for was to marry early—and pray that the arrangement improved her life. But, when she was about 14 years old, a peer educator from World Renew’s adolescent health and rights program visited Fama and Rokhaya.

When the educator invited Fama to join the program, Rokhaya gave her daughter permission to attend. One of the first topics that Fama discussed with other teens in her neighborhood group was their dreams for the future. Although she had no money or opportunity for training, Fama said she that wanted to be a seamstress. To Fama, it was an impossible dream—she had none of the resources to make it happen.

Fama attended her neighborhood youth group regularly for several years. She took advantage of the trainings the program offers in establishing healthy family and peer relationships, maintaining good hygiene, reproductive health, and avoiding risky behaviors and sexually transmitted infections.

“I’m proud of being part of the adolescent health and rights program,” Fama says. “It has provided me with training in many areas, and I am more responsible because of it.” Fama also joined a youth action group where she developed leadership and debate skills by organizing community activities about local social problems and issues. Through her efforts, she has also built up a good reputation and won the respect of the other youth in her neighborhood.

Last year, Fama was selected to participate in a new vocational education program where she is learning to sew. She is learning the skills of her trade—cutting, stitching, and pattern-making—as well as taking general classes such as French and physical education. Fama is taking an opportunity that World Renew offered her and making her dreams happen.

“When I complete vocational school, I will receive a diploma. Then I hope to open my own sewing shop so I can take care of myself and support my mother,” Fama says. “World Renew’s adolescent health and rights program is helping me realize my dream. I will try my hardest not only to succeed, but to make sure that other girls can also benefit.”

Rokhaya Diop is proud of Fama. “When the adolescent health and rights program chose Fama to participate in the vocational education program, it was a great relief to me,” she says. “She is working hard to profit from her training and learn a trade so that she can take care of herself and her future.”

On International Women’s Day 2015, World Renew celebrates Fama Fané (click to tweet!) and the many women like her who can Make It Happen because of opportunities such as World Renew’s adolescent health and rights program in West Africa.

There is much work to be done in gender equity, especially among poor communities where social, economic, and cultural pressures limit women’s opportunities. Two-thirds of the world’s poorest people are women and 75 percent of these women are, like Fama, illiterate. Without the opportunity to improve their lives the future for many includes violence, oppression, and trafficking.

You can support women like Fama Fané and her mother through World Renew’s gender justice programs. Click the link below to learn more!