Spring Cultivate is Here
April 16, 2012 by Micah
Our spring Cultivate Magazine is here! Check out all the great stories here.
Category: Tanzania
Celebrate International Womans Day
March 8, 2012 by MicahRural women constitute one-fourth of the world’s population. They are leaders, decision-makers, producers, workers, entrepreneurs and service providers. Their contributions are vital to the well-being of families and communities, and of local and national economies.
Yet rural women’s rights, contributions and priorities have been largely overlooked. Rural women have also been hard hit by the economic and financial crisis, volatile food prices and export-driven agriculture. They need to be fully engaged in efforts to shape a response to these inter-connected crises and in decision-making at all levels.
Now Is the Time to Act
Rural women are key agents of change. Their leadership and participation are needed to shape responses to development challenges and recent crises.
Women are central to the development of rural areas: they account for a great proportion of the agricultural labour force, produce the majority of food grown, especially in subsistence farming, and perform most of the unpaid care work in rural areas. It is critical that their contributions be recognized and that their voices be heard in decision-making processes at all levels of governments, and within rural organizations.
Consider this story and learn how you can get involved today.
Here are a few photos from our Communications Director, Micah Albert, from over the last 5 years.
Kenya
South Sudan
DRC
Tanzania
South Sudan
Kenya
Bukavu, DRC
South Sudan
DRC
South Sudan
Global Data
70 percent of the developing world’s 1.4 billion extremely poor live in rural areas. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly one-third of these, while South Asia is now home to about half.
In 2010, 925 million people were chronically hungry, of whom 60 percent were women.
Agriculture provides a livelihood for 86 percent of rural women and men, and employment for about 1.3 billion smallholder farmers and landless workers, 43 percent of whom are women.
An estimated two-thirds of the 400 million poor livestock keepers worldwide are women.
The burden of unpaid care work is substantial. Globally there are 884 million people without safe drinking water, 1.6 billion people without reliable sources of energy, 1 billion people who lack access to roads, 2.6 billion people without satisfactory sanitation facilities, and 2.7 billion people who rely on open fires and traditional cooking stoves. Rural women carry most of the unpaid work burden due to lack of infrastructure and services.
In rural areas of the developing world, excluding China, 45 percent of women aged 20–24 were married or in union before the age of 18, compared to 22 percent of urban women.
Past Success, Future Hope
February 7, 2012 by Don
Has this ever happened to you? That moment when you pass someone or someplace and a flood of memories surfaces like a submarine bursting through the ocean ceiling. That happened to me recently as I was driving near Mwanza, Tanzania and felt compelled to pass by a village where I lived 16 years ago. During those days the plague of poverty and lack of ideas and opportunity brought over a dozen Tanzanians and myself to our knees to pray and then to our knees to work as we filled small plastic bags with soil and seeds. Together we prayed that the thousands of seeds we had planted would germinate to become small trees that would strengthen the environment and generate income for people who were suffering because of poverty.
Not only did those seeds germinate but so did many other ideas as like minded people came together to begin a new ministry called Empowering Lives International. Over 15 years have passed since that first project was initiated. As I drove by that same village recently I felt compelled to pass by the same compound that was once filled with trees and hopeful lives to see, if by chance or providence, I might meet someone I might remember.
Just pulling off the road at that point brought back many memories but I was not prepared for what I was about to see. First of all – the tree nursery that we began over fifteen years ago was still there - BUT - it was ten times larger than before! As I walked in among the neatly arranged rows of small trees, flowers, and colors, I approached a small group of women who were busily filling tubes with soil and chatting as they worked. I greeted each person one by one and felt that I recognized the last woman. I stared until I remembered who she was. A moment that took place 15 years ago came forward in my mind and I asked if she was the one. And she was.
Photo of the Day
February 2, 2012 by editor
Portrait of one of our successful chicken farmers in Tanzania. (photo: Micah Albert)
Cultivate Winter Issue has been Published
November 23, 2011 by Micah
Check your mailbox this week for our newest edition of Cultivate Magazine – it’s hot off the press. It’s full of great stories, images, writing, and great ways for you to get involved this holiday season and help those that ELI serves in Africa. Click here to see the magazine.
Photo of the Day
November 2, 2011 by Micah
Yamkindo and Issac Ruto feeding the fish ponds in Tanzania. Not only will these provide ideas for income for locals, but they also help repopulate the fish population in Lake Victoria and provide income generation for ELI as a whole. (photo: Micah Albert)
Photo of the Day
October 20, 2011 by Micah
Daily life on Lake Victoria, Tanzania. (Photo: Micah Albert)
Photo of the Day
October 7, 2011 by Micah
Even though lake Victoria is so readily available, most Tanzanian’s don’t have daily access to water. Farming is difficult – that is why ELI is empowering the small farmer in Tanzania with poultry training. (photo: Micah Albert)
