Did you know that women in Tanzania make up the majority of the agricultural labour force, but are largely excluded from its profits? We are MikonoYetu - an organization implementing one of the only projects empowering rural women to own productive resources. Our BUILD program will enable 120 rural women to establish a small factory where they can process agriculture crops to sell their harvests and grow their incomes. The women are collecting stones - they need your support to BUILD upon it.
70% of Tanzania's population (55.57 million people) live in its rural areas. While agricultural opportunity abounds, poverty is a rural phenomenon which mainly impacts women. A majority of rural women are engaged in agricultural activities, but they lack small factories to process and add value to their harvests. Without these, they must sell their produce/crops on loan, trapping them in a cycle of debt, or watch the harvest waste, along with the money they would have made for their families.
The rural women who will benefit from the BUILD program are well on their way. They have been trained and certified on food processing techniques, and are organized as a group. Establishing a small factory will allow them to process and add value to their produce, like canning vegetables and drying fruits. In doing so, they will be able to sell their harvest at competitive prices with no fear of wastage, and in turn, their incomes will improve.
Women play a key role in food security in rural Tanzania. They are the backbone of the rural economy, as well as the cornerstone of their households, ensuring that children have school fees, the elderly are cared for, and the family has nutritious food on the table. Research shows that empowering and investing in rural women yields significant improvements in productivity, rural livelihoods, family nutrition and food security.
