Seeds and Skills for Women to Grow Vegetables

Over 60 percent of Liberia’s agricultural producers are women; yet, men still tend to receive more and better training, and women’s training is often inappropriate.

Through the partnership of Seed Programs International and Church Aid Liberia a lot has changed at the village level and in the lives of the Women’s Empowerment Program recipients. The bottom-up approach has empowered the women. They are actively involved in various aspects of program management such as conducting meetings, collectively selecting training topics and presenting groups needs to Church Aid Liberia staff.

Church Aid Liberia women’s group training provides a structure that enables women to share training information. Equipping women with the skills to improve production and manage change and support each other. We believe access to information and training are the most powerful tools for women’s empowerment. We provide a community based solution that gives women access to knowledge, skills and self-confidence they need to seek out economic opportunities paths out of poverty to self-reliance.

Church Aid Liberia’s Women’s Empowerment programs incorporates agricultural training with Business management training, to help women take advantage of new agricultural opportunities, and to manage and market their vegetable production more effectively.

Training:

 A recent 6 week training funded by Seed Programs international, included session on:

• Basics of vegetable gardening
• Harvest and preservation methods
• How to develop a business plan
• Financial projections
• Financial management
• Pricing and costing
• Practical marketing
• Business management
• Benefits of Co-Operatives

 Church Aid Liberia’s Women’s Empowerment Program staff and volunteers help women to engage and encouraging them to create groups based on need and interests.

Delivering training through groups increased the number of women who are able to benefit from training. During the training, exchange of experiences among participants is encouraged as an important step towards securing livelihoods and reducing poverty by working together.

The training was facilitated by Church Aid Liberia staff and contract extension trainers hired by Church Aid Liberia.

Impact:

On completion of the course the women are able to understand amongst many other things:

• How to improve their vegetable yield through environmentally friendly and sustainable methods
• How to start a fresh vegetable sale business
• How profit is calculated in a business
• Understand the factors which determine the right price for their produce
• Understand the concept of working capital
• Prepare a budget
• Prepare cash flow projections

 As part of the training, the participants are encouraged to submit proposals for agribusiness projects that they intend to carry out in their communities. Church Aid Liberia provides ongoing support.

75 women were in attendance. Participant were selected base on their interest in gardening in addition to those who have previously received seeds (80 to 90 (%) percent of the women have received seeds).

We are all grateful for your support of our women's gardening efforts in the most impoverished countries worldwide including Madagascar, Guatemala, and Liberia. By providing top-quality vegetable seeds and locally-driven support, seed programs give women a path to empowerment, income, and nutrition. 

The women of Chajul, Guatemala project are all working hard to make their garden a success. They extend a heartfelt ‘thank you’ for your support.

" Thank you , Thank you. No one has ever before given us the opportunity to help ourselves.  We are proud of our ability to work the soil in the Mayan way and thank you for believing in us."

They received orientation instructions in their own language of Ixil Mayan in a high school classroom .  This was a very exciting day, especially because they’ve never had the opportunity to go to school. They were very attentive and entered into good discussion with relevant questions about the project. 

The vegetable gardens were prepared and planted the week before Palm Sunday. The project paid for the assistance of 2 unemployed youth with no education and 2 unemployed youth who are earning tuition for their University course work in agriculture.

Students and professors at the regional Rural University advised the project and advised on the crop selection.  Local ixil Mayan farmers donated plots for use by the women who did not have access to a garden plot of their own. The women are looking forward to having vegetables to add to their families’ diets of mostly tortillas and beans. 

There is a long waiting list for the next vegetable garden project.

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 Your contributions make all the difference.

There are many ways that you can support our effort to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the women participating in Seed Programs gardening project. GlobalGiving offers nice e-cards, printable paper cards, and mailed cards for giving in honor of Mother’s Day, a birthday, or any other occasion. 

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Again, we thank you for your continued support!