Empower 103 Households for their Livelihoods

Project ID: 32851

Project Title: Empower 103 households for their livelihoods

Almost the end of first plantation; CSD women Farmers cleared their field for plantation in May and had their vegetables planted in June 2019. CSD women Farmers are situated at Zambago area in Yambio County, Gbudue State South. This planting season, CSD women farmers have planted 1 Hectare full of Egg Plants, Tomatoes and Carrots. We are highly optimistic to received good yield this time as observation testifies to that reality. CSD women farmers had wished to grow ground nuts and maize as the major crops but after some discussions and due deliberations, the idea for crops such as Egg Plant, tomatoes and Carrots became ideal.

The beneficiaries of the project have been vulnerable women; single mothers, widows, school drops outs and sick women. Feeding in the homes of the female headed families have been of huge challenge and some simply go hungry on empty stomach or just a meager meal for a day. CSD women’s farming is a solution to place some food on the plates of some families. The vegetables grown are sold out on the market and some are taken home to the families. Money earned is divided amongst the members (30 members) for their own needs. We have initiated village saving mode for this group of women. It is a merit-go-round method, where the 30 members have agreed to contribute weekly into a box and members receive that amount in turn monthly. Some of the women have started small business from the capital raised. The group is really mutual and enriching.

The community pattern of feeding is very poor; those who can afford a meal per a day, do not have balance diet and therefore, so many associated malnutrition consequences in children and adults; sores on legs, stunted growth and poor human development. Actually, the consequences stem from etiologies such as low birth weight, premature delivery, persistent diarrhea and recurring sepsis or chronic underlying diseases or disability and the development of severe acute malnutrition in tender age is commonly reflected in suboptimal feeding practices. More than 50% of households in Yambio generally experience severe acute malnutrition which is often associated with high mortality in young infants and it has effects on children as a whole; mental retardation, stunted growth, poor immune system, micronutrient deficiency, anaemia and death.

Community Skills Development supports the 103 households of single mothers by the provision of extension services, help to diversify cropping and vegetables species with tomatoes, egg plants and educate on harsh climate mitigation measures. Irrigation method has been taken up and practiced.

Single mothers still keep the desire to seek remedies to their own poverty challenges and Community Skills Development has kept the teams/groups; a) Women Farmers b) Tailoring group and c) Hair dressing group.

Each group is steadily engaged in the above self-empowerment strategies but inadequacy of resources is the main challenge.

On the sad note, only one person has kept sending in financial support to help this project. This would be a true indication to say it is enough for this project, yet the goal and target of the project are only ¼ met.

Part of the story

Community Skills Development majorly supports impoverished women in Yambio County, Gbudwe State South Sudan. The total number of our target population is 17,000 Households in Gbudwe state for various services. Community Skill Development was established in the year 2008 and since then we have provided farmers with agricultural tools and seeds, fed malnourished children, sponsored orphans and trained to do farming. When needy women hear about community skills development, they come to express their interest to join the groups but unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to absorb additional numbers and neither can we expand for limited resources.

In 2018, only 30 single mothers were admitted to the farming group and to be supported for 3 years (2020); hoping that the trainings and orientations received will have endowed them for self-resilience. Since CSD has not received enough funding to support both the tailoring and hair dressing groups, the funding through Globalgiving is placed on the agriculture groups while hoping that our supporters will commit some resources to the empowerment of vulnerable women for tailoring and hair dressing. We are likely to close down this project before the project duration due to lack of funding.

I must indicate that our writing to our supporters/ the donors has not met the quality and flavor to clearly illustrate the need- I guess, as it would seem the program is just freezing due to lack of funding. We are very ready to have some direct conversions if need be, to make clarifications and the provision of more details.

While the empowerment project is targeting three different groups constituting the 103 households, our dream is to empower vulnerable women groups to farm, to create small business via hair dressing and tailoring. We are well at 1/4 on the success and only in the part of farming but how we wish to achieve at least 3/4 of the target.