Mayoka village is surrounded by beautiful mountains and a big river that flows around the village. It’s hot and dry and area farmers are working their farms, preparing for the next short rainy season. Approaching Maria and Lawrence’s farm, a cool breeze blows through the green and lush vegetation.

Maria (50) and Lawrence (55) are married and have five children, three boys and two girls. They are farmers and raise livestock as their main source of income. Four of their children go to school and one is working in Arusha town.

Grace and her son inspect the corn

Lack of economic independence is one of the plights of many African women, especially in rural areas. In many African countries, men are the bread winners. This was true of Grace Njikho of Kamphalo village in Chikwina-Mpamba Area Program in Malawi. Married over 31 years and a mother of 5 children, she depended on her husband for everything. She never engaged in any form of business to gain income or supplement what her husband earned. For her, being married, meant the husband had to shoulder total responsibility for everything. “Before the THRIVE Project, I could hardly think of engaging in any form of micro enterprise for additional income for our household. I thought my husband was there to provide everything for the home,” said Grace.

“When I saw these children living in desperate conditions, my heart broke and I asked their mothers if I can take them with me and raise them.” Magdalena pauses for a moment and takes a deep sigh with her head bowed down and when she raises her head up, it is clear that she is having a difficult time pushing back tears from her bright eyes. She looks at me and breaks the silence “Being a mother is a blessing, but being an abandoned single mother is the worst nightmare anyone can wish for,” she says.

Gladys picking peppers

Every morning, Gladys wakes up and runs into the kitchen for breakfast. Her mother, Olga Campos (37) prepares her a healthy meal; Soy milk, green tortillas made out of vegetables, eggs and beans. Gladys who is 4 and half years old looks very healthy and happy. They all live in the community of Santa Ifigenia in Honduras. “Thanks to the recipes I learn from the World Vision project, ‘Common pot’, I saved my daughter’s life,” Olga says very proudly. A few years ago Gladys use to suffer from anemia, she almost died. Her father Jaime Coto use to work at other people’s farm, making a daily income of $6. This was not enough to properly feed his family. “We struggle for a long time with money, my daughter was very sick and it was hard for me to afford Ramon and Ana Julissa, my other 2 children ́s education,” Jamie recalls.  

Liyana Zenasi hails from Zenasi village in Chilenje Area Program in Malawi. She is married to Enosi and together, they have 4 children, age ranging from 6 to 18. For years, they have engaged in rain-fed subsistence farming, using traditional farming methods and with no involvement into micro enterprise. Providing for the family’s basic needs and supporting children with school supplies was an uphill task. They could hardly harvest enough from their fields and had no other source of income.

Global leaders have committed to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.  And for the first time in modern history, the world is coming to the collective realization that it is possible to completely end extreme poverty in our lifetimes.  World Vision is leading the charge on a variety of fronts, including equipping, educating and empowering smallholder farmers break the cycle of generational poverty that has held their families back.  Until now.

A humanitarian’s painstaking work to transform desert-like landscapes into thriving forests and farmland has been hailed a game-changer for combating famine and deforestation.

World Vision’s Tony Rinaudo has won the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’, after more than 35 years working across Asia and Africa.

The Empowered Worldview is a biblically-based training and action learning curriculum created by World Vision and other partners.  Its central purpose is to build a deep acceptance and understanding that all humans have been endowed by their Creator with the ability and capacity to lead productive, creative lives – from earning and income and providing for their families, to family roles and relationships, and from caring for others in the community to caring for creation - and to combat a dependency mindset.  The Empowered Worldview uses both a teaching curriculum as well as short-term and long-term action learning through special projects and engaging in empowering activities such as Savings Groups.

World Vision is committed to helping our microfinance institution in Senegal flourish and thrive.  By this we mean that it can grow to the point that it is able to meet the critical needs for financial services in many of the areas of the country where World Vision works, and is able to pay its own costs from revenues it earns from lending.  Right now, VisionFund Senegal is not large enough and does not have enough capital to meet those goals.

World Vision continues to press forward with Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration[i], with a number of exciting developments taking place across the African continent.  This lays the natural resource management foundation for World Vision’s THRIVE program.  World Vision is pushing forward with strategic partnerships, global and regional platforms, developing an evidence base, and pushing ahead with large scale projects.