“The empowerment of rural women and girls is essential to building a prosperous, equitable and peaceful future for all on a healthy planet”
Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General
The 1 billion of the world’s population that live in poverty are heavily concentrated in rural areas. Of this, 2/3 are women.
Women in rural areas are responsible for 43% of agricultural labour force, for rural development, improving food security and reducing and eradicating rural poverty. Their lives depend on natural resources, the environment, and the climate in which they live.
In the same breath, rural women are far worse off than rural men. In developing nations women in rural areas lack access to education. They lack access to resources. They lack access to health care and clean water. Women in rural areas most often do not have their basic needs met, because of both their location in a remote area, and their gender.
The empowerment of rural women is at the heart of reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development goals.
In northern Uganda, Cents for Seeds engages women in rural communities through an agricultural micro-loan, enabling her to lift herself and her family out of poverty. This small 30kg loan begins a cycle of transformation, slowly lifting the stain of war and poverty that has covered her life for so long. A small 30kg loan is all it takes. $30 funds one loan.
It has been found time and time again, that if you empower a woman to earn an income she will reinvest this back into her family and her community.
Cents for Seeds is no exception.
Over the past 7 years we have watched women join the program with nothing. They come from the most dire and impoverished situations after 25 years of civil war, barely able to put food in front of their children. Within the first year, they are given access to agricultural workshops and are trained by a professional to ensure best chance of crop success. From her humble 30kg loan, she may reap 150 – 200kgs of harvest.
As a woman living in rural northern Uganda, she has the opportunity to change her life and her children’s lives. Agricultural practices are bringing purpose back into the lives of rural women, empowering them to change their lives for good.
Just $30 will provide a woman with a 30kg loan of drought resistant seeds. Your donation will empower a woman living in northern Uganda, and change generations to come. Cents for Seeds is empowering women, increasing a woman’s skill set and ability, raising up leaders and cultivating dreams.
We celebrate International Rural Women’s Day for all the women making an impact in the world, wherever they are.
