International Women's Day
With the mission to end hunger and poverty, investing in women is at the core of Heifer International’s community development approach. Heifer invests in women farmers and business owners, equipping them with the knowledge, tools and expertise they need to increase their incomes.
We support women to form farmer groups or self-help groups and cooperatives that allow them to come together, acquire new skills, save money, access credit, build market connections, establish sustainable livelihoods and make their businesses thrive. When women have their own sources of income and can decide how their money is spent, the impact on their families and communities becomes transformational.
Every day, women farmers make invaluable contributions to global food systems — from preparing fields to harvesting crops — but they rarely have equal access to resources such as knowledge, inputs, finance and networks. These inequalities put women at a significant disadvantage, keeping them from building their resilience and reaching their full potential.
Read how Heifer supports women farmers across the world to overcome the challenges they face and access the tools and opportunities they need to grow and prosper.
"When someone gives you knowledge, that person has given you everything."
When Dative Mukayisenga, a livestock farmer and mother of seven, joined a women’s group supported by Heifer Rwanda, she found the support she needed to transform her farm and her family’s welfare. Together, the group’s members participate in livelihood training and save money, even pooling their resources to operate a poultry feed business to earn extra income.
Robina became a single mother at a young age, forcing her to drop out of school and leaving her with a bleak future. But with support of a Heifer self-help group and a seed loan of soybeans, Robina is providing for herself and her son.
"With the continued support of the cooperative and collaboration with my fellow cooperative members, I know that my future is bright."
Kusu had never earned an income of her own — until she joined a Heifer International Nepal initiative that trains community vets online.
Now, she helps over 600 farming families keep their animals healthy and their livelihoods intact.
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And when families like the ones she serves have a reliable income, they can afford nutritious food, decent shelter, education for their children and other unexpected costs.
“This is what brings satisfaction. That I can help my family and my community with the skills that I have learnt.”
Christine Okode is using technology, such as automated water dispensers for poultry and hydroponics, to make optimum use of resources, produce nutritious crops and raise healthy livestock.
“Work towards it and you will achieve it. Nothing is impossible. Everything is possible.”
Read how Christine is growing her enterprise and sharing the lessons for success she has picked up on her journey.
Set Hach is not an ordinary chick producer. Rather, she’s a leader in her community, an entrepreneur and a businesswoman.
With technical training, access to financial products and peer support from her cooperative, Set is capitalizing on rural opportunity to achieve a living income, steadfastly building an enterprise that earns her a fair wage and supplies food for her community.
Community trainers are Heifer’s frontline workers, trained and mentored to become agents of change in their communities. As a community trainer, Chhoti Kumari organizes women into self-help groups and empowers them through agriculture and business training. But this work is not without its difficulties.
“There are differences. There is discrimination also on the basis of gender.”
Tackling these challenges, Chhoti is blazing the spirits of girls and women and encouraging them to overcome barriers and biases and realize their potential.
Supporting women farmers is vital to our mission of ending hunger and poverty. This International Women's Day, learn more about this work or donate now to help more women increase their income, feed their families and build a better world.
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One Health / Animal Health Expert
1yI would like to work for Heifer one day.