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Listen to the voices of...
© IFAD |
Training helps octopus fisher build a better life
Lima Casimir is a 52 year old and a "piqueuse ourite" - an octopus fisher - who lives on the island of Rodrigues 640 kilometres off the island of Mauritius.
Lima's day starts at 5.30 am when she takes her son's boat to go to her breath-taking 'office' - a vast lagoon that opens onto the Indian Ocean. Her office furniture includes a boat and the magnificent coral reefs. To catch the octopus, she uses an iron rod which she wears around her shoulder. The IFAD-funded Rural Diversification Programme trained Lima in how to catch octopus without damaging the coral reefs.
Source: IFAD
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© IFAD |
Pioneering microcredit for women in remote Pakistan
An IFAD-funded project in the Dir district has pioneered a new approach to rural financing that conforms to Islamic regulations. In its initial phase it has helped women set up micro-enterprises. In just nine years it has demonstrated how economic and social empowerment can transform women’s status and self-esteem.
Source: IFAD
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© IFAD |
How a poor islander became a local leader
Maryline Legoff is a rural entrepreneur. She is 35 years old and a single mother with a 5-year-old son. Maryline lives on the island of Rodrigues, 640 kilometers off the island of Mauritius. For Maryline and the 38,000 people who live on Rodrigues, fishing is a way of life. But their livelihoods are threatened by declining fish stocks.
Source: IFAD
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©IFAD |
How the Kenya Women Finance Trust became a model lender
Sometimes, numbers speak louder than words. Six years ago, the Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT) was losing around US$290,000 a year. By 2006, it was posting annual profits of US$1.87 million and changing the lives of more than 100,000 poor women. By any standard, this is a remarkable turnaround. But behind the numbers lies an even more remarkable story.
Source: IFAD
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©IFAD |
Women in Kanshegu village gain economic independence by raising goats
Alimatou Mahama, 40, lives in Kanshegu, a small village in the district of Savelugu/Nanton in the northern region of Ghana, with her husband and nine children. In 1994, Alimatou helped to create the Kanshegu women’s group with nine other women in the village to explore ways to improve their livelihoods and lift themselves out of extreme poverty.
Source: IFAD
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© IFAD |
Competitions show women that they are all winners
Since 2005, national competitions designed for women entrepreneurs in the Andean region are building their self-esteem and self-reliance and giving them the courage to attain their dreams. This year women from Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru will compete for prizes. More importantly, they will learn from one another.
Source: IFAD
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©IFAD
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IFAD's
projects in Madagascar give women more opportunities, but the struggle
continues
Women in Madagascar, as in other parts of the developing world, are slowly
gaining more economic power through step-by-step involvement in new projects.
They have proved to be highly responsible managers, sometimes more so than
their male counterparts. Yet despite apparent progress they are still under-represented
in the local economy and more often than not they are unaware of their
possibilities.
Source: IFAD
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The
highs and lows of starting small businesses
Romania -- The IFAD-financed Apuseni Development Project helps
strengthen the economy of Romania’s rural mountain communities
by promoting on- and off-farm enterprises and providing rural
development services. The Apuseni revolving credit fund offers
investment and working loans to people who qualify for them.
Source: IFAD
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A
successful business ensures a future for the community
Republic of Moldova -- Valentina
Colesnic lives in the village of Zgurita in the northern part
of the Republic of Moldova. She worked as a nurse in the local
hospital until the collapse of the Soviet system. In 1989 she
turned to farming, encouraging three doctors’ families to rent
eight hectares of arable land. Together they cultivated vegetables
on the plot, with excellent results, but they were forced to
stop when they were no longer able to continue renting the
land.
Source: IFAD
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Microcredit saves a small business
Azerbaijan -- Nardane Umuyeva lives in the village of Vandam
in the district of Gabala. She is 45 years old and looks after
her sick mother and a nephew, who is a student at the university
in the capital, Baku. She inherited a small shop from her father.
After the republic became independent, her sole source of income
was her mother’s pension and a small profit from the shop.
Source: IFAD
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full story... |
Supporting
successful women in agribusiness
Albania -- Marime Korbi lives in Kukes, Albania, and is the owner
of the Ervin company, which specializes in the production of
high quality organic alcoholic and fruit drinks. Her business
emerged intact from the transition from the socialist system,
although it was ill prepared to enter a competitive market with
its low output and antiquated production technology. Now Ervin
is a flourishing producer of fruit juices and high quality raki,
a traditional alcoholic drink made from local plums and grapes.
It is the only producer of its kind in the north-east of the
country.
Source: IFAD
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Forest
products in demand
Bosnia and Herzegovina -- As a single mother, Ljubica Rados was
struggling to earn enough to support herself and her children.
She lives in the municipality of Gornji Vakuf - Uskoplje, an
area that is famous for its forest vegetation. With some past
experience as a retailer, she decided to use her experience in
the trading business to set up her own business collecting and
trading forest products. She was taking on a major responsibility,
but she soon found people to work with, gained their trust
and began to build up her business. In 2000 she registered
her company, Flores, which specializes in medicinal herbs
and mushrooms for export.
Source: IFAD
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full story... |
Awakening
women's skills and creativity
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic
of Srpska -- Kalinovik is a small town in the Bosnian
Serb Republic of Srpska within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Once
a prosperous Austro-Hungarian military stronghold, it is now
a poor rural municipality on the country’s border, with a population
of only 2,500. It has little to offer its inhabitants in the
way of leisure pursuits. There are no cinemas, beauty salons
or theatres. Many people have left in search of better lives
elsewhere.
Source: IFAD
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A
flourishing cheese-making business in remote rural Armenia
Armenia -- Aida
Ghasaryan lives in Syunik marz one of the most remote regions
of the Republic of Armenia. This region is rich in natural
resources and has good potential for industrial development
but is also one of the country’s least populated and developed
areas, held back by its distance from the capital, its lack
of transport connections and the fact that its economy was
badly damaged during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from 1991
to 1994.
Source: IFAD
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A
small business keeps the family together
Moldova -- Gaina Aliona used to work as a teacher
in the village school. After the collapse of the Soviet system,
her salary was reduced to a tiny fraction of what she had been
receiving and she was forced to look elsewhere for work to
support her family.
Source: IFAD
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A
modern woman in a rural setting
Bosnia and Herzegovina -- Ljuba Radić is
a farmer who lives in the village of Pridvorci, near
the municipality of Nevesinje in south-east Herzegovina,
with her husband and two children. Her life has changed
dramatically in the last decade or so. Before the
war the family lived in Mostar; she taught in a secondary
school while her husband worked as a civil engineer.
Source: IFAD
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One
woman's business skills benefit the community
Armenia -- Lusik Harutinunyan
trained and worked as a teacher before the collapse of
the Soviet system and the civil war that followed. Like
many other people who lived through these events, her
life changed radically. She lost her job and her assets
and was forced to abandon her profession and turn to
farming to feed and support her family.
Source: IFAD
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© ENRAP
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IFAD supported self help groups
Along
with Natural Resource Management
Groups, Self Help Groups comprise
the bulk of the activities
within IFAD’s North Eastern
Region Community Resource
Management Project for Upland
Areas (NERCRMP).
This
video documented as in Nonglang
village in the West Khasi
Hills district poor women have
seen benefit in forming and
working together in SHGs.
While
micro-credit has been the focus,
women’s organization into
SHGs has brought other social
benefits too.
Source: ENRAP
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© IFAD
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Las borregeras
An IFAD supported project in Mexico helps a women’s group set
up a sheep farm. One participant tells her story.
Source:
IFAD
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© Photo: Toby
Adams/Oxfam |
Fair
trade in action - Cocoa farmers in Ghana
Lucy Mansa is a cocoa farmer who makes her living by growing
and selling cocoa beans. She lives in a small village in Ghana
called Fenaso Domeabra.
Most of the cocoa beans grown in Ghana
are sent to the UK and other countries in Europe where they
are made into chocolate. The price farmers receive for their
cocoa beans is often very low and few of them can afford to
buy chocolate.
Source: Oxfam UK
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© UNODC
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UNODC
anti-human trafficking videos
The videos focus on trafficking in men, women and children for
bonded and forced labour (e.g. in factories, fields or as domestic
servants).
Source: UNODC
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video
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© UNFPA
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Women
war health
A three-minute web film showing some of the ways women are impacted
by war.
Source: UNFPA
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