World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 22)

Yabom Kapri Kanu attends a meeting of the Kamuyu Women’s Development Organization in Port Loko. Heifer Sierra Leone has targeted this location to improve living conditions and will partner with this group for one of its first animal projects in the country. Widows make up the majority of participants in WESDA at Crossing Village, a grassroots organization that helps struggling women earn income and feed their families. The association’s coordinator, Fatmata Bah, says the war left many women with no way to rebuild their homes or make a living. “As women, we are really struggling because since the war ended many of us are without husbands, and we have to cope with our children alone,” Bah says. “Our houses have been destroyed, and we are without means and cannot rebuild them. There is also the problem of not having men to help us build the structures. So, for these women who share this history, we decided to come together and engage ourselves collectively in agriculture so that we can provide nourishment for our children.” Bah says she hopes that by working together, the widows and other women in the community can find a way to become self-sufficient. “Everything that we grow and produce comes from our own work, our own resources. We are planting potatoes. We are planting okra. We are planting lots of other things like maize. The proceeds we gain from this goes to pay for the school fees for our children, feeding them, and all the rest. Amongst us, we pool all the resources.” “This garden is all that we have and with the little that we take from it, we feed our family.” The Need for Livestock Projects Sierra Leone ranks last on the 2007/2008 United Nations Human Development Index, a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life, being educated and having a decent standard of living. Francis Sankoh, the acting director general with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, says the country is transitioning from emergency phases of food relief to development work. He encourages nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to help establish sustainable agriculture systems. Most Sierra Leoneans engage in subsistence farming, and agriculture accounts for 45 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Heifer Sierra Leone will soon implement one of its pilot livestock and agriculture projects in the Western Rural District with the Crossing Village gardening collective. The location is close to Heifer’s office in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, which will make project visits and training easier to manage. Travel can be difficult and sometimes impossible, as much of the country’s infrastructure was destroyed in the war, and the www.heifer.org 22 November/December 2008 | WORLD ARK http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked and Answered Finding Peace in Africa Sierra Leone on the Mend The Roma: A People Apart Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008

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