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Meet Shaima – running her own honey business in Afghanistan

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In Afghanistan, the restrictions on women’s movement and their ability to work, combined with natural disasters and the breakdown of the banking system, has pushed millions of Afghans into food insecurity.

Shaima, from northeastern Afghanistan, is just one of the thousands of women who we have equipped to start their own small business, based at home. Shaima, like her friends and neighbours, used to rely on occasional work in the fields to help support the family. But, paid partly in cash and partly in wheat and vegetables, there was never enough to pay for food and rent, orthe medication Shaima so desperately needed for her depression and anxiety.

Today, thanks to Hand in Hand’s business training programme, Shaima is running a successful beekeeping business from her back garden.

Sweet success

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Shaima’s first 5kg of honey sold for some US $12 per kilo, which not only paid for her medication but has given her hope. Shaima explains:

“Before, I was losing hope and motivation to work because I was suffering from depression and life was hard… Now, I realised I could be someone who helps her family and her community…And I can feel like that even as someone who had once experienced depression and thought life was a waste.”

Meet Evelyn – earning more since changing the way she farms

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Because smallholder farmers, like Evelyn Syombua, produce one third of the world’s food they are also the key components in the global transition towards a more sustainable, regenerative way of farming that will boost yields and income.

For women like Evelyn, regenerative agriculture means a future on land she had been on the point of abandoning.

Equipping women farmers with the skills to thrive

Hand in Hand equips women with regenerative agriculture techniques to restore soils damaged by years of monoculture farming, increase their yields and the business skills to scale up their agri-business so they can reach larger and more profitable value chains.

Diversification

Today, Evelyn rotates a variety of crops including sorghum, cow peas, pigeon peas, green grams – even leaving some areas fallow to allow the soil to recover. She’s planted fruit trees that yield fruit and enhance the local biodiversity, prevent soil erosion and provide shade for the animals.

She’s also learned to collect the rain when it comes and then use it for irrigation during dry periods.

Farming with intent

Moreover, everything on the farm has a purpose. Low growing crops such as sweet potato, reduce water loss. The fodder feeds the 15 goats and 10 chickens, the animal waste provides the basis for the fertiliser. Fruit trees provide food for the family and shade for the animals. Even old milk cartons provide the perfect ‘home’ in which to germinate seedlings.

As a result, Evelyn has noticed a real increase in the harvest from two bags of beans to at least four. It means there’s more food on the table and even some to sell at the market – earning more from the beans alone from KES 2,500 (US $16) to KES 4,500 (US $30) each harvest.

“The revival of the farm business has also given me hope and a direction on choices to make,” says Evelyn.

Meet Veneranda and Wilfred – challenging social norms that hold women back.

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One in four African women is an entrepreneur, yet women face significant additional barriers when it comes to earning. That’s why Hand in Hand is equipping women living below the poverty line to launch profitable businesses and shifting social attitudes that prevent women working outside the home.

Before joining Hand in Hand, life for Veneranda and Wilfred was much like every other family in their village in Arusha in northern Tanzania: she took care of the home, he earned the money.

Changing the rules of the game for women entrepreneurs

In many communities, it’s believed a woman working outside the home undermines the man’s position as the family’s breadwinner. What’s more, women are expected to be solely responsible for domestic labour and caregiving, leaving the little time to run a business.

That’s why, at Hand in Hand, we involve the whole community, especially men and local leaders, in breaking down these barriers – so women can participate in the economy as equals, with the power to launch their own businesses and lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

It was only when Veneranda and Wilfred joined Hand in Hand’s that they both began to realise the possibilities life offered if they worked together as team.

Veneranda started a small business buying and selling groceries, but Wilfred realised that if she grew the vegetables herself, they could make more money. So, for the first time, Wilfred gave Veneranda a plot of land for her to grow vegetables, which she could then take to market.

Today Veneranda’s business earns about US $25 a week – tripling the family earnings. Two days each week Veneranda takes her produce to the market and Wilfred stays at home to look after the children, take care of the chickens and cook the meals.

Looking back, Wilfred says, “I had not realised what a burden it was to be the only one responsible for earning the money. Life is not just materially better now it is also easier for both of us.”

Credit for photograph:

© Cartier Philanthropy / Karin Schermbrucker.

Meet Benedetta – a farmer leading the fightback against climate change.

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With sub–Saharan Africa seeing record droughts and floods and with as much as 30% of the country’s land degraded by intensive monoculture farming and pesticide use, many smallholder farmers and their families are trapped in a cycle of poverty.

We’ve developed a training programme that has already equipped 16,000 subsistence farmers with the latest regenerative agricultural techniques so they can better withstand the twin impact of unpredictable rains and degraded soil.

A new way of farming

For Benedetta Kaveki this meant changing the way she and her neighbours had farmed for generations.

She began by constructing terraces to reduce the soil erosion during the rains, planting the water hungry maize at the bottom and beans at the top.

Instead of relying on just these two crops Benedetta broke with tradition to plant sorghum, cow peas, pigeon peas and green grams, which would better withstand periods of drought, and low growing crops such as sweet potato to reduce surface water loss.

The resulting year-round harvest now provides Benedetta with more opportunities to sell her produce while also helping to trap carbon, enriching the soil and improving plant, animal and insect biodiversity.

Everything on the farm has a purpose

Everything on Benedetta’s farm now has a purpose – new paw paw trees provide shade for the animals, excess crops are used to feed the animals which, in turn, provide the manure for the crops. She even makes her own pesticide using tobacco leaves, pepper and garlic.

Benedetta’s farm is transformed. The improved soil has led to increased yields, and, by using circular economy techniques like making fertilizer from parts of the crop that can’t be used, she’s reduced her dependence on costly commercial products.

Hand in Hand’s saffron project attains vital ISO certification

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A pioneering initiative to lift saffron farmers in Afghanistan out of poverty has hit a new milestone, with producers involved in the project successfully securing ISO certification. The certification not only signifies compliance with international standards but, crucially, gives the product a competitive edge in the global marketplace.

Funded by Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Danida Market Development Partnerships Programme, the Organic Growth project aims to develop Afghanistan’s saffron value chain, creating jobs and tackling poverty.

Over the last few years, the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has become more severe, with the World Food Programme (WFP) estimating more that more than a third of the country’s population is facing food insecurity. The Organic Growth project targets rural areas in the Herat province, where jobs are scarce, and is set to reach 3,000 farmworkers and processors.

Hand in Hand Afghanistan Executive Director, Dr Kamran Hekmati, said: “Five independent saffron companies who are taking part in the project have been awarded ISO 22000, which is a tremendous achievement and means the saffron they produce can now be sold on the international market, commanding a higher price. That money will directly benefit farmers in some of the country’s most deprived rural communities, so families can afford safe housing, medicine and put food on the table.”

Hand in Hand and Cartier Philanthropy project boosts Tanzanian women entrepreneurs’ incomes by $59 a month

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A three-year trial conducted by Hand in Hand between 2020 and 2023 to support women to launch and run profitable businesses has helped create 457 businesses and 545 jobs in some of Arusha’s most disadvantaged communities – with women increasing their incomes by an average of 117% (USD 59.72 per month).

As well as providing 600 women with business skills training, mentoring and supporting them to access credit and reach larger markets, the programme also incorporated a gender-specific training module that sought to address and challenge the restrictive social norms and attitudes that prevent women from succeeding as entrepreneurs and run profitable businesses.

The programme also improved women’s financial resilience, with 65% participants saying they would be able to deal with a financial shock, such as an unexpected medical bill, without selling assets or borrowing money​.

As part of the trial, evaluated by International Center for Women’s Research (ICRW) and funded by Cartier Philanthropy, the partners and husbands of 300 women were also enrolled in gender-specific training – designed to shift men’s ideas about what a women’s role can be, as well as couples’ sessions where husbands and wives explored issues together.

In many communities, it’s believed a woman working outside the home undermines the man’s position as the family’s breadwinner. Women are also expected to be solely responsible for domestic work and childcare, leaving them little time to run a business.

Boosting savings and decision making

In a survey of 182 couples, ICRW found that providing male partners with additional gender-specific training improved women’s decision making within the home – with 62% of women able to make decisions about the things that matter to them, such as visiting family or friends, healthcare or household purchases – compared to 45% in the group where men did not take part in the workshops.

ICRW also found that engaging men had a significant impact on the amount of money women entrepreneurs were able to save, with women whose partners had taken part in the gender-specific training increased their savings by 49% – compared to women whose partners did not take part, whose savings decreased by 43%.

Changing attitudes in the home

Typically, women spend six to eight hours a day on unpaid domestic work​, which is why Hand in Hand worked with men to help them develop an understanding of a woman’s workload – as well giving them the skills to help with household tasks.

According to ICRW’s findings, men who had taken part in the gender-specific training reported spending approximately one hour more per day on domestic work – including household chores and care for children. Men who had not taken part in the training said they spent an hour less on household tasks and caring.

Both men and women had more gender-equitable attitudes at the end of the programme – with participants less likely to agree with statements such as ‘men should have the final word in disagreements’. Men who had taken part in the gender-specific training were more likely to hold equitable attitudes than men who had not. Moreover, women whose husbands had participated in the gender-specific training also experienced more positive shifts in gender attitudes, compared to women whose husbands who had not.

Hand in Hand Tanzania CEO, Jane Sabuni, said: “In the traditional societies we work within, the idea of a woman earning an income can be seen as threatening to a man’s status and position. Through this innovative field trial, we’ve successfully worked with communities to challenge attitudes that make it tough for women to earn money – with men even taking on a greater share of domestic tasks so their wives can spend time running their business.”

Hand in Hand International CEO, Dorothea Arndt, said: “We have been able to increase women’s incomes by an average of USD 59 a month in some of Arusha’s most deprived places.

“Women entrepreneurs can’t achieve their full potential unless their families and communities are behind them, but a shift in how women’s roles are perceived takes time. We know change rarely happens unless it’s driven from the ground up – so at the start of the project we engaged with clan leaders, church leaders and local government representatives – showing them the benefits of men and women working together as a team to boost their family’s incomes.”

Pascale de la Frégonnière, Strategic Advisor to the Board, Cartier Philanthropy, commented: “Deconstructing the traditional idea of masculinity is part of the challenge of empowering women across the world. Changing deeply engrained gender norms takes time. This field trial, which is also being implemented in Rwanda by Women for Women, aimed to fill a gap and start building the evidence base we will need if we want to engage men in a meaningful way to achieve gender equity.”

Emily Schaub, Women’s Economic Empowerment Specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), said: “The findings from this trial suggest that men’s engagement has an important role to play in attaining more equitable gender norms and attitudes about men’s and women’s roles. These attitudes in turn can be facilitators of an environment that enables and supports women’s economic and social empowerment.”

Hand in Hand saffron producers receive organic certification

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Hand in Hand is delighted to announce both of the saffron producers and exporting companies taking part in its Organic Growth project have now been certified by the US-NOP (National Organic Program) as organic and European Union (EU) organic C1 certificates (soil conversion for year 1).

Funded by Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Danida Market Development Partnerships Programme and a corporate foundation, Organic Growth is an innovative project to develop Afghanistan’s first organic saffron value chain – in partnership with German social enterprise Conflictfood, which will distribute the saffron once it has achieved full EU organic certification.

The project aims to improve the incomes of 3,000 farm workers and processors in the Herat province by making saffron growing more profitable. Organic saffron commands a higher price on the international market than non-organic saffron, but, to be certified as organic, producers must meet very strict criteria. It takes three years for saffron to be certified as organic as per the EU organic standards, while in NOP the saffron can be directly certified as organic if the company meets the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards. Both companies also passed their first EU years’ audit, a key step towards the important milestone of being certified as fully organic by NOP and meeting C1 for EU Organic standards.

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Hand in Hand Afghanistan Executive Director, Dr Ahmad Kamran Hekmati, said: “Achieving US-NOP and EU organic certification shows we are well on the way to creating Afghanistan’s first organic saffron chain – a project which will raise incomes in some of the country’s most deprived rural communities, helping families put food on the table and pay for housing, education and healthcare.”

An update on Hand in Hand’s operations in Afghanistan

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As you will know, the de-facto authorities banned women from working in NGOs on 24 December. In response to the ban, Hand in Hand Afghanistan, alongside other national and international NGOs, temporarily paused operations, working with Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief and Development (ACBAR) and the UN to call for the ban to be reversed.

Over the last year, the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has become more severe, with the World Food Programme (WFP) estimating acute malnutrition is above emergency thresholds in 25 out of 34 provinces, and almost half of children under 5 requiring life-saving nutrition support in the next 12 months. To meet the staggering levels of need, Hand in Hand, like the majority of NGOs operating in Afghanistan, is seeking practical concessions to enable us to continue delivering vital development and humanitarian assistance to women, men and their families, for example via sectoral exceptions.

Hand in Hand Afghanistan has over 12 years experience working with vulnerable communities in some of the most remote regions of the country. Through these longstanding links we have been able to find local solutions that allow us to directly reach women and men with livelihoods training and, increasingly, vital humanitarian aid, while protecting the safety of our staff and the people we support.

Visa and Hand in Hand project helps women scale up their businesses in Nairobi’s most deprived communities

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Participants saw an average income uplift of USD $156 per month, despite the Covid-19 crisis, with more than 80% reporting improved financial management skills.

Hand in Hand’s Kenya Micro-Enterprise Success Programme (KMES) project, funded by Visa Inc., has delivered unprecedented results, with entrepreneurs typically increasing their incomes by USD $156 per month, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

The project is the first of its kind to target existing small business owners as well as first-time entrepreneurs. Delivered in Nairobi’s informal settlements, which the UN describes as “some of the most dense, unsanitary and insecure slums in the world,” the project aimed to boost local economies, create jobs, and lift families out of poverty.

The three-year programme provided 8,200 first-time entrepreneurs (6,560 of them women) living below the poverty line with the core business training they needed to start their own micro enterprises. It also provided ‘advanced’ training to 1,600 people (1,280 of them women) who wanted to scale up their  businesses, as part of its ‘acceleration’ cohort.

But, just months after the project began, Kenya was hit by its first wave of coronavirus cases, and the country locked down. For Kenyans, the pandemic wasn’t just a health crisis, it was an economic crisis as well – devastating livelihoods and pushing millions of families below the poverty line.

Despite this – the programme achieved remarkable success. Across the project, more than 80% of participants reported improved financial management skills. And, both first-time entrepreneurs and existing small businesses said they were now more financially resilient. This resilience played a crucial role in helping participants to weather the economic effects of Covid-19 pandemic — which, at the height of the crisis, saw 20% of Kenyans selling assets, 24% relying on loans to get by and over 40% skipping meals (World Bank.) However, thanks to the training, 90% of participants on the KMES programme reported that they would be able to withstand a financial shock without having to sell an asset or get into debt.

Overall, over the course of the project, first-time entrepreneurs increased their profitability by an average of 15%, earning an additional USD $150 a month. When the existing small businesses owners joined the programme they were typically making a small loss on each product sold. After taking part in the programme, they boosted their businesses’ profits by an average of 95%, earning an additional USD $192 a month.

All programme members received business and financial training, with existing small business owners being given additional mentoring and support to help them scale up their businesses. This included training in social media and digital marketing, and support to help them link up with larger markets and to access credit.

As a result of the business and financial efficiency training they’d received from Hand in Hand, programme members were able to act quickly to cut their costs, with participants in the ‘acceleration’ cohort seeing an average cost reduction of 43%. It was these cost savings that enabled entrepreneurs’ small businesses to remain operational throughout the pandemic, despite lockdowns which wiped out a third of the country’s micro and small businesses (Central Bank of Kenya.)

Being able to rapidly move their businesses online also played a key part in the entrepreneurs’ success. Many began to market their products on social and digital platforms during the pandemic, and the number of businesses taking mobile payments rose from 38% to a staggering 81%.

As the entrepreneurs’ businesses grew, so too did their ability to create jobs within their communities. Existing small businesses owners in the ‘acceleration’ cohort of the programme created 0.66 jobs per business, with first-time entrepreneurs creating jobs at a rate of 0.45 per business.

The programme also increased women’s decision making power, with 60% more first-time entrepreneurs reporting that they were now able to take part in decisions that affect their lives, such as household purchases, family visits and healthcare.

Eva Ngigi-Sarwari, Country Manager, Visa Kenya, said: “We are thrilled with the impact delivered by our partnership with Hand in Hand as not only did we surpass the number of targeted beneficiaries, but we have seen the immediate impact on their businesses.

“We will continue to seek out partnerships and opportunities that reach those traditionally underserved, providing them with access to resources that can help improve their economic livelihoods, businesses and communities.”

Hand in Hand Eastern Africa CEO, Albert Wambugu said, “At a time when businesses across the country were closing in record numbers these our members from Nairobi’s informal settlements were able to reduce their costs, expand into new markets and take their businesses online.

“Additionally, this project gave our members a path to digital financial inclusion, with a majority of entrepreneurs being able to access useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs, thus reducing poverty, unleashing their potential and boosting prosperity. Truly, we are grateful to Visa for their support.”

Hand in Hand International CEO, Dorothea Arndt, said: “This project equipped women with skills not only to get through the Covid-19 crisis but to create thriving enterprises. Women entrepreneurs in these extremely poor informal settlements have the odds stacked against them. Not only are they more likely to be digitally excluded, it’s often much harder for them to access credit.

“Thanks to this project with Visa Inc. these women have been able to confound expectations and succeed as entrepreneurs, even in the midst of a global pandemic. As a result of the training – which included social media marketing skills and support to access credit, they’ve been able to expand their businesses and lift their families out of poverty for good. What’s more, many of them are now employers, creating much-needed jobs in their communities.”

Giving women the confidence to lead: Boeing project transforms lives in rural Tanzania  

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A two-year project in Arusha Region, Tanzania that gives women the skills and confidence they need to launch their own enterprises has lifted more than 1,600 people out of poverty, as well as giving 542 women vital leadership skills.

The scheme was delivered by Hand in Hand East Africa and funded by Boeing.

In rural Arusha, the majority of the women we work with live below the poverty line. Because of the training, women participants’ average monthly wage increased from USD 1.53 to USD 45.20.

One of the most important parts of the programme is the leadership skills component, which gives women the confidence to speak up and make their voices heard. After the training, 86 percent of the women we asked said they are now able to make decisions for themselves both at home and within their businesses, an increase of almost 30 percent. Many of these women are now also stepping up to take on leadership roles within their communities.

The project is just a part of Boeing’s commitment to transforming the lives of women and young people in rural Tanzania. Working with Hand in Hand, they expect to train more than 4,000 women and young people by 2025 creating 4,000 jobs and lifting 10,000 people out of poverty.

Jane Sabuni, Tanzania Country Manager for Hand in Hand Eastern Africa, said: “As literacy in the area is low, our trainers use oral storytelling techniques to teach leadership skills. These skills don’t just help women succeed in business, they give them the confidence to make have their say when it comes to household spending, their children’s education, and the issues in the community that matter to them.”

Hand in Hand CEO, Dorothea Arndt, said: “When women earn and control their own incomes we see a reduction in household poverty and vulnerability to financial shocks. By investing in women’s skills and potential Boeing is transforming the lives of thousands of Tanzanian families, and we are enormously grateful for their ongoing support.”

Kuljit Ghata-Aura, President of Boeing Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META), said: “At Boeing, we are committed to building better communities worldwide through focused investment that help break poverty cycles. Empowering women can bring paradigm shifts towards economic growth. We’re proud of our five year old partnership with Hand in Hand.”