Through Hand in Hand’s proven business creation model, developed over twenty years, we’ve equipped five million women start and run small businesses that stand the test of time.
Mariam Issa, in northern Tanzania, is one such entrepreneur. Like 70% of the women we work with, Mariam is a farmer – one of the millions of smallholder farmers producing one third of the world’s food. When she first joined Hand in Hand in 2022, she was struggling to harvest enough maize to put food on the table and earning just TZS 100,000 (US $37) a month from any harvest she could sell.
Hand in Hand’s business trainers taught her how to keep track of costs and income on the farm and how to calculate her profit. They introduced her to new agricultural techniques to equip her fight back against the degraded soil and unpredictable weather patterns and increase yields.
Four years on, Mariam has more than doubled her farm earnings to TZS 240,000 (US $90) a month. She’s using the extra money to pay the grandchildren’s school fees, clothes and food. She and her husband have even started to build a sturdy new home from mud bricks.
Looking back, Mariam says,
“The most important things I learned were the business skills and how to make the most of your farm. When I farmed maize I had just two harvests a year, now I plant so many different vegetables, I can harvest frequently.”
