As part of International Women’s Day on 8 March, we are celebrating some of the many amazing women we know who are battling poverty every single day, pursuing a way out for themselves, their families and sometimes even their wider community.
Ethel was left caring for 12 children after 2 of own children died of AIDS, leaving her to bring up her remaining children and her grandchildren on her own. Before receiving support through our Seeds for Sustainability project, Ethel was struggling to feed the children, and had to survive through begging or doing occasional gardening work. As part of the project Ethel has received seeds and fertilizer and now works a plot of land every day to produce enough crops to be able to sell some and retain enough to buy seeds and fertilizer for the next season, grow more, and so on, thereby working her way of poverty through growing crops. It is hard manual work for Ethel who is 57, combined with caring for the children, but she is determined to succeed with this opportunity to change their lives!
Elena’s husband left her 6 years ago and she has brought up her 10 children alone in severe poverty, living in a temporary shelter, and with the threat of eviction which would lead to the breakup of the family, the children being put into foster care and Elena herself ending up on the streets. In spite of the stress of her situation, Elena continues to meet her daily challenges with courage and determination. Through our local partner we are helping her with a range of support including legal aid to ensure fair and proper representation for this vulnerable family. Our partner writes: “For her, the children’s future is sacred. All she wants is for her children to have access to school. The children are well cared for and there is no alcohol, theft, laziness, drugs or other addictions in the home. I was amazed when I saw so much courage and determination and all this contained in a big smile!”
Gertrude has been running the orphanage in Port au Prince, Haiti for many years, taking in severely disabled children who have been abandoned. She currently cares for over 30 children. Over the last few years Gertrude has continued to care for the children in the midst of terrible ongoing civil violence in Haiti. Now with food increasingly scarce she is trying to keep them all alive by growing their own produce. We continue to send a regular monthly donation, and extra emergency funding when we have enough funds available. We have individual sponsors for 13 of the children but would like to support more.
Every day these women are finding a way to survive and get themselves and their children out of poverty.
With your help we can continue to help them and others too.
