Food for every table
Equipping Yandie’s family to break free from hunger
It’s morning and 58-year-old Yandie Sesay is sweeping in and around her home in a small, rural village in Sierra Leone. After cleaning she cooks a simple meal of rice for her family. Not too long ago this was all they would eat for the day.
Like many people in this village, Yandie and her husband once worked as farmers, growing rice, groundnut, pepper, beans and palm trees. The fruit from the trees, when processed, produced palm oil used for cooking, and was a very important source of income for the family. The couple worked hard for their five children. Then tragedy struck. Yandie’s husband passed away in 2010 after suffering from severe stomach pain.
“There was not enough to eat,” Yandie says. “My children helped however they could by pounding rice, processing palm oil and other farming activities. They also took care of me whenever I got sick.”
Yandie earned approximately $0.68 Canadian (Le 5,000) per day at the weekly market selling crops, palm oil and other items. She knew she could earn more if she had better equipment, but felt trapped in a cycle of poverty.
Recently World Renew, based in Burlington, Ont., began walking alongside this family. Compelled by God’s deep passion for people who suffer injustices, World Renew creates solutions for sustainable change by partnering with local churches and congregations. In Yandie’s village World Renew partnered with Christian Extension Services (CES), who met with village leaders and together they designed a program – the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security project – to train Yandie and 29 other farmers to grow more rice on their small plots of land.
While the farmers waited for their crops to grow, CES organized the Village Savings and Loan program, pooling group savings to finance individual micro-business ventures. As these loans are repaid, others can start their businesses which provide goods and services to the community.
Yandie used her loan to purchase a 55-gallon drum, pots, rubber bowls and other tools, which increased her palm oil business from producing 2 gallons per growing season to 25 gallons. Her older daughters have also learned to produce palm oil and are able to provide for their own families. Yandie is now making $2.00–$2.70 Canadian (Le 15,000–25,000) per day and her family is eating two full meals a day.
Proceeds from her business have enabled her to replace the thatch roof of her house with a corrugated metal sheet, providing better protection from the rain. And she has also paid to help her son train to become a community health officer. “Without help none of this would have been possible,” she says.
“This experience has awakened my way of thinking about community development,” she says. “In addition to the farmers’ group and loans, CES organized adult literacy projects and latrines that have transformed our village. Surrounding communities admire us.”
“I thank God for CES, World Renew, and donors for their intervention in our village. My hope for the future is to increase my palm oil business, that the lives of people in my village will continue to be improved, and that I will be able to see my son graduate!”
World Renew is changing the story for families like Yandie’s in nearly 20 countries around the world, building up communities so they can sustain themselves, and breaking the chains of injustice and poverty.We are watching families free themselves from hunger and then accomplish so much more. For Yandie, she found her voice, recognizes her inherent value in Christ and sees renewed hope for the future.
But there are still over 1 billion people who will not have enough to eat today. Like Yandie it may mean a small bowl of rice for the day, or perhaps nothing at all. An end to poverty starts with food for every table. And food for every table starts with you. You can Free a Family® from hunger for $27/ month or give $324 to Free a Family™ from hunger today.