"Fear is no more"

As a child, Margaret kept seeing other people go to school, so she followed them. Her parents had not been educated. But when she came back, she found that her father had torn out pages and used them to roll his tobacco.

Hunger shaped everything around her. She describes the conditions she knew: running through the bush with a child on your back, and no hospital nearby if that child falls sick.

Today, Margaret is a farmer. She plants, harvests and sells some of her crop, and the money goes into savings to help her in the future. When The Hunger Project came to her community, she rushed to welcome the team and show them where to build. The trainings showed her and her family that their goals were achievable.

“The cycle of hunger is so hard to break. But I broke it.”

“The Hunger Project made me knowledgeable. The Hunger Project was part of the change I made.”

Water was part of it too – it used to be far from home but The Hunger Project brought it closer.

“That fear (of not having access to clean water) is no more.”

She says the stakes are high. “If I am not empowered to get food and education, I feel like my time here on earth is up.” But she is also clear that none of this happened at once.

“Change does not come at once. Change comes when you at least do something daily, little by little.”

Now Margaret wants to be a reason for change in someone else’s life. She keeps telling people in her community about the good things that come with saving, and it is working. “Slowly, the community sees that it is actually a good idea and that keeps bringing more people in.”

Her own children are in school. They are studying well, and she knows they will have a bright future. They have plans too: a doctor, an engineer, a nurse.

Margaret and her family often stop to reflect on where they came from and where they are going.

“I am so proud of myself. I am a mother – I should show a good example to other mothers. This is what I do in this community, so that everyone moves together.”