Our Stories

Day of the Girl 2021
What girls in Ghana have to say about International Day of the Girl 
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Girls are at the core of so much of what we do at The Hunger Project. 11 October marks International Day of the Girl, a day we celebrate the power, resilience and potential of millions of girls across the world. We spoke to five girls from Ghana, aged between 13 and 16 about their hopes, dreams and ambitions.  …

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Three stories of impact from India
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The Hunger Project is always trying to highlight the powerful impact of our global community in ending hunger. Across our work in India we have been creating COVID-resilient communities. Since then, our 550,000 trained local leaders on the ground have been in constant motion: assessing and re-assessing the ever-evolving challenges, and leveraging their collective leadership,…

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Rebecka’s business is sending her children to school
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Rebecka is a farmer and mother of five from Boti in Ghana. Rebecka has become an entrepreneur thanks to her partnership with The Hunger Project. Rebecka participated in the microfinance program implemented in her community by The Hunger Project. Thanks to this program, she was able to take out four different microfinance loans. With the money from…

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Abraham Made His Children A Future
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Abraham Narh is a farmer and father of 8 children from rural Ghana. His children can’t go to school because they need to work on the family farm so they can produce enough crops to sell. This is not the life Abraham wants for his children. Abraham’s vision was to make a future for his…

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Kossegui shows that things can be done differently.
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Kossegui Ganigi is a farmer from Guinagourou, Benin. She has two daughters and is taking care of her sister’s baby, as her sister died in childbirth. Kosseguis’s dream is that all girls in the village can go to school and all women can give birth safely. She has found her own way to bring the people…

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Meet Kaushalya Bisht
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Sustainability, Interconnectedness, Decentralisation. Kaushalya Bisht is an Elected Women Representative from Uttarakhand, India, a remote region at the foothills of the Himalayas. The Hunger Project worked with her to develop the skills she needs to make change for her community as a representative through our SWEEP program (Strengthening Women’s Empowerment through Electoral Processes). As part…

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Meet Jessie.
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Jessie is 41 years old and lives in the Nsondole community in Malawi. Jessie and her husband have five children. “My number one vision is to educate my children,” she says. Jessie has been receiving farm input loans from The Hunger Project since 2017. With these loans, she has been able to purchase seeds to…

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Meet Cheikh Diouf.
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Originally published by The Hunger Project Nederland.  Cheikh Diouf from Ndié has been a member of the grain bank at Ndereppe Epicentre, Senegal, since the start of 2006. He has also become a member of the newly established farmers’ association. This has enabled him to provide his family with enough food. “I have learnt and…

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Bizuhaye Terefe Goes Back to School
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Originally published by The Hunger Project Nederlands. In the North Shoha region of Ethiopia, The Hunger Project is actively working with the Her Choice alliance to end of child marriages and enabling girls to re-enrol in school. Often, these are girls who have dropped out of school after a child marriage or teenage pregnancy. The Hunger Project empowers…

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Stella’s Story.
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We will never forget the look on Stella’s face when she described having no choice but to marry off her 14-year old grand-daughter, Emilida, to keep the other three children in her care alive. Stella’s eyes were heavy. The shame she felt was etched on her face. No choice. What would you do? Save three…

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Meet Razia: Protesting Child Marriage
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In Bangladesh, boys are typically valued more than girls. Girls are often pulled out of school at a young age to be married off. They aren’t able to earn an income for themselves or have a say in family decisions. They are made to look after their siblings and families, do the household chores and other…

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Meet Kaushalya Bisht, an elected woman saving the forests in India
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Kaushalya Bisht is a council President in Uttarakhand. After training with The Hunger Project, she is now leveraging public office to refocus attention on the issue of preserving the forests.   “In the mountains, forests are a lifeline for women. The wood from the forest is what we use to build our houses and for firewood. The…

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Meet the 27 year old fashion designer and entrepreneur from Ghana
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Abigail Tei is a 27-year-old entrepreneur from Boti in the eastern region of Ghana. Abigail is a local fashion designer and also the producer of a local soft drink made from hibiscus plant called Sobolo. Abigail started her business after she received a microfinance loan from The Hunger Project. She now currently employs 5 people…

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Esme’s vision of becoming a home owner
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Esme from Malawi Esme lives in a small, rural village in Eastern Malawi with her four children. She is a farmer and the sole breadwinner of her family. Esme’s family live in a one-bedroom dung hut – and that’s how she thought it would be for the rest of their lives. Then, in 2012, everything…

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Meet Sipho from Kachindamoto
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Sipho is from The Hunger Project’s Kachindamoto Epicentre community, Malawi where he lives with his wife and 5 children. In 2015 Sipho received his first farm input loan from The Hunger Project. The then participated in agriculture training through programs available at the Kachindamoto Epicentre. From this training Sipho was able to harvest 50 bags…

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Meet Amina
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Amina used to live in chronic hunger. She could not see any way out of the repetitive daily struggle to survive. She had no hope for the future. Her life involved spending days gather wood, walking for hours to collect water, and back-breaking work in the fields to try and grow enough food to feed…

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Meet Dennis
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Before The Hunger Project came to his community, Dennis was living in severe hunger. “Sometimes I found small jobs to do in exchange for food. Sometimes I would have to beg for food. Sometimes I would have to steal from my neighbours. Often, I would have to fall asleep without eating. I nearly died of…

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Meet Sunita
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Sunita Meena is the President (Sarpanch) of Aakodiya Block, Chaksu District, Jaipur. We met Sunita with her ward members in the village meeting hall.  Next door was a creche – set up for around 10-15 of the poorest children in the village. When we asked her what made her happy, she spoke about the previous…

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Meet Coumba
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Coumba, the epitome of leading through a “power with” others approach. As a young girl Coumba was illiterate, yet through The Hunger Project training she’s now a senior leader in the Senegal National Government who has trained more than 5,000 women to create and run their own successful businesses. The Mayor of Coki described her…

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Ndeye’s vision for a better future
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Ndeye Loum is a volunteer who has been trained by The Hunger Project in Coki, Senegal.  She lives in a village called Kane’ene Khar and says, before her training, there was no way she would have spoken in front of a group of people to talk about the issues affecting her and the wider community.  Before…

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Meet Alawatu
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Alawatu is a midwife in her local health clinic in the Coki village of Boffel. Before The Hunger Project health clinic was established in Boffel, Alawatu had to deliver babies in people’s homes with no medical facilities or specialty care available to help her. Many women and babies died as a result. The health clinic…

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Meet Ndeye
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Taking part in workshops run by The Hunger Project got Ndeye Ndiaye thinking about her future. She had learned to read and write in school and had also taken literacy classes but she had never been inspired to put her skills into action. When she was mentored by Coumba – a Hunger Project animator (trained…

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Bienvenu’s success inspiring his community
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For many years Bienvenu and his wife Justine have been farming chickens, turkeys and rabbits.  After attending workshops at Zakpota Epicentre in Benin, they learned how to expand their business.  They have applied for credit from the bank and have since purchased more poultry and the necessary food to provide for their livestock. “I already…

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Meet Emilienne
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Emilienne is from a small village in Benin; one of the poorest countries in the world where more than half of the population live on less than $1.90 per day. Debilitating hunger is widespread. Emilienne didn’t go to school – her parents couldn’t afford the fees and they needed her to work on the family…

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Louise Langi – Helping women of Benin realize their dreams
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Louise Langi is a 42-year-old woman from Benin, who is committed to helping women in her village realise their dreams.  Louise and her husband farm and deal in fruit, corn and peanuts to provide for their 6 children. Through The Hunger Project’s Vision, Commitment, Action (VCA) workshops – Louise has learned financial literacy and healthcare skills…

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Laurinda’s Story
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Laurinda Fabião Ngovene is a resident of Djodjo village at Chokwe Epicentre in Mozambique. She has one daughter and has been invovled with The Hunger Project since 2006. She joined The Hunger Project during her first Vision, Commitment and Action workshop in her community. Laurinda moved into leadership roles in the community, serving as the…

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Inspiring change in her village – Gladys returns to school
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Gladys came to the attention of The Hunger Project when our volunteers visited her school to talk to girls about the harmful impact of child marriage. She stood out from her friends because she was the only child amongst them who had been married, divorced, given birth to a baby and returned to school. As…

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WITH A MICROFINANCE LOAN, GUIRÉ IS ABLE TO GROW HER RESTAURANT
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These days, Guiré Salimata finds herself busy running a successful restaurant and providing for her five children. In 2013, before Guiré began participating in the Boulkon Epicentre Microfinance Program with The Hunger Project-Burkina Faso, her restaurant was just a small shop serving rice, soup and beans in the village market. Since obtaining a 50,000 CFA…

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Building climate change resilience in Ethiopia
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Climate change poses a serious threat, especially to people living in rural communities. Our work across Africa and South Asia places great importance on empowering our partners to build long-lasting resilience to climate change and the shocks caused by it. Shehubo Dedgeba lives in an Ethiopian village near The Hunger Project’s Wurib Epicentre — a…

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ABY’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP EMPOWERS HER FAMILY AND WOMEN IN HER COMMUNITY
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Aby Ndiaye lives in Badar Gueye, Senegal together with her five children and husband, and is an active member of The Hunger Project’s Diokoul Epicentre. After completing middle school, she attended literacy classes for two more years before becoming the main point of contact for all monitoring and evaluation activities in the village committee. Today,…

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MOISES’ STORY
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“Poverty in our village was at an extremely high level, so when I heard that The Hunger Project-Mozambique aimed to empower the community to alleviate poverty, I decided to join the program without any hesitation,” says 57-year-old Moises Fenias Malhaule. Moises lives with his family the 25 de Setembro village, in the Chokwe Epicentre of…

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Fathimath and Justin save lives at their health clinic
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At Lahotan Epicentre in central Benin, The Hunger Project-Benin is working with the local community to staff and expand a small health clinic and to promote its services among community members.   Fathimath Omighessan, 28, is an epicentre midwife who has worked at the clinic for a year, alongside two assistants and a guard. At…

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The future is bright for Namukasa
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Namukasa Kasolo Tayiha, at just 10 years old, is investing in her own education and future after participating in The Hunger Project Uganda’s training on microfinance at her primary school. These workshops, led by volunteer animators, encourage youth to start saving and are often the first steps towards economic empowerment. In Uganda, microfinance supports the…

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Meet Geeta
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Geeta was born in a middle-income family in India and was educated to the 10th grade. When Geeta was 20, she married into a new Panchayat (village) and when she arrived she was surprised that so many girls were not in school, and that they were working instead. She also saw that child marriage was common practice…

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Sara can now feed her family every day
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HOW MICROFINANCE IS ENDING HUNGER AND TRANSFORMING LIVES IN MALAWI Sara knows the heartache of poverty and hunger all too well. It used to be a daily struggle to provide her two children with even one meal a day. Too often they had to go without. The small income she earned from her fritters business…

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Stories from a day in Uganda
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Mark La Brooy was one of the participants on The Hunger Project’s Leadership Immersion Programs. He has shared some stories from his trip. “Anne was the first lady we met. She was a mix of sadness and fear but with a glimmer of hope. Anne and her husband like many in Uganda are subsistence farmers,…

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Meet Rukmani
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This is Rukmani, oppressed and discriminated against for most of her life through no other reason than being born a women into a system she now works to overcome. She holds a position of power, being elected as a Sarpunch (head) of her Panchayat (village). This quiet thinker and elected leader turned up to her first…

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Meet Razia
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After being forced to marry at 14, Razia from Bangladesh, was denied an education and was forced to stay at home and provide for her husband and children. After being trained by The Hunger Project, Razia was empowered with the knowledge of how to change her situation. She started a women’s self-help group in her community, set…

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Meet Christina
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Christina from Malawi couldn’t afford to feed her family or send her children to school before The Hunger Project came to her village. Since then, Christina has received several microfinance loans from The Hunger Project and now she has a thriving shop in her community. She says, “I used my first loans to create a…

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Meet Kenchamma
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Meet Kenchamma, a non-literate Dalit (the lowest caste) woman from Southern India. Kenchamma was selected to join her local council after her family members registered her name because they assumed she’d step aside and let them make all of the decisions. No one thought Kenchamma would actually attend the meetings and they didn’t even tell…

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Meet Amina
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Amina is from a remote community in Ghana, where hunger and poverty was a daily reality, and people lived hand-to-mouth, sometimes going without meals. After being trained by The Hunger Project, Amina developed a vision for her community where women are respected leaders and have access to microfinance loans. To achieve her dream, she stepped up to lead…

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Meet Rejeya Khatun from Naopara
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Rejeya Khatun is from Naopara, a village in the Meherpur district of Bangladesh. She was born and grew up in a lower middle class family. Her father was the only family member earning an income, through farming. Her parents had wanted to educate their daughter, but were unable to, due to their financial situation. They…

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Nurunnahar Monzu is a Woman Leader from Kewra
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Nurunnahar Monzu is a woman leader from Kewra, a village in the Jhalakathi district of Barisal region of Bangladesh. She was born and grew up in an extremely poor family. Her father, a farmer, was the sole earner in their family. Her family faced such serious financial constraints that they were not able to send…

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Meet Hadijja, one of our Elected Epicentre Leaders.
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Naigaga Hadijja Bagalana is a mother of five children and married to an agriculturist. They come from Bukona parish in Uganda and live about 4 miles from the Iganga Epicentre. Hadijja joined The Hunger Project in 2003. She says before The Hunger Project came with its  programs in microfinance, women’s empowerment and food security, she…

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Meet Elizabeth
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Elizabeth is a successful entrepreneur. With loans and training from The Hunger Project, she has grown the size of her farming land from 10 to 50 acres. She has also hired people to work for her, and expanded into other businesses like fish, clothes and poultry. Now she can send her kids to school and she’s got the…

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Meet Navali
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Navali is a 24 year old woman living in a remote tribal village in India. Her bold work has achieved remarkable results for her village. She was trained by The Hunger Project and with the skills and confidence she learned, she has worked within the system to get 4 new schools built in her area…

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Meet Sara
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With a microfinance loan from The Hunger Project, Sara bought 20kg of flour and 10L of cooking oil for her business, bricks to build her house, a pig, a mobile phone, and a bed for her children. Building on this achievement, Sara plans to open a grocery shop and teach her children to be self-sufficient…

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Meet Ranjita
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When she was elected to her local council, The Hunger Project provided training to help Ranjita fight for her rights and improve access to the health for her community. Ranjita managed to get a new health centre for babies and children put into her village, as well as 70 toilets. Her vision is that all…

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Meet Romela
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After being trained by The Hunger Project, Romela started her own family garden. The food she grows not only feeds her family but saves them money, and means that she can even sell what’s left over to bring in more income. So that others can do similar things to what Romela has achieved, she decided…

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Meet Kamla
Meet Kamla
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Kamla’s resilience brought about real change in her village. Kamla was a child bride at 11 and had her first child at 12. Trained by The Hunger Project, she was empowered and learnt negotiation skills, and boosted her self-confidence. This empowered her to solve a local problem: some men in the village were wasting precious…

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