This Giving Tuesday, you can double your impact and help women like Mabel step into their leadership.

Nothing will change until we do.

40-year-old Mabel lives in the farming community of Mintakrom, Ghana, and has been working with The Hunger Project for six years. Recalling life before The Hunger Project came to her community, she says: “I had no sense of direction or purpose.”

Mabel was raising three children on her own, selling plastic bowls at the local market and tending maize and cassava fields. Money was scarce, and she carried the stigma her community attached to unmarried mothers. There was a time when the weight of it all almost became unbearable. Then everything changed when she engaged with The Hunger Project.  The team didn’t come with handouts. They came with a proposition. “They made it clear there would be no financial reward, only the opportunity to create lasting change,” Mabel recalls.

Through Vision, Commitment and Action workshops, she redefined a vision for her life. She never completed her education, so she pledged that her children would. Then came the chance to participate in a local women’s leadership training, where she stood in front of a group for the first time. “We were taught how to speak confidently in public, and I discovered that women also have the right and ability to lead,” she recalls. “Before then, I never imagined I could stand before people and speak.” Encouraged by this newfound confidence, Mabel decided to run for Area Council Chairperson, taking her first step into community leadership.

She ran for Area Council Chairperson. She won. Then she used her power. 

Deeply engaged with her community, Mabel was committed to being an active leader. At every Area Council meeting in the Okere District, she raised the same concerns: families in Mintakrom were walking roughly 42 minutes to reach health care, putting pregnant women, children and elderly residents at the greatest risk. She continued raising these concerns until her persistence paid off. Finally, the government established a Community-based Health Planning and Services in her region. But Mabel knew her work wasn’t over. Remembering what it felt like to struggle to feed her own children, she also advocated for the introduction of the national School Feeding Programme in Mintakrom. Mabel was not only strengthening her community at large, she also offered a helping hand to anyone who needed it. When a local mother needed help getting a wheelchair for her child with a disability, it was Mabel she went to, knowing she would listen and act. The woman who was once shamed became a person her peers relied on.

“If you ask for something and don’t follow up, it won’t be done,” she says.

Remembering what it felt like to struggle to feed her own children, Mabel helped expand the national School Feeding Programme. She hoped that no child in her community would have to sit through lessons on an empty stomach.

Nothing about Mabel’s circumstances changed before she did. The health facility, the school meals, the standing she holds in Mintakrom—all of it started with a woman deciding that her situation didn’t determine her future.

Six years after she was inspired to get involved, Mabel is still showing up. Still raising her hand at every meeting. Still following up until the job is done. And still keeping the promise that started it all: her children will get the education she never had.

Her story isn’t finished and neither is this work. Somewhere right now, another woman like Mabel is preparing to step into her leadership and redefine her future. When you invest with The Hunger Project, you are supporting the growth and development of leaders just like Mabel. These leaders are engaging in women’s empowerment trainings, learning new skills that can be applied in agriculture and business, and driving progress that strengthens entire communities.

Photo credits for images above: Ghana 2026. All photos are for The Hunger Project.