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Success After Struggle: A Mother Improves Life for Her and her Family

January 4, 2016

“My woes and cries will be gone and I will not be working on other people’s farm for a living.”

Before becoming an active member of The Hunger Project-Ghana, Madam Faustina Poku struggled to make ends meet for herself and her six children. As a widow, she had no support from other family members, and feeding her children as well as paying for their education proved to be extremely problematic and Faustina faced difficulties generating enough income. She had little knowledge about best farming practices, such as acquisition and use of improved planting materials, row planting, plant spacing, soil fertility improvement and weed control.

In 2009, Faustina was nominated by her fellow community members to serve on The Hunger Project’s seven-member community committee at Bompata. With education provided by Vision, Commitment and Action (VCA) workshops and a series of improved agriculture education classes called Agriculture Training of Trainers (TOTs), Faustina managed to double the yield of maize on the same acre of farmland. Still, farming was not generating enough income to fully support herself and her family.

With loans from The Hunger Project’s Microfinance Program, Faustina was able to invest in improved food production methods, which allowed her to further increase her income level. As a dedicated member involved in many epicenter activities, Faustina has become a partner in the Adomfe Epicenter cocoa nursery project, where the community was able to raise about 12,000 seedlings, with roughly 10,000 surviving in 2015 alone.

Faustina’s children now  have had good level of basic education and the youngest one just completed his Basic Education Certificate Exams (BECE). She intends to support her children to attain advanced levels of education where they can be better placed in society. Madam Faustina Pokua was trained as community animator in 2011 and since then has demonstrated remarkable leadership qualities and mobilization skills in Adomfe Epicenter.

This Mother’s Day, empower mothers like Faustina with a special investment in The Hunger Project.  

Learn More:

Ending Hunger in GhanaRead about our Epicenter Strategy in Africa
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