THE HUNGER PROJECT FACT SHEET

• The Hunger Project (THP) was founded in the US more than 30 years ago by,

among others, the singer/songwriter John Denver. It now works across 13 ‘programme’ countries in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. The charity’s main office in the developed world is in New York, with supporting partner country operations across Europe and Australasia

A Malawian welcome

• The Hunger Project works in partnership with grassroots people to develop effective bottom-up strategies. We have discovered three critical elements that, when combined, empower people to make rapid progress in overcoming hunger and poverty

o Mobilising people at the grassroots level to build self-reliance o Empowering women as key change agents o Forging partnerships with local government

• THP seeks to build people’s capacities, leadership and confidence. We train women and men, equipping them with the skills, methods and knowledge to take self-reliant actions to improve their lives and conditions in their communities

• The first step is the Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop (VCAW). At

this village level workshop, people create their own vision for the future, commit to achieving it and outline the actions needed to succeed. Each participant leaves the workshop with a specific project for the following three months based entirely on local resources. In achieving this first success, people’s initial inspiration develops into self-confidence. Villages then select local leaders the THP calls ‘animators’, who are trained to lead the VCAW for others in the area. As people take more substantial action, THP provides skills training in literacy, numeracy, nutrition and local laws. It also organises people into self-help groups to gain a stronger voice

Mass VCA workshop in Ghana

• It works: 375,000 trained volunteers around the world are mobilising millions

of others to take self-reliant actions. Through THP’s Epicentre Strategy in Africa, more than 100 clusters of villages have launched village level projects

to generate their own income and build classrooms, food storage facilities and nurses’ quarters to ensure ready access to health care

• About 75,000 elected women representatives in India are speaking out and

bringing water, health and education to their villages • 250,000 trained animators and volunteer youth leaders in Bangladesh are

initiating projects such as campaigns against early marriage, dowry and violence against women; education programmes for safe drinking water, nutrition and sanitation; birth registration for rural communities and income-generating activities

• The Hunger Project firmly believes that empowering women to to be key

change agents is an essential element to achieving the end of hunger and poverty. Wherever we work, our programmes aim to support women and build their capacity

• Find out more about The Hunger Project at www.thehungerproject.co.uk and

www.thp.org

SOME INSPIRING STORIES FROM THE FIELD Microfinance Leader Ensures 100 Percent Repayment Rate

Madame Djalla is president of the Kissamey Epicentre's Microfinance Programme Committee. As such, she leads 17 women's groups and has developed a monitoring system to ensure that her group members repay their loans on time. Madame Djalla Brigitte’s story of community leadership is inspiring. She is 37 years old, married and mother to one girl. She lives in

Kissamey, in the Aplahoué community in Benin. Prior to her participation with The Hunger Project, she was working on a small-scale farm with her husband. She first becomes involved during one of our Vision, Commitment and Action Workshops (VCAW). Madame Djalla is now president of the Kissamey Epicentre’s Microfinance Programme Committee and has been since 2004. As such, she leads 17 women's groups in the epicentre. She is literate and has developed a system that allows her to fulfil her duties of giving loans to women's groups and ensuring the recovery of those

loans on their due dates. She developed a tool by which she monitors all the loans allocated to women's groups. From the day following the loan disbursal, she visits all 12 epicentre partner villages to meet credit recipients in person and collect information on how the credit is being used. A month later, she goes back to the credit recipients to assess progress made in carrying out the activity for which the loan had been received. Two weeks before the first reimbursement deadline, she returns, to draw women's group leaders' attention to the forthcoming deadline and invite them to pay on the due date. Mrs Djalla has always achieved 100 percent loan repayment from women's groups under her leadership. On a personal level, she receives credit like any other member of the group. She carries out three activities with this financial support: ● buying maize in �mes of abundance and selling it at a higher price during lean seasons; ● buying maize at a low price in a market and selling it the next day in another market at a higher price; and ● farming maize and beans to cater for demands in the market. She makes consistent revenues from those activities to cater for her needs and those of her family. This allows her to pay for her children's schooling, afford regular meals for all the family, and provide decent clothing for her family, including outfits for special occasions. Her deep ambition is to lead more women to a better social status so that they may better influence decision-making at the local government level. Kenchamma Delivers Results with THP in India

Kenchamma has served four consecutive terms in Neralekere Panchayat (village council) of Chikmagalore District; three times as a panchayat member and once as Sarpanch (president). Before becoming a panchayat member, Kenchamma was active in the Self-Help Group in her village.

She belongs to a Scheduled Caste and was only allowed to be educated up to the fifth grade. Initially, she encountered discrimination from other panchayat members because of her caste and gender. Kenchamma participated in The Hunger Project-India's Women's Leadership Workshop (WLW). Slowly, she overcame the hurdles in her path by mobilising women in the Gram Sabha (village assembly). Quickly distinguishing herself as an effective leader, Kenchamma reclaimed panchayat land from encroachers, and initiated the construction of a school and an

Aanganwadi (childcare) centre. She helped to build pucca (solid) houses for the homeless and also worked to ensure that the elderly people in her district receive retirement pensions. Furthermore, she has successfully petitioned senior government officials to bring electricity to all parts of her village. Kenchamma is also an active participant of THP-supported Taluk Federation in Tarikere Block, and is a member of the Steering Committee of SUGRAMA, the state federation of elected women representatives in Karnataka.