Ms. Fatima is a 35-year-old woman; she is the mother of four children (two sons and two daughters). The family of Fatima is living in Boghavi Mughool village of Sar-e-Pul city, Sar-e-Pul province.
Fatima, like other beneficiaries of the EKRe project, has been selected through a household survey. It was Fatima’s dream to be a part of such a good program, to make a sustainable source of income to support her family financially. Fatima added, “We have a small plot of rainfed land; some years we can harvest, and some years we cannot, so we were dealing with economic challenges; even we cannot buy nutritional food.”
After the selection of the Fatima EKRe project under the name of supporting food-insecure women and their families through agriculture value chains in Sar-e-Pul province, Afghanistan, the Hand in Hand Afghanistan Organization established a poultry farming enterprise as an income generation package. The packages contained 20 pieces of layer chicken, 100 kg of chicken feed, 1 metal door, 2 pieces of feeder, 2 pieces of water pot, 1 piece of rain gutter, 14 kg of limestone powder, 1 piece of ventilation, 1.5 meters of wire mesh, 1 pair of sandals, and 100 pairs of disposable gloves. Besides, Fatima has received poultry farming technical training from the HIHAO.
“Through HIHAO technical training, now I am familiar with how to manage a poultry farm, such as layer chicken hygiene, feeding, vaccinations, viruses, and marketing, so it encouraged me to expand the poultry farm through regeneration,” said Fatima. The HIHAO-distributed layer chicken started laying eggs; the family is using the egg as a meal, and they are selling it to the market for income generation.
In addition to this, Fatima is one of the volunteers in the life skills classes. In the last two months, she has been attending regularly in classes, and she is one of the intelligent participants in this class. Fatima added, “Writing and reading was my main dream; joining this project, was a great opportunity for me to learn writing and reading.”
In the end, I would like to sincerely thank HIHAO and its supporters for achieving my incomplete goals. I hope HIHAO creates such opportunities for other women whose families are in dire living situations.
