The Sole Provider, with No Rain
Anna is the only provider for her family, but what happens when there is no rain
After the passing of Anna's husband she struggled to provide for her family, but there is hope and solutions.
Anna has been the sole provider for her family since her husband passed away a few years ago. Within the Wiikiamba Village in Kenya, there are few ways to make an income, so Anna does what she can to farm and sell her produce.
For Anna, support from people like you has created a sense of hope and purpose through the tough times for both her family and community. As she shared, caring for her family alone means that she has to work long days and most weekends. “I have to work full time to ensure that my children can continue going to school. If I can continue to pay the school fees, they can keep going; it is a tough balance.” Providing for her family and being able to spend time with them is a hard balancing act.
To make things even more difficult for Anna, there has been a water shortage due to the dry season. She must walk many kilometers to the borehole and transport the water back without help from a cow or bicycle. This drastically affects the amount of water she can take home, and results in her spending hours of her day fetching water. Water shortages make farming stressful, Anna said, “the situation was better [years ago] because we received regular rainfall, if it doesn’t rain then we can’t generate money anywhere else.” Anna has found another way of farming and creating a better life for her family, thanks to you!
Anna heard success stories from other farmers in her village about new techniques, so she contacted a teacher from Fadhili Trust. Because of donors like you, Anna’s life is becoming more manageable as she works with Tearfund’s partner Fadhili Trust. Anna learned how to structure land, plant a kitchen garden, plant new crops, and create biopesticides at home. Creating a kitchen garden has been a huge support to Anna. It has given her different forms of income for when her crops are not growing well. People come to purchase produce from her garden. “This has been amazing and given me hope for future dry seasons,” said Anna excitedly.
With your help, Anna was able to build a fence for her kitchen garden using a loan from the Village Savings and Loans (VSL) group she has joined. That loan is now repaid, and she says, “it feels inspiring to know that I can make these kinds of investments for my life and the future of my children.”
There are still many hardships in Anna’s life, but now she has support and a network to get her through poor harvests and difficult periods. “God helps to give me the strength and determination to keep working.” Through savings groups and new farming techniques, Anna can spend more time with her family and help her children thrive in school and life. Without donors like you, none of this would be possible. With your support, Tearfund and its partners can help offer life-giving resources and training to people like Anna.
