Empower 103 Households for their Livelihoods

May 7, 2019 Third report Project ID: 32851 Project Title: Empower 103 households for their livelihoods Rain season is here; plantation season in Yambio, Gbudue State of South is divided into two. The first season begins in April with fair quantity of rainfall till July, the second season commences in August to late November but characterized by heavy storm and far less rainwater. The communities in Yambio are heavily engaged in plantation of ground nuts and maize as the major crops; ground nuts provides paste for preparing soup and maize grains ground to provide food to accompany the soup. Cassava is also grown to supply leaves as vegetables and tubers boiled to supply food. The community pattern of feeding is very poor, not diversified and therefore, so many associated malnutrition consequences in children and adults; sores on legs, stunted growth and poor human development. Actually, the consequences stem from etiologies such as low birth weight, premature delivery, persistent diarrhea and recurring sepsis or chronic underlying diseases or disability and the development of severe acute malnutrition in tender age is commonly reflected in suboptimal feeding practices. More than 50% of households in Yambio generally experience severe acute malnutrition which is often associated with high mortality in young infants and it has effects on children as a whole; Mental retardation, stunted growth, poor immune system, micronutrient deficiency, GI tract infections, anaemia and inevitably - death. Any support to help the poor community in Yambio to grow food for themselves will surely help the human race on this planet to survive. Community Skills Development supports the 103 households of single mothers by the provision of extension services, help to diversify cropping and vegetables species with tomatoes, egg plants, Okra, and educate on harsh climate mitigation measures. Irrigation method has been taken up and practiced. Single mothers still keep the desire to seek remedies to their own poverty challenges and Community Skills Development has kept the teams/groups; a) Women Farmers b) Tailoring group and c) Hair dressing group. Each group is steadily engaged in the above self-empowerment strategies but inadequacy of resources is the main challenge. Part of the story Community Skills Development majorly supports impoverished women in Gbudwe State where Yambio is the headquarters of that State. The total number of our target population is 17,000 Households in Gbudwe state for various services. Community Skill Development was established in the year 2008 and since then we have provided some farmers with agricultural tools and seeds, fed malnourished children, sponsored orphans and trained women in tailoring skills. When needy women hear about community skills development, they come to express their interest to join the groups but unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to absorb additional numbers and neither can we expand for limited resources. In 2018, only 30 single mothers were admitted to the farming group and to be supported for 3 years (2020); hoping that the trainings and orientations received will have endowed them for self-resilience. Since CSD has not received enough funding to support both the tailoring and hair dressing groups, the funding through Globalgiving is placed on the agriculture groups while hoping that our supporters will commit some resources to the empowerment of vulnerable women for tailoring and hair dressing. We have now introduced Merry-go-round saving system; this is where the women are encouraged to sale their produce and raise funds. When they raise some money, they promote monthly contributions and this collection is given to a member per a month and the other month, it is given to another person; this process goes round and round. I must indicate that our writing to our supporters/ the donors has not met the quality and flavor to clearly illustrate the need- I guess, as it would seem the program is just freezing due to lack of funding. We are very ready to have some direct conversions if need be, to make clarifications and the provision of more details. The Government is highly incapacitated to support service delivery programs to the communities; health, livelihoods, or transport network etc. The hope remains with NGOs and CBOs for humanitarian support. While the empowerment project is targeting three different groups constituting the 103 households, our dream is to empower vulnerable women groups to farm, to create small business via hair dressing and tailoring. We are well above 1/3 on the success but how we wish to achieve at least 2/3 of the target. We remain grateful and thanking you very much. Ignatius Mborihenga Director Community Skills Development Yambio, Gbudwe State South Sudan