Empower rural women to build a poultry business

When our team visited Ricardina in Mozambique earlier this year, she had exciting news to share.

Just a few months earlier, Ricardina had completed village chicken training and received a starter flock of Boschveld chickens. When we returned in March, those young birds had grown into healthy hens and were laying their very first eggs.

Ricardina was overjoyed. The eggs were the result of months of hard work, care and patience, and a sign that the opportunities she had hoped for were beginning to take shape. What started as a handful of chicks was now becoming a source of nutritious food for her family and the potential for additional income.

Stories like Ricardina's are exactly why our team continues to invest in practical, hands-on training for families across the region.

Recently, the team welcomed a new group of participants from Machubo, a rural community in Marracuene District, to begin their own village chicken journey. Training workshops focused on helping families raise healthy birds using resources already available in their communities. Participants learned how to make nutritious poultry feed from ingredients such as moringa, maize, groundnuts, cassava leaves, and even crushed eggshells and mollusc shells.

The sessions also covered poultry housing, feeding, flock management and animal health, before participants received starter flocks and feed support to help them get started.

What we love most about this approach is that it is not simply about providing chickens. It is about sharing knowledge, building confidence and helping families make the most of the resources around them. The goal is for participants to develop skills they can continue using long after the training has finished.