These Are Our Human Rights – Education, Health, Food Security, Shelter, Clean Water – Know Them, Demand Them’
“..working with Women for Change has improved my economic status. It has always been difficult for me to send my children to school and pay for the fees at the hospital. Now with the goats, I will be able to sell some [and] when they multiply, to get some money which I can use to pay for school requirements such as buying my children school uniforms and paying the hospital whenever I have a [health] problem.The goats have made us to look important in the community, they are a source of pride even those that don’t work with Women for Change want to join us”
Beneficiary of the goat restocking programme
Mrs Chiyabi Mumbwa
‘Know Them Demand Them’ project, supported by Comic Relief, was launched at the beginning of 2007 through the solid partnership between One World Action and Women for Change (WfC). Since 1991, WfC has worked with remote rural communities in Zambia, and especially with women, to contribute towards gender-sensitive sustainable development and the eradication of all forms of poverty. Know Them Demand Them aims specifically to reduce the poverty of vulnerable women and girls living with and affected by HIV/AIDS and strengthen their capacity to voice their rights and access resources within a more responsive political and public environment.
WfC provides practical support to disadvantaged women and girls living with and affected by HIV/AIDS to improve their health, nutrition and livelihoods in nine rural districts in Zambia. In addition to this, WfC seeks to improve the livelihoods of orphans and vulnerable children, especially girls, and sensitise them on the issue of discrimination.
Through the project, WfC is able to purchase and distribute seeds, fertilisers, treadle pumps and building materials for seed and food banks. In the project's first year, WfC provided 3 treadle pumps and 31 irrigation poly pipes to assist families in growing vegetables so that they can have sufficient food. This also helps ensure a sustainable income for vulnerable rural households.
During the same period, the seed for seed multiplication was distributed to new seed growers, who will make them available at affordable prices to poor rural communities for planting during the next farming season. This ensures that seed is affordable and accessible to the poorest, which include many HIV/AIDS- affected households.
