Livelihoods

Food Security & Community empowerment

Save the Children carries out a project which focus on providing food security and sustained income to families involved in coffee harvest to bring them out of extreme poverty levels since they receive income only during the coffee harvest season (four months per year, at the most).

The project aims to improve and increase their income through developing their capacities of entrepreneurship, micro-enterprise and marketing. Families are provided with technical assistance to increase and diversify their agricultural production, especially vegetables and beekeeping, which enables them also to reduce post-harvest losses and have a better storage of basic grains.

Food security is also given by improving the nutrition and hygiene habits at the family and school level. Communities are now empowered to implement better nutrition practices, for instance, mothers have been trained to prepare highly nutritional snacks at school, handle and store food with correct hygiene procedures and purify water. Students have improved their hygiene habits, mostly on hand washing and use of latrines, reducing illnesses such as parasitism.