Renowned restaurant, Wahaca choose Practical Action to raise money for International Women’s Day

Practical Action was thrilled to be chosen by Wahaca as their charity of choice for International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day supperclub. Plates shared hosted by Thomasina Miers, Leyla Kazim and Crystelle Pereira.

A huge £2000 was raised for Practical Action on International Women’s Day with a supper club at Wahaca in Shoreditch!

Leyla Kazim – a Practical Action ambassador and presenter on BBC Radio 4’s award-winning The Food Programme and Crystelle Pereira, finalist on The Great British Bake Off joined forces with Wahaca co-founder, Thomasina Miers for Plates Shared: a supper club to mark this year’s International Women’s Day. The trio hosted the one-off event with guests enjoying a specially created five-course menu.

The supper club took place on the 8^th of March in Shoreditch London.

Beth Palmer, Senior Brand Management for Wahaca said “We are delighted to be supporting Practical Action with our International Women’s Day supper club this year. Their work empowering women and in the advancement of gender equality is inspiring, making them a brilliantly-placed charity for us to be working with to mark this very important day.”

Gender inclusivity in action

Working with women is essential to Practical Action’s work. Our staff are committed to understand how systems can be changed to better meet their needs, reflect their views and support their lives and well-being. We also work with men, to engage and work constructively with them to challenge assumptions, prejudices, and behaviours. We believe that gender equality is development.

Increasing food security and reducing gender inequality in Zimbabwe.

Livelihoods and Food Security in Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe, Practical Action is working to improve food security, strengthen community relationships and reduce gender inequality.

Practical Action is working intensely with 87,250 smallholder households, in Matebeleland South and Manicaland Provinces. The programme is working to ensure that women take a leading role in asset ownership and decision-making, express their views, and demand for services and rights. It does this through educational work with communities promoting awareness raising, gender advocacy, life and livelihood planning, and collective action with men and women.

Women in Energy Enterprises Kenya

Women in Kenya presenting an efficient cookstove

In Kenya, Practical Action has successfully supported over 400 women to establish energy businesses providing efficient cook stoves, fuel briquettes and solar home systems. Through training on business development skills, empowerment and leadership, they have become clean energy champions in their communities and have created employment opportunities for over 300 other local people to date.

Our clean energy programme in Kenya has helped more than 1,130,000 people experience the benefits of clean energy, reducing the time women spend collecting firewood, preventing avoidable deaths from indoor smoke and reducing pressures on forest resources.

Women farmers in Nepal using improved farming techniques.

Digital Empowerment in Nepal

In Nepal, 70% of smallholder farmers are women, as men increasingly move to cities and other countries to earn money to send back to their families. They are also more likely to be involved in farming because they do not have access to education or jobs. Women do not have the same access to loans as men do – especially in rural areas where gender bias exists.

This new project with Jersey Overseas Aid aims to remove barriers that women face and reduce poverty. Over the next three years, the project will provide women and farmers easy access to loans, agricultural insurance, banking through digital wallets, online trading and other programs that help women become familiar with the benefits of digital technology.

Discover more about our gender work: Gender Transformative Change – Practical Action