Stories of Change

“Here in the Nyabiheke refugee camp, many households struggle to find fuel for cooking each day. I used to use anything I could lay my hands on that would burn well to get the stove going – like corn cobs. But this caused a lot of smoke. It would fill the house and my children would say, “Mother, the smoke is killing us”. When I couldn’t find anything safe to burn or afford fuel to cook with, they would go to bed hungry.

With Practical Action’s support, I bought a clean cookstove. The stove has a moderate flame, and this permits the food to be cooked slowly and become very tasty. There is much less smoke in the house, so our health has improved. Now I spend half as much money on fuel; I’ve saved 7000Rwf and I spend this money on vegetables instead. Cooking is also quicker, so I have more free time.”

“I work as a toilet pit emptier for the municipality in Faridpur. It’s my job to collect faecal sludge and bring it to the treatment centre. This work supports my family, but as pit emptiers, we used to face discrimination. People thought of us as dirty people. In the roadside tea shops, people refused to serve us because of our ‘dirty job’ and the smell.

We used to have to empty the pits with our bare hands, getting faecal sludge on our faces and bodies. I used to get cuts on my hands that would get infected; going to the doctor was very expensive. Then Practical Action supported us to get protective clothing: boots, gloves, aprons, a facemask and helmets. They provided special equipment called ‘gulpers’ that mean we can empty the pit from outside – without having to get in and get dirty. Now we work more safely, we look more professional, and our job is cleaner. There is less discrimination too, thankfully.”

“My husband and I used to keep chickens for eggs and meat. We never had more than 20 birds in a month. But then we attended Practical Action’s training workshops that taught us how to transform this into a small enterprise. Now we rear around 300 birds each month! We learnt several ecological methods to reduce production costs. Growing feed in hydroponic trays uses water instead of soil, so we don’t need to irrigate as much and can recycle water. Wormeries give us extra protein for the poultry. The income boost allowed us to enrol the entire family in the National Hospital Insurance Fund.

We also signed up to be gender champions within the project. We started deciding how to share the household and business tasks between us in a fairer way. For example, Omollo always used to ferry the birds to market, but now sometimes I do it and he remains at home to prepare dinner and help the children with homework. Joint decision making has become really important and resulted in mutual understanding – we no longer differ!”

“I live on the far outskirts of Lima. We depend on farming here, but nearby mining and pollution have made the water quality bad. The rain has become very infrequent and our crops just wither away without water. I would like my community to have a better quality of life; that’s why I joined the communal tree nursery.

The tree nursery is run by women. It’s a space where we can come together to plant trees and other plants. We only plant native species. They help to draw water down into the layer of rock underground. Then we pump the water upwards and use it for watering crops and drinking. It’s safe, clean, and fresh. Other trees are used for reforestation. The nursery brings value to the community; we learn about different plants and what they can be used for. We know that planting trees is good for our wellbeing and livelihood.”