Reflections on HORUWO's Community Beekeeping Project

Hope for Rural Women (HORUWO), a community-based organization in the Kasese District of Uganda working to implement community health education and livelihood improvement projects, has just wrapped up their beekeeping project. This project was created in response to climate change, which has caused  both extreme flooding and droughts and nearly wiped out the region’s farming industry. HORUWO sought to create a sustainable source of income for men and women facing poverty, HIV/AIDS and illiteracy. The Kasese district has an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 11.2%, creating major health problems for men and women who are already facing poverty. 

The organization found that beekeeping could be a sustainable replacement for traditional farming. The raw materials to create beehives are readily available and honey has a number of medicinal properties, in addition to being highly valued in local and international markets. Beehives are much less sensitive to extreme changes in weather which makes it a smart long term source of income. Beginning in February of 2022, the organization selected 35 members of the community who lacked a source of income, many due to HIV/AIDS and illiteracy, to train in beekeeping. They purchased 15 beehives and trained the cohort on how to manage an apiary, collect honey and sell it at market. 

They have just completed their first cohort of the program and it was a success. The beehives are thriving, and the community members are now able to provide for themselves and are beginning to earn income through this new skillset. HORUWO has received additional funding from Rockflower and is now looking to the future and hopes to expand the project and create livelihoods for even more people in poverty.

Rockflower Partners with New Elementary, Namibia

Rockflower is pleased to announce our recent partnership with New Elementary Early Childhood Education (NEECE), an NGO based in Namibia with the mission of improving the quality and raising the standard of Early Childhood Education in vulnerable communities. The organization works to revitalize schools and create stimulating and safe learning environments that support the cognitive development of children.

New Elementary operates on the basis that high-quality early care and education is a crucial component of a child’s holistic development. This becomes particularly important in settings where children are exposed to the adverse childhood experiences commonly associated with living in poverty.  

Rockflower will be supporting New Elementary in the revitalization of their second school, Mountain Kindergarten. This preparatory school is located in Goreangab, in the Hadino Hishongwa district of the Samora Machel Constituency in Katutura, Windhoek – amongst the city’s most impoverished settlements. The school operates as both a daycare and pre-primary school for children ages 6 months to 3 years old. The team at New Elementary will work with the school staff to improve the physical structure of the building, enhance the learning environment and curriculum, and provide training and capacity building opportunities to the teachers. 

All children deserve access to quality education in a safe environment, and educators require adequate facilities and materials to provide the best education possible. New Elementary is working hard to make this a reality for children in schools across Namibia.

Reflections on our Partner Workshop Series

In the fifteen years it has taken to build Rockflower Partners, one thing has been central to our mission, and that is to ensure that every single partner feels seen, heard and to know that their lived experiences and voices matter. Finding a way for them to translate that agency into a shared platform with access to best practices, challenges and solutions has long been a goal, but as a small team it has been tough to facilitate.  However, after the January 2022 partner survey responses made clear, now more than ever there was a need to find a way to make this happen. 

So this summer we embarked on our first Partner Workshop Series. By inviting all of our current partners from across twenty two countries to come together for a five week series of zoom meetings, they were able to learn directly from each other, as well as from Rockflower Board Directors and Advisory Board members. Each week throughout July, we hosted a conversation on the Rockflower Five Key Framework: Economic Empowerment, Maternal & Reproductive Health, Education, Access to Food & Water and Peace & Security. 

Choosing four speakers from within the partner community and the wider Rockflower network, with specific experience on the designated key, allowed for a broad but deep exchange of experiences, challenges, ideas and thoughtful connection. Each session finished with thirty minutes of open discussion in which attending partners could ask questions, contribute their own experiences, and get to know each other better. 

Many important findings have emerged from this workshop series. Perhaps most gratifying has been the overwhelmingly positive feedback from partners at their delight in being able to see themselves mirrored in so many of their fellow community based organizations and social enterprises around the world. The sense of not being alone in some of these often impossible scenarios held incalculable value for all of the participants. 

Another very important insight from the workshops was the degree to which each one provided a thread of conversation that could be woven into the following week’s key topic. Economic Empowerment led to conversations about women's power over their own bodies in Maternal and Reproductive Health, which led on to the importance of continued secondary and tertiary Education for women and girls.  In the conversation on Access to Food and Water, addressing the existential threat of climate change and the rising cost of food as drivers of conflict and instability, touched on many of the issues discussed in the final workshop on Peace and Security. 

Rockflower believes in the philosophy of “Radical Idealism, Practically Realized”. We deliberately positioned these workshops to provide an overview of the larger global perspective, but then demonstrated how armed with that knowledge, partners could use it in the precise application of practical solutions to their everyday problems. Partners sensed hope in the sharing of ideas and the meaningful engagement and connection with each other, which has led to some new substantive solutions and ideas. We are witnessing just how strongly this connective root system will impact the growth of the Rockflower garden as we build our “seed to canopy” funding model. Please read more for some of the key takeaways from each workshop. 

Economic Empowerment

Roseline, Haja, Charlot and Constance started us off with a vibrant and lively conversation on Economic Empowerment. Not surprisingly with four powerhouse African women leaders, the discussion was frank, heart centered and of course filled with a great deal of humor.   

The discussion began with an opportunity to talk about what it really meant to be “empowered”, and more specifically “economically empowered”.  An overused word in many instances, we focused on the growing need for access to capital, training and business opportunities that actually lead to funding, and the best way to access markets. This laid bare the fundamental reality of just how much women contribute to the foundational strength of the economy of any nation. 

Charlot shared her deep frustration at the misconception that African women entrepreneurs need to receive ongoing training before they can access funding. She reflected on a quote that summed it up for her:

 “The most over-mentored and underfunded woman is the African Female Entrepreneur.”

As a young mother of 16, growing up in the slums of Mukuru in Nairobi, she had trained herself on the skills of entrepreneurship out of the sheer necessity of having to feed her child. 

This was echoed by Lucy Odiwa, of WomenChoice Industries later in the Q&A section, who shared the countless number of times she had been asked to attend training so that she could “train” to be a viable candidate to receive funding, only to be told to go on another training.  Whereas men are trusted to be given the funding right from the start without the requisite “training”. 

 “The problem with the world is imagining that if we are going to give women the chance we first have to set them up for success, but they have already set themselves up for success and all you have to do is trust them and get out of their way” - Charlot Magayi 

Roseline and Haja shared similar experiences in accessing funding for their community based organizations -  African Youth Alliance in Cameroon and FOWACE in Liberia. The barriers included being unable to receive funding without an audit or extensive list of previous project impact, but as they aptly pointed out, how can you show that before you have been given funding to bring your vision to life? The suggestions of  “go create some impact and then come back and tell us how you did so we can decide if we want to fund you”, are so frustrating when you cannot do that without funding in the first place. 

Additional practical advice for the partners on the call from Roseline was to suggest that they maintain an internet presence even with the simplest of websites and/or social media. Continue to keep growing networks and always ask for referrals, this is what builds trust and confidence. 

Haja described the importance of women’s savings groups in being not only a place to learn and be mentored on business management and savings but as a way to come together and share problems and experiences. This sense of community and distributed leadership is what has inspired so many of the women to continue with the program. 

Constance was keen to express a plea to financing institutions at all levels to acknowledge the unequal processes in place for women entrepreneurs. Stop asking for collateral and instead see women’s bold visions for what they are worth. Empowerment for Constance means the ability to make decisions for yourself and this is what led to her vision for the Women Advocacy Project. To prevent child marriage in four districts around Harare, Zimabawe, finding a way to provide economic empowerment was essential. This led to the creation of Clean Girls Soap, a social enterprise, run and managed by girls who had previously been on track for child marriage. 

The conclusion: It's not very complicated - give women the money and they will return it ten fold to their communities.  

Maternal & Reproductive Health

The conversation on Maternal & Reproductive Health was extremely informative, whilst also deeply personal.  Lucy, Dr. Chris, Somto and Audrey, shared wide ranging perspectives on the cultural taboos, personal challenges and direct assault on menstrual health hygiene, family planning, and choice and consent over women’s bodies. 

Despite these organizations being very different in size and mission, they share a common goal - to ensure that more girls and young women have access to reproductive education and menstrual hygiene products, which results in greater retention in secondary school, greater accessibility to higher education and increased employment opportunities. Lucy and Audrey who both run menstrual hygiene social enterprises - WomenChoice based in Tanzania and Be Girl currently working in several countries in Latin America and Africa, shared their personal experiences as to what led to their involvement in menstrual health.  

Lucy gave a brutally honest assessment of her own experience of starting her menstrual cycle, and the accompanying shame and embarrassment that led her to want to ensure that other girls did not suffer a similar fate by developing affordable menstrual hygiene products and education materials. 

“It is really important for a woman and a young girl to understand themselves initially, first of all as an individual, to know their worth, to know how they should be handled actually…Girl empowerment is nothing dangerous, it simply tells a girl that you are free to have a dream of your own, you are free to have a vision.” - Lucy Odiwa 

Audrey, although based in Washington DC, had spent time working on cross-sectoral issues in Ethiopia and saw how menstrual health for young girls was a key leverage point in ensuring access to education and mental well being.  She shared how Be Girl is extremely focused on ensuring young girls receive the education they need to know and understand their bodies and showed us an example of the manual period tracker that Be Girl has developed. 

Dr. Chris and Somto from the Society for the Improvement of Rural People in Enugu State, Nigeria, were delighted to be able to contribute to the conversation, given that there is so much taboo around men discussing these topics. 

Dr. Chris explained, “It’s a taboo almost, to talk about issues around menstrual poverty or menstrual issues” and went on to describe how they work to address many of the myths around menstrual hygiene and the misinterpretation of religious and cultural beliefs which can sow disinformation and doubt on an already complicated topic. 

As Gender Lead for SIRP, Somto reiterated:  “The importance of men and boys can not be overemphasized …It is so important to have men and boys as allies.” - Somto Ugwu 

It was indeed extremely gratifying to see so many men on this call.  Tonny from Hope for the Future, Uganda made the extremely salient point that individuals and communities should continue to question why governments spend trillions of dollars on defense when the equivalent spent on the health and wellbeing of women and children would generate exponential benefits in security for nations. This was an issue we would revisit in our next three workshops. 

Education

Despite a great deal of progress in ensuring more girls have access to education, today there are still 130 million girls who lack the ability to go to school. One of the most devastating side effects of the COVID pandemic has been the impact it has had on girls education worldwide, particularly in countries such as Uganda where schools were closed for over 2 years. 

However, this period of time has also seen a fast tracking of many innovative solutions in the delivery of education. By upending traditional formats and looking at cost effective ways to ensure those in rural communities with little access to the internet gain access to learning, there has been a real momentum to use this crisis as an opportunity. 

With Tania, Siddique, Miriam and Dancan, we were able to hear from leaders from a cross section of understanding and experience regarding the value of education across different cultural and social contexts from Colombia, Pakistan, Kenya and the USA.

We talked about existing barriers to accessing education including the impact of poverty, access to technology and digital education and how to broaden the types of education girls receive by looking toward global future needs. 

One of the most important themes to emerge from the workshop was the concept of role models and representation. When discussing the hugely significant impact of the election of Francia Marquez, the first female Afro Colombian to hold the office of Vice President, Tania stressed how monumental this was for poor indigenous women to understand that there was actually a path out of poverty through education and mentorship, together with sheer bravery and determination. 

“It is always important that we keep representation in mind, because we cannot be what we can not see” - Tania Rosas

Another big topic was that of access to information. Dancan wanted to point out that similar to representation you do not know what you are capable of until you have a better understanding of what resources are available to you. Key to his work with Jiwo Paro is to ensure a wider distribution of information so that women can access their own inborn talent. 

Siddique stressed the importance of engaging the decision makers at the government level who have control over the gender budgets. A key component of the success of the Bridging the Digital Divide: from Colombia to Pakistan, the Rockflower pilot project being implemented by Tania and Siddique, has been the ability to act as a catalyst for the Ministry of Education to scale up the project. 

Miriam’s perspective as a lawyer brought a wider lens to the subject of Education by linking to an understanding of fundamental laws and rights, “There are laws in place for a reason, you are entitled to live a better life… and this can often lead to more political and civic engagement… If you understand your fundamental rights… then you can engage in the political process” - Miriam Foley 

But time is running out and as Tania reminded us at the end of the workshop, there are so many young people whose potential is being stymied through sheer lack of access and opportunity. 

Access to Food & Water

The number of people classed as “acutely food insecure” by the UN before the Covid crisis was 130 million, but this has since increased to 345 million due to the crisis in Ukraine. 50 million people are just one step away from famine. The rising cost of fertilizers and fuel, and the ongoing threat of catastrophic weather, is adding to an already heightened sense of fear and chaos, creating the perfect storm for social unrest, political instability, forced migration and the continued deep suffering of already marginalized communities. 

Against this rather gloomy backdrop, we had an opportunity with Brianna, Lucas, and Anandan (Twisi was unable to join us on the day) to provide some insight into the different types of food and water security issues at a local level, in the very different geographies of The Gambia, Nicaragua and India. 

Lucas and Brianna discussed their respective experiences and approaches to working as outsiders in community based programs and social enterprises. As a vet and social entrepreneur, Brianna has been able to bring her expertise without enforcing or prescribing solutions not generated by the community. Lucas shares this ethic and has worked closely with the women of L’Astillero to ensure that all decisions were participatory, in particular the budgeting and agroecology center planning.  Humility was the key word, and prompted discussion on the value of the traditional and indigeneous learned experience. 

Anandan held particular expertise in this regard,  detailing his work in ensuring indigenous knowledge on how to purify water is preserved through oral and written tradition. Local knowledge is key to transforming systems and communities. 

Lucas and Anandan also both referenced the ability of communities to build seed banks as a practical tool to ensure food security. Lucas detailed his own revelations when building the Center of Agroecology, that the reason that he could not access seeds was because they were all controlled by a few large multinational corporations. These were the same choices available to the local community of Astillero. The other partners on the call really liked the idea of seed banks and made plans to cross pollinate ideas in this regard. 

We also discussed localization vs globalization of food supply chains and the importance of diversifying farms and livestock as one form of mitigation against the effects of climate change. Brianna highlighted the difference between food security and food sovereignty, and how because of international food and trade policy so many people in emerging economies do not have ownership over their food production. Nutritious foods are cost prohibitive, for example milk is 16 times more expensive than rice in The Gambia, which is why the focus at Gambian Goat Dairy is to deliver cost effective animal source protein. 

We touched on the issue of land rights for women and referenced a recent Landesa paper "Women and Dirt"  in which they make the case for gender parity in land rights as a solution to issues of food security. 

One thing was clear  - waiting for the international community to fix climate change was too much of a long shot for so many of our partners. They need solutions today. 

“If the community of Astillero waits for the global community of politicians and diplomats to solve climate change, they are all going to be dead by the time that’s done so we need to prepare for building resilience on the ground” - Lucas Worsdell

Peace & Security

By providing a broad overview as to what peace and security means in different contexts and settings, but then to show how this directly affects communities and individuals, we were able to ensure that the partners on the call could draw a line between the information shared and their daily experiences. 

Peace and Security is not just the absence of war, it is a multi-layered understanding of the needs and wants of different groups and communities, at a personal, local, national and international level. 

With Dr. Alice, Rajaa, Sahana and John, we had a wide ranging conversation on what it takes to develop systems and strategies to counter violence, greed and injustice.  All of them have deep experience and a personal commitment to building a world in which peace is paramount.

Dr. Alice delivering her remarks in French, (our grateful thanks for translation by Will Burgat)  brought us into the heart of the issue, by describing the daily task of helping victims of atrocities become survivors and then contributors in the redesign of their communities through their lived experience.  There was a deep weariness in her voice as she described the continued witnessing of rape and murder and the daily repercussions of a reality in which Security Resolution 1325 does not actually live up to its intention. There are still not enough women involved in the concrete actions to bring about peace. In 2020 she was involved in talks with armed groups in order to bring more women to the discussion but was met with push back and the suggestion that they should only come if they bring women with weapons to the talks. Her plea was to ask how the UN can find a way to insist that more women from civil society are present at the “real peace talks” not just the secondary track two discussions. 

Rajaa shared the deeply personal experience of her father, a policial and human rights activist, having been detained and tortured in a Syrian prison for almost ten years of her life. When the uprising began in Syria in 2011 she was studying for her PhD in Mathematics in the US, but returned home to Syria knowing that she had to be involved in documenting the human rights abuses. She started CCSD with a group of activists determined to see a better future for the women of Syria, and continues to engage with civil society activists, youth leaders and all those wishing to see a greater emphasis on the women, peace and security agenda. She is extremely keen to ensure that all the lessons learned from the last ten years of work in Syria be shared with those in conflict situations so that all of the rich resources and learnings can be put to good use. 

 Sahana gave us a detailed analysis of the work of bringing multi stakeholders together in order to ensure the agenda of Women, Peace and Security is put front and center in the minds of policy decision makers. She applauded the partners on the call for their bravery and willingness to imagine a better and more peaceful world and for their consistent daily work to make this a reality.  Indeed, Security Council Resolution 1325 came from women in the Global South saying to those in the North - “What you are doing is not working, we need a better way” . She also reiterated the need for a collective vision of what peace would look like, and to take a step back to assess what is working and what is not.  By being willing to co-create something better there exists a real potential for a more secure world. .  

“Women want to change the dominant security narrative  … for the benefit of everyone. We can change the narrative of what is possible by seeing through a feminist lens” - Sahana Dharmapuri

John took us deep into the reality of the “captured state” - which is what happens when war economies take hold and become a perpetual money making machine for a few corrupt individuals. In order to tip the balance for those living in these countries who want an even playing field, the importance of using the tools of network sanctions and challenging the incentive structures that reward violence and authoritarianism cannot be overstated.  John’s decades of work in the DRC meant that he was particularly in tune with Dr. Alice’s deep feelings of frustration and shared how his own journey had evolved as an activist, to focus on dismantling the means by which war machines and kleptocracies thrive. This was a timely discussion, as his piece in Project Syndicate last week demonstrated on the occasion of Secretary Blinken’s visit to the Congo and Rwanda. 

We finished with a conversation on why Peace and Security is so difficult to fund, and not just in the world of philanthropy. As the world keeps spending trillions of dollars fighting wars only to rebuild after the destruction, a tiny portion of that invested in prevention would bring untold dividends.

“It's so hard to quantify the results of investments in peace” - John Prendergast

Conclusion: 

This was just the beginning of a series of workshops that Rockflower will be producing throughout the year as we digest the conversations and dig deeper into other ways to ensure that our partners have access to a shared platform of tools, techniques and approaches that can continue to contribute to the improvement of life and well being for so many women and girls and their communities. 

We are grateful to everyone who participated and thank all of our speakers for their insights, vision and clarity. 

Rockflower Partners with Flicker of Hope, Kenya

Rockflower is pleased to announce our newest partnership with Flicker of Hope, a community based organization located in Nyamira County, Kenya. The organization aims to organize and empower vulnerable rural populations in drought prone areas, with an emphasis on women and children, by helping them to build sustainable livelihoods and to empower the communities to become self-reliant. Rockflower has provided funding for their project, Promoting Smokeless Fuel & Sustainable Incomes for Women, which will be addressing a number of issues including resource and water scarcity, deforestation, pollution, public health, and the lack of sustainable employment in the area. 

Nyamira County is an area with very few options for earning a living. The area is prone to crop failure and drought. One of the only consistent resources in the area has been wood from the forests, which are used for fires and building materials. However, the prevalence of deforestation has caused the few watersheds in the area to dry up. Due to a lack of resources, the forest is being destroyed, water is being depleted and the air is becoming polluted from all of the smoke. 

Flicker of Hope is partnering with Rockflower to bring smokeless bio-briquettes and cookstoves to the county. This project will reduce deforestation, utilize untapped resources, increase public health, and provide income to rural women who will produce the bio-briquettes. The briquettes are made primarily from brush and bushes, which until now have not been utilized as a resource and also inhibit forest growth.

Additionally, this is a self employment opportunity for rural men and women. They will train people on how to collect the brush and provide a consistent source of income to those people. Jobs will also be created through the production of the bio-briquettes as well as through distribution and transportation of the product. The organization will focus on providing jobs to disadvantaged women and girls. 

Rockflower looks forward to working with Flicker of Hope as they promote the effective utilization of resources, conservation and preservation of the environment, improved opportunities for child education, adoption of healthy & hygienic lifestyles, financial inclusion, skills development, entrepreneurship & women empowerment.

Rockflower congratulates Board Director Charlot Magayi on being named one of Forbes Africa 30 under 30 for 2022

Rockflower is delighted to congratulate Board Director, Charlot Magayi, on yet another well deserved recognition of her work to bring clean cooking technology to underserved communities through her organization, Mukuru Clean Stoves

Charlot was just named as one of Forbes Africa 30 under 30 2022. With over 600 nominations and an in-depth referral process the competition was high, but Charlot’s story and the magnitude of her achievements proved to be a winner. 

“Our journey with Charlot began in 2017 when she was raising initial investment for her Mukuru Clean Stoves social enterprise. We provided very early funding for a proof of concept, from which she was able to leverage other sources of funding and bring her vision to life. I could not be more thrilled for Charlot for this recognition, as she is the embodiment of grit, resilience and determination. She brings a unique perspective to all that she does and blesses all those she meets with her empathy and understanding.  We were fortunate to have her join the Rockflower Board of Directors in February 2021. As I was quoted in the Forbes piece - watch this space - she will be President of Kenya before too long!”  - Tine Ward, Founder and CEO, Rockflower Partners Inc. 

In addition to this recognition from Forbes, Charlot was also awarded the Waislitz Global Citizen Award in 2019, The World Bank’s Inaugural SDG’s and Her First Prize and the 2019 AWIEF Empowerment Award for her work empowering marginalized women in Kenya and her fight against indoor air pollution.

This past Mother’s Day Rockflower highlighted the importance of the Mothering Economy in celebrating mothers and those tasked with mothering. Looking at our current economic structures from the perspective of mothering, there are many other ways to measure progress that are not limited to traditional metrics of growth.

Within the Rockflower partner family, there are so many mothers and other individuals tasked with mothering who demonstrate daily the deep breadth of knowledge available in how to keep households, communities and nations thriving. By listening to their wisdom as they insist on a different future for their children and grandchildren, we can place ourselves at the center of their willingness to nurture, not just your own child, but every child, with a capacity to imagine a future based not on “getting” but on “giving”, and an intrinsic ability to predicate all of this on a practical and achievable framework.

Charlot is the embodiment of this future and this mindset, something that has been known by so many women for decades, understanding that a new economic paradigm really is possible if those who are best positioned to direct the funds are given the opportunity to do so. 

“It [the mothering economy ] would mean that the economy as a whole world would function to serve and nurture the most underdeveloped economies within it, that the accumulation of wealth from one economy at the expense of another that has not yet matured, would not be looked down upon. The 'maternal gaze' would be a more selfless, rather than selfish approach to obtaining and distributing wealth.” - Charlot Magayi 

Rockflower's 2022 Partner Survey

In January 2022, Rockflower sent out a short survey of ten questions to our current and past partners. We received 28 responses from 16 countries. What we found was a common thread of mutual respect, understanding and a fierce determination to keep going against all odds. 

Rockflower began a decade ago with the simple intention to get more money into the hands of women and girls on the global margins,through a holistic Five Key framework. This would then provide them with agency and opportunity to make decisions about their lives.

We are a small team with a mighty will to ensure that we do all we can to provide funding and support to our partners. We are called Rockflower Partners Inc. for the simple reason that we are the sum total of our partners' needs and their subsequent successes. 

This survey provided a great deal of insight into the challenges our partners are facing, their visions for growing their organizations, views of Rockflower and its own plans for growth, and their strong desire to collaborate across organizations and nations. 

One of the questions asked was about receiving follow-on funding from other organizations after receiving funding from Rockflower. We were delighted to find that 92% of our partners who responded to the survey, the majority of whom had no access to international funding before partnering with Rockflower, were able to attract follow-on funding from other global organizations. This clearly demonstrates the value of being the first to fund small community based organizations and social enterprises. 

The ability of our partners to obtain follow-on funding is a clear demonstration of the Currency of Mind™. Rockflower’s philosophy is that the Currency of Mind™ is the most valuable and powerful currency that exists, everything of value starts with an idea created in someone’s mind and when shared it increases, expands and takes on energy. We place the Currency of Mind™ at the center of all of our work. 

We asked our partners to describe what the concept of The Currency of Mind™meant to them.  YSWID in Uganda shared that, “Even when we don't know where money will come from we listen to people in our community and offer to find a solution to their challenges. The ideas people have about their challenges are very important for the success of the project so we respect them and we offer to help them even when we don't have money."

Another key finding from the survey was our partners’ strong desire to collaborate and learn from one another. Over 90% of our partners indicated a desire to communicate and collaborate with other partners within the Rockflower Family and demonstrated a willingness to network across areas of expertise and different geographies. With this insight, we are planning to create virtual spaces for collaboration and growth.

JWAS, a partner organization based in Nepal told us, “We would also like to increase our networking with like minded organizations. We believe that knowledge sharing, learning exchange and networking help us to grow. So we would like to share the impact of our work to the global audience, this could be done by in person visit as well as virtually. Similarly, we are interested in conducting the learning exchange event and to share the outcomes to the global audience."

The survey also asked about the biggest challenges faced by each organization. Our partners have persevered through extreme obstacles including war, famine, political unrest, and most recently by supporting their communities through the pandemic. What is abundantly clear is their need for additional resources.  

Organizations like Gambia Goat Dairy, have gone on to meet with great success, but this was not always the case, they credit Rockflower with funding them in the gaps when it was really difficult to obtain mid-level funding. 

They told us, “[One of our biggest challenges has been] mid-scale funding. We had an influx of seed funding but struggled to find funding to scale our results from 5 years of work in Gambia – Rockflower completely supported this transition first with targeted smaller-scale funding for necessary projects (2019-2020) which catalyzed our development as a teaching and research program. Then they stepped in to help us scale through Penn Global HAREF matching support – an essential component of mid-scale funding that will allow us to expand over the next three years.”

Responses like these have illustrated the need for a Seed to Canopy™ funding model, something we have been developing for a number of years and plan to implement in the near future. This model will provide ongoing restorative financing opportunities to those at all stages of the investment process, strengthening capacity and longevity for all involved. 

One last key finding from our survey was less tangible, but for us, one of the most important. Partners indicated their respect for Rockflower’s willingness to consistently engage in honest, meaningful conversations. They felt that the team was approachable, and that they could be transparent in their requests and engagement. When asked for five words to describe Rockflower, the most repeated words were: Trustworthy, Authentic, Reliable, Practical, Loving and Empathetic.

Overall, the partner survey proved to be an incredibly useful tool that will help shape our future endeavors. It is evident that our partners truly feel part of the Rockflower Family knowing that they all have valuable insights and knowledge to share. As we work consistently towards increasing investment capital to fund our future Seed to Canopy™ model, creating collaborative spaces for our partners and continuing to develop the Currency of Mind will be uppermost in our minds.  

Please consider becoming a monthly gardener to bring these visions to life:

A Year in Review from Gambia Goat Dairy

Gambia Goat Dairy is a team of Gambian agriculturalists and Penn Vet faculty and students dedicated to creating a brighter, more livable future through creating productive and environmentally conscious agricultural systems that alleviate poverty, improve maternal and child nutrition, and prioritize community wellbeing. Since 2016, we’ve been exploring the role of agriculture in solving the interconnected, wicked global problems as outlined by U.N. Sustainable development goals:

• 1. No Poverty

• 2. Zero Hunger

• 3. Good Health and Wellbeing

• 6. Gender Equality

• 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth

• 10. Reduced Inequalities

• 12. Responsible Consumption and Production

• 13. Climate Action

• 17. Partnership for the Goals

At Gambia Goat Dairy, and through our Executive Director Brianna Parsons’ employment as a lecturer in Sustainable Agriculture at Penn Vet, we always think big about our world. Our global population is projected to increase from 7.7 to 10 billion people by the year 2050. With this, we’ll face major global challenges. Our world will need to produce more food in the next 50 years than has ever been consumed in human history. To do this in the face of climate change creating ever-growing uncertainty threatening traditional agriculture, innovations in agricultural productivity and producer resilience needed to build a world free of hunger.

West Africa is already facing these challenges, and their impact will only worsen as the region experiences some of the highest global population growth and some of the worst impacts of climate change. Currently, 23% of children under 5 years suffer from stunting malnutrition. Stunting malnutrition has intergenerational, adverse health consequences such as impaired cognitive development, decreased immune function, increased likelihood of disease, and reduced growth rates. Animal-sourced foods, like milk, meat, and eggs, have been proven to reduce stunting malnutrition, but these foods are 16-times more expensive in West Africa than they are in the U.S. These foods are more expensive for two reasons:

1. Underproductive livestock agriculture in the region - An average cow in in The Gambia produces just 3% of the milk per day that a cow in the U.S. can produce!

2. An influx of imported milk and meat products – imported products aim to fill this gap but undercut the domestic agricultural sector, by shipping excess foods produced across the globe into the region and ‘exporting’ the profits from their sales at the expense of Gambian agricultural sectors

As a result, malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies consequently plague West Africa’s most vulnerable populations who rely on cheaper carbohydrate staples to fill their stomachs. Strategic, targeted investment into productive local livestock systems is an important means of reducing malnutrition while growing a critically important domestic industry . Productive smallholder agricultural systems have widely beneficial effects on societies by creating wealth, improving environmental stewardship, promoting food sovereignty, and boosting community nutrition. We aim to create a model that works for leveraging sustainable livestock agriculture to improve holistic community wellbeing in Gambia.

Gambia Goat Dairy (GGD) is a social enterprise that employs sustainable agricultural practices to spur economic development, empower communities, and end malnutrition. We are creating a teaching and research farm from the ground-up that investigates and employs agricultural best practices to improve wellbeing of humans, animals and the environment alike. Our small-scale commercial farm will sell pasteurized, affordable dairy products, increasing access to nutritious foods for the people in our community. We will investigate innovative educational strategies to share agricultural knowledge with farmers throughout the country and ultimately expand pasteurization capacity to create a national dairy cooperative and dairy industry. We strive to achieve impact in the following key areas:

1. Improving maternal and child nutrition through access to safe and affordable, domestically produced animal source foods

2. Improving smallholder farmer wellbeing through economically viable, domestic agricultural production – thereby improving food sovereignty of the country and spurring economic development through agricultural systems

3. Empowering women agriculturalists across the food value chain through targeted agricultural and business outreach

4. Integrating youth employment opportunities and deploying youth outreach strategies to inspire the Gambia’s future generation to create attractive employment opportunities across the agricultural value chain

5. Promoting environmentally sustainable agricultural practices across the region and creating a model for environmentally responsible agriculture 

With The Gambia as the site of our pilot project, we are creating a model dairy system that can be widely prescribed to generate wealth for smallholders. GGD combines systems thinking with entrepreneurship and veterinary expertise, defining problems with data to formulate evidence-based solutions with tangible measures of impact. Understanding the complexity of the problem helps us design solutions that will work when solving such interconnected and challenging global problems. 

Our team is made up of two full-time Gambian employees – Sulay Camara and Sainey Badjie who’ve been working with us since 2018. Dr. Brianna Parsons (VMD MSEd) serves as Executive Director and helps link The Gambia to Penn Vet. Other Penn Vet faculty/alumni involved in Gambia Goat Dairy include Drs. Tom Parsons, Katrin Hinrichs, Carla Chieffo and Dave Galligan. We also support Penn undergraduate, veterinary, and professional students through in-country and research internships, and to date have sponsored eight students with five additional students planned to work with us in the summer of 2022. Lastly, we engage in strategic partnerships to amplify the impact of our work, most recently exploring collaborations with the Medical Research Council of The Gambia, the University of The Gambia, and the Banjul American International School.

Sainey Badjie and Sulay Camara

Brianna Parsons and Sainey Badjie

In December 2021, Gambia Goat Dairy was awarded a Penn Global Holman Africa Research and Engagement Fund award for nearly $200,000 over the next three years. Rockflower Fund generously supported this application with $30,000 in matching funds allocated over three years. With this award, we can finally build the teaching and research farm we’ve envisioned for the past 6 years. We’ll investigate agricultural best-practices, including animal health, husbandry, and nutrition. We’ll research the economics of smallholder livestock agriculture, to produce recommendations of methods to improve smallholder revenues, and we’ll continue researching best pasture management strategies – a critically important research area that’s been neglected in The Gambia over the past decades. All of our research projects will be designed to answer critical questions to Gambian farmers, and all our findings will be shared with the community through evidence-based educational outreach to get this information into the hands of the folks who need it the most.

And given our intimate ties with Penn Vet, a world class veterinary teaching and research institution, we ultimately plan to use our findings from our work in Gambia to create entrepreneurial methodologies as tools for stakeholders across the region that reduce risk and increase impact of home-grown initiatives. Here at Gambia Goat Dairy, we understand that the local community is often best positioned to create solutions that work. We strive to support those working in this space through knowledge sharing around a vision for a prosperous future. By recognizing the interconnectivity of global challenges like poverty, nutrition, and women’s empowerment, we can intentionally design solutions poised to promote global equity and wellbeing, and create a community of like-minded visionaries working together to create a better future.

The Pehran Project Celebrates its Third Round of Graduates

Rockflower partner, Community Services Program (CSP), Pakistan has completed the third round of the Pehran project, a Rockflower funded initiative providing employable skills to disadvantaged women in Kashmir, or who may already produce handmade crafts, but struggle to earn money. This 12 month project, broken into multiple cycles, recruits women who are interested in learning or improving upon a trade and supporting themselves financially. In this third round of students, CSP trained 24 women in embroidery, stitching, dressmaking, design and marketing. The goal of the project is to elevate the level of crafts that were produced so that the women could sell in-demand products, and have the knowledge to operate a business.

The rural women of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K) actively participate in the production of Kashmiri arts and crafts, but face significant hurdles in maximizing a return on their efforts - for themselves as well as their families and communities. CSP’s team, led by Mr. Siddique Hussain, understands that providing women with the opportunity to learn a trade, and how to market that trade effectively will not only benefit them economically, but will also help to build self esteem, a sense of responsibility, teamwork and effective communication skills. Throughout the training, the group also held two sessions focused solely on life skills, led by board member, Dr. Shazia. 

CSP is determined to train and support so many women that eventually, the Gurase Valley will have an established brand and reputation for its crafts. They have set up four training centers, led by graduates of the Pehran Project, to continue providing support and education. 

The third round of training ended in July of 2021, and CSP has been closely following the graduates on their entrepreneurial journeys. The organization found from previous groups that many of the graduates still need support in tapping into the market as they work on starting their businesses. The benefit of having multiple rounds of graduates, is that they are able to teach and support each other given what they’ve learned in both the training and in their own business. Not only has CSP provided job skills, but they’ve created a community of women ready to support one another as they work toward their mission of creating a reputation for craftsmanship in their community. 

Success Stories from CHICOSUDO's Women Empowerment Through Vocational Skills

Nelia Kabambe is a 17 year old single mother living in Traditional Authority Nkanda in Mulanje district, Malawi. She is one of twenty women who were given the opportunity to receive vocational skills training through a program implemented by Rockflower partner, CHICOSUDO. 

Nelia (right) learning to sew alongside her baby.

Nelia lost her parents at the age of twelve, and was unfortunately left to support herself. With very few options, she was forced to leave her education behind. She made one of the only decisions that she could and decided to marry a man, and be his second wife. Despite her young age and lack of experience, she took on the role of a wife in order to survive. 

In 2019, Nelia, who now had a child, was approached by a volunteer from CHICOSUDO who invited her to take part in their ‘End Child Marriage Now!!!’ program. Through this program, she received counseling on sexual and reproductive health, was provided an outlet to discuss concerns in her marriage, and received support through continued community programs.The knowledge she gained from the program allowed her to think critically about her situation, and to understand that there were other options for her. With the support of CHICOSUDO, she made the difficult decision to end her marriage, and live with her grandmother and baby. Nelia was determined to create a better life for herself and her child.

Over the past few years, Nelia has struggled to earn an income and support herself, her grandmother and her child. She is now 17 years old, and has been taking on casual jobs in order to make money whenever possible. However, through CHICOSUDO’s most recent project ‘Women Empowerment Through Vocational Skills' Nelia is learning the skills and tools necessary to become self-reliant.

Participants completing their tailoring assessment.

The goal of the project is to empower survivors of child marriages and single mothers by equipping them with skills, tools and education to support themselves and their families. Over the past few months, CHICOSUDO has worked to train twenty women in stitching, tailoring and embroidery while also providing education on sexual and reproductive rights and other emerging social issues. 

The organization is now close to completing this program, which consisted of 12 weeks of training in sewing and tailoring. The women have learned how to sew by using paper, how to maintain old clothes, and how to sew their own garments. The program has been highly successful, with over 85% of the course materials covered by the eleventh week. The decision has been made to extend the program by a few weeks to ensure that all of the women have learned the necessary skills. For the course’s final project, the women will sew uniforms for underprivileged children in the community. 

Not only are the participants learning these valuable vocational skills, but CHICOSUDO is also working to put a revolving loan scheme in place so that the women will have access to capital and can start their own businesses. The business loans will have an interest rate of 30% which will allow more money to go back into the fund, so that more women can access the loans. Over time, the fund will grow and so will their businesses. Upon completing the training, 85% of the women intend to start their own enterprises.

As the training comes to an end, the women, who are survivors of child marriages, are feeling hopeful and empowered by their ability to become self-reliant. Nelia is excited to complete the program and start her own business, or partner with others in the group to create a larger business. She now feels that her child will have better opportunities, and that she will be able to support her family despite all that she has been through. The work of the volunteers at CHICOSUDO has changed the lives of many women like Nelia through supporting them to leave abusive marriages, and providing them with the necessary skills to move forward and succeed on their own. 

Update on AYA’s Five Keys in Five Villages Project

Rockflower partner, African Youth Alliance, based in Cameroon, has been working to support seven groups of women in five different villages, utilizing Rockflower’s Five Key Framework. The project includes thoughtful elements that serve to improve the women’s quality of life through training focused on peace and security, maternal and reproductive health, access to food and water, education, and economic empowerment. This two year project has faced a great deal of challenges as a result of the pandemic, however, since resuming activities in March of 2021, the project has had a great impact on the lives of women, and has pivoted to include COVID-19 prevention education into their curriculum. AYA has provided an update on the program and its impact on the community.

Peace and Security:

AYA held a number of group discussions on peace and security to help women to better manage crises and conflict in their own homes and communities. The rate of physical and/or sexual violence toward women from intimate partners in Cameroon is 51%. More than half of the women attending these sessions had themselves been victims of domestic and/or sexual violence. The trainings not only taught them how to react and de-escalate conflict and violence, but how to protect themselves and understand their rights and power in these situations. 

At the end of each training session, the women were encouraged to stay in contact with one another and continue to have conversations on these topics. The group labeled themselves as ‘Community Peace Ambassadors’ and as such committed to sharing knowledge regularly, providing training to others, informing their community that they can be contacted in times of crisis, as well as working together to identify problems and seek solutions for women’s safety.

Group participant, Petra Mbom, a 25 year old, single and a mother told AYA, “I have benefitted as well as my group because we have been taught that women also have rights and that they can stand firm to defend themselves. Also from the lectures given we are able to settle disputes in our families and in our community and we hope to change certain aspects in our community. That is, allowing women to have rights to landed property is our target.”

Maternal and Reproductive Health:

AYA knew that focusing on women’s reproductive and sexual health was one of the most important aspects of this project. Since the women in these groups have received little, if any education on their sexual health, the potential for impact was immense. 

The primary focus areas for these sessions were education on HIV/AIDS, family planning, and menstruation. AYA enlisted the help of community nurses to stress the importance of learning their HIV/AIDS status, help them to understand the damage caused by stigamitizing and discriminating against other women based on their status, and to educate women who are HIV positive on how to stop the spread. 

In terms of family planning, the group focused on practices that would promote the health of both the mother and child, such as spacing out births. This topic was particularly impactful, as some of the women came to the session with the belief that they were going to be discouraged from having children, which was not the case. 

One participant explained, “Family planning has been taught in our group and we now understand that family planning does not mean women should stop giving birth or should not give birth, but it helps women to space their births and maintain a healthy family. Also, we now know the importance of reusable sanitary pads, how to use and take proper care of the pads.” Overall, the participants learned a great deal about caring for themselves as they navigate childbirth, sexually transmitted illnesses, and menstruation.

Access to Food and Water:

This portion of the project focused primarily on agriculture and land stewardship. Many of the women who participated in this training were already farmers by trade, while others were interested in gardening to supplement their family’s food supply. Some of the skills taught included preparing land for farming or gardening, propagating and nursing fruit trees, and understanding root systems.

The women also gained knowledge on land stewardship and conservation. They began a project in which they mapped out sites that would be considered unsafe or risky for farming, which led to a much higher success rate of crops in the area. This was the first time that the community conducted a study of land types, and it will have great long-term benefits. Through this mapping the women learned about the impacts of deforestation, land erosion and overfarming. They also learned about and implemented compost piles, harvested cabbage from community gardens and began an initiative titled “Operation One Man One Tree” in which each participant will plant a tree and encourage friends and family to do the same.

One participant, Ngwainmbi Mercy, who is 26 years old, married and a mother of two children said she has benefitted from the agricultural techniques that she learned through AYA’s training. Her and her group have been able to cultivate carrots, cabbages, and beans and this has helped them to provide food for their families and communities.

Education:

Due to the immense success and positive feedback from the maternal and reproductive health education, AYA decided to focus their education training on female empowerment. Several group meetings were held in which the groups discussed the negative impacts of early marriage and teenage pregnancy. They also gained valuable insight about the role of sexuality for women, which is generally considered taboo to discuss. Much of the conversation focused on the importance of fighting for their rights, maintaining good self esteem, and discrediting many cultural norms and traditions that serve to keep women out of positions of power. 

After this training, the women felt that they had a better understanding of how to live their lives with dignity, without shame and how to encourage the next generation of women to lead fulfilling lives. 

Juscentha Fukuin, a 40 year old mother of four children told AYA that she will no longer encourage her children to marry at a young age. 

Another participant, fourteen year old Belva Ndum said “I have benefitted from the lectures on general hygiene, and I can now take good care of myself. I have hope in the future despite the crisis and the closure of schools. I also know I have to work hard if I want to be a good leader in future.”

The sessions typically ended with goal setting, where the women were able to discuss what they hoped to achieve, and how they could support one another to achieve those goals. 

Economic Empowerment:

The final pillar of AYA’s training focused on ensuring that the participants had an understanding of how to manage a small business. In these training sessions, they learned basic accounting principles, book keeping, how to evaluate business growth, identifying financial setbacks, and strategies to overcome setbacks.

AYA also created a revolving loan scheme, in which each of the women would contribute a certain amount of their income to provide loans to others. As their businesses grow, so would the fund, and more businesses could emerge. This year, the women were able to fund half of their goal for the revolving loan scheme. As their businesses gradually grew throughout the year, the group was able to achieve a 44.6% profit from the sales of items like manure, salt, soap, and body lotions. This also served as a hands on lesson in deducting expenses in order to calculate profit.

One business owner, Carine Bih, benefited greatly from this education. She learned that a business and the business owner are separate entities, and that it’s possible for the business owner to owe money to the business. She had been operating a doughnut stand for years, and had seen almost no profit. She told AYA that she would often give donuts away to her friends and family, but she wasn’t clear on the fact that when she did that, she would have to owe the cost of those ingredients to the business. Through the group training, she came to understand that she was the reason that her business was not profitable, and she learned how to keep record of any product that she gives away so that she can pay it back to the business. 

Many of the women involved in the program had been running businesses for years with no education on how to maintain and account for their business. This education has been invaluable to them as they now are able to recognize their profits and plan for their futures.

Overall, the training and resources provided by AYA has had an immense impact on improving the participants’ knowledge of their rights, especially sexual and reproductive rights, food security, income and agricultural skills. For these rural women in Cameroon, many of whom are young and/or single mothers, this education will serve to allow them to improve their quality of life and that of their families as they plan for the future. AYA noted that due to the challenges faced by these women, including extreme poverty, domestic violence, and child marriages, the program has been met with more than enthusiasm. The women are delighted and eager to better their lives and work together to improve their communities.

Update on the Reducing Poverty through Honey Production and Distribution Project

In May of 2018, Footsteps Africa wanted to find a way to help increase the productivity of rural poor women on the outskirts of Blantrye. Women like Mary were travelling over 145kms to sell the bottles of honey to honey processors and formal retailers in the Blantyre city region. However, the honey failed to even pass the minimum quality needed by the companies. 

There were many reasons for this: 

• Lack of modern honey production and processing skills existed among rural poor women to produce quality honey demanded by formal honey buyers and exporters 

• Lack of modern bee hives to produce high yields quality honey 

• Lack of proper honey extraction machines and soft knowledge on extracting honey for high-end markets 

• Knowledge and skills gaps in proper storage, packaging and branding 

• Knowledge gaps in business management and recording, financial literacy, access to saving and credit 

• Lack of improved personal hygiene and lack of access to affordable clean water solutions needed in honey processing.

The story of Mary’s efforts reflects the economic struggles that women’s traditional bee keepers face in Malawi due to low-quality honey that prevent them from accessing viable markets that could generate good income for their productive efforts. Additionally, apart from honey, women beekeepers in Malawi rarely develop trade in other by-products of bee farming such as bee-wax that could double their earning potentials. 

Twisi and his team at Footsteps Africa were determined to find a way to connect all of these missing gaps in the chain. 

In the beginning the plan was to integrate this project into our water, food and income project activities in Chikhwawa district. However, after further assessment they realized  that the agroecological factors in Chikhwawa were not supportive of a successful and sustainable bee farming project.  

They reluctantly moved the project to within Blantyre rural district as a stand alone project. This went against their overall programming approach which integrates different projects to maximize impact and project management. Unfortunately an enormous forest fire gutted the hives into unrecognizable ashes. 

Fortunately, Footsteps Africa had taken out hive insurance from the supplier and they were eligible to receive compensation and replaceable Hives within three months. However, due to COVID-19, the supplier of the HIVEs was unable to import and it took them almost a year to have a consignment successfully imported into Malawi from Kenya. 

By the time they had the delivery of the second HIVEs, they were unsure of next steps. They wanted to get it right the second time. They waited patiently to find a suitable site to implement a sustainable Bee farming project that would also benefit marginal women farmers who would like to do bee farming as a business. After surveying several places, they initially settled for Nkhata-bay district in Northern Malawi. But they later changed to Mzimba district along Lunjika hills in northern Malawi because they have a plan to implement irrigation farming and renewable energy projects in the same area. 

In this way, the bee farming will be integrated into the holistic structure of all Footsteps Africa projects and allow them to successfully provide support to all our projects with the limited staff and resources they have available. 

This is a real testament to the tenacity and determination of Twisi and his team and that he followed through on the project precisely because they were given the opportunity and flexibility to reach their goals. 

SIRP Local Leader Empowerment Project Update

Rockflower partner, Society for the Improvement of Rural People, based in Nigeria, has just completed a project in which they were able to provide project management training to 30 women and youth-led organizations in Enugu State. 

Since 2011, SIRP has been involved in developing school governance frameworks, with support from the Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN). Although SIRP originally focused it’s projects on schools, they realized that education is very much needed outside of the classroom as well. SIRP Director, Dr. Christopher Ugwu saw an opportunity to help small, local, organizations run by women and youth in Enugu State, by educating them on how to manage projects, draft proposals, manage budgets and effectively leverage social media to promote their work. 

Women and youth make up more than 50% of the population in Enugu State, and are highly vulnerable to poverty, domestic violence, issues of sexual and reproductive health, and lack agency. Young business owners are seen as inexperienced and lack access to financial resources and women are often seen as inferior, and also struggle to secure resources for their organizations. 

The project was highly successful overall. Through a number of training sessions, the organizational leaders learned to write impactful proposals, lead their organizations confidently, manage projects, draft budgets and leverage social media to promote their organizations. The youth in these groups now feel confident to begin fundraising on their own. An unintended benefit was the strong networking connections that were built throughout the program. Many of the business owners, who knew of very few other women-led organizations, found comfort in shared experiences and formed bonds that will benefit them both personally and in their work. 

Dr. Christopher Ugwu told us, “We define youth and women empowerment as the process; by which youth and women gain the ability to make decisions not just for themselves, but also that of others. This could be formal or informal education. This is so essential and forms the basis of all our successes.”

Upon the completion of the program, participants were surveyed on their experience. Over 86% of participants said that this program was highly impactful to their lives, with the other 14% indicating that the program was somewhat impactful to their lives. Overall, the skills built in this program will allow this underrepresented group of aspirational women and youth to succeed in their endeavors, provide for themselves and their families, and ensure that they are able to maintain independence and safety into the future. Rockflower is greatly inspired by the work of SIRP and their ability to respond to the needs of their community.

Marking the start of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, in celebrating Wai Wai Nu, Founder of Women's Peace Network, Receiving the DVF Award

Thursday 25th November marks the start of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. Started in 1991 by activists at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute, it continues to be coordinated each year by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership and is used as an organizing strategy by individuals and organizations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.

Whilst the violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar has been going on for decades, the levels of state sanctioned violence against girls and women has increased dramatically since the coup on February 1st, 2020. Rockflower partner, Women’s Peace Network has made it a priority to keep track of every incident possible.

The decades long impunity continues to embolden the military as it uses sexual and gender based violence, including rape, gang rape, sexual mutilation and sexual slavery as a tool against the ethnic minority. Women’s Peace Network is calling upon the international community “to take swift action to provide protection and support to the women of Myanmar, and hold the Myanmar military accountable for its brutality.”

521 Myanmar civil society organizations are calling upon the UN Security Council to convene an urgent meeting on this crisis and impose a global arms embargo on the country as the military continues to increase its use of rape as a weapon of war.

"It is our responsibility to ensure that justice is served for all refugees," Nu shared during a speech at the Sedona Forum in April. "We must hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes, including sexual violence and genocide. If we fail to end all impunity, the cycle of violence and refugee exodus will continue."

Women’s Peace Network (Myanmar) was founded in 2013 by human rights activist Wai Wai Nu. The organization is composed of lawyers, community leaders, and peace activists from Myanmar and around the globe who share a common goal: to peacefully promote and protect human rights. It’s mission is to protect the rights, enhance the status, and increase the inclusion of marginalized women, youth, and communities in the Rakhine state and across Myanmar, so that they can live peacefully and prosperously.

Alyse Nelson and Wai Wai Nu attend the 2021 DVF Awards at Opera Garnier on November 17, 2021 in Paris, France.

Last week in Paris, a spotlight was shining on Wai Wai Nu’s tireless work as she presented with the prestigious DVF International Award. This award, supported by the The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, honors women who have displayed leadership, strength, and courage in their commitment to their causes. Every year, each Honoree receives a $50,000 grant from the Foundation to further their work as well as exposure and resources necessary to extend their efforts on behalf of women all over the world. 

Nu’s feature in People Magazine explains, “[Nu] spent seven years as a political prisoner in Burma, and since her release from prison in 2012, she's dedicated her life to championing for democracy on behalf of marginalized women and members of her ethnic group, the Rohingya.”

"It is our responsibility to ensure that justice is served for all refugees," Nu shared during a speech at the Sedona Forum in April. "We must hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes, including sexual violence and genocide. If we fail to end all impunity, the cycle of violence and refugee exodus will continue."

Rockflower is extremely humbled by the groundbreaking work of our partners, in particular Wai Wai and the team at Women’s Peace Network. We extend our sincere congratulations to Wai Wai and our deep gratitude to the DVF Foundation for continuing to recognize those around the globe who are fighting for women’s rights and safety.

Rockflower Joins Peace and Security Funders Group

Rockflower is delighted to announce we have joined the Peace and Security Funders Group. It is a privilege for Rockflower to become a member of this network of public, private and family foundations, and individual philanthropists who make grants or expenditures that contribute to peace and global security. The Peace and Security Funders Group aims to enhance the effectiveness of peace and security philanthropy.  This is in direct alignment with Rockflower’s guiding principles of ensuring every dollar spent is amplified by a commitment to expanding networks and a deeper understanding of the issues of conflict and peace building.  

Currently less than 1% of philanthropic funding supports peace and security . A recent study by Candid seeks to shed light on what prevents funders from engaging in this often catalytic and transformative funding. 

Lauren Bradford, senior director of global partnerships at Candid, said, “This study starts to answer foundational questions for the sector. What we've learned from those doing peacebuilding work is that effective approaches are grounded in the intersection of social justice, human rights, and peace, and carefully considers dynamics that stand in the way of achieving a more peaceful society.” 

“This field of peace and security philanthropy is vast, encompassing diverse issues and stakeholder groups. However, all PSFG members are united in working towards a more peaceful, secure world. In addition, peace and security funders exert impact in ways that exceed the scope of their financial investments; they have outsized impact. With their $357 million in annual giving, peace and security funders contribute to monumental changes across the globe – from the historic Iran nuclear agreement to atrocity prevention in Africa”  Peace and Security Funders Group  

"Peace and Security is part of the holistic Five Key Framework through which we work to ensure access to funding for women and girls on the global margins. Indeed in many ways it is the lynchpin connecting all of the keys of maternal and reproductive health, education, access to food and water and economic empowerment. We are delighted to have been recommended by Rockflower board member Sahana Dharmapuri to join the Peace and Security Funders Group and look forward to listening, learning and sharing in this mighty but powerful community of funders who appreciate the deep intrinsic value of a world built on systems of justice and peace"  - Tine Ward, Founder and CEO, Rockflower Partners

Rockflower Partners with Dare Now Uganda to Empower Female Entrepreneurs

Rockflower is pleased to announce our partnership with Dare Now Uganda, a non-governmental organization based in Kampala City, Uganda that works closely with marginalized groups of women, girls, youth and their families in the urban-slums of Kampala city and Wakiso district. 

Dare Now Uganda is dedicated to economically and psycho-socially empowering marginalized groups of women, girls, youths and their families by providing them economic opportunities, career development skills, small business enterprises development support, access to formal education, as well as access to maternal, reproductive and oral health.

The organization recently partnered with Rockflower to provide micro-capital to disadvantaged women-owned small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Family Economic Empowerment Support (FEES) for Women in Uganda will allow these women to get back on their feet and avoid the very real threat of homelessness that many of them face.

Robertson Hagggai, founder of Dare Now Uganda told us, “Before we met and mobilized the women, one constant issue for most of them was precarious day to day type of survival and when speaking of the future, it was difficult for these women to see past the immediate future or to see past a life in the slums. Much of their energy was focused on day to day survival.”

Nabwire Mary, a 30-year-old single mother of two living in the urban slums of Kampala is one of those women, who did not envision a bright future for herself before participating in Dare Now Uganda’s program. After the passing of her father, Mary moved to Kampala City at the age of twenty with a neighbor who promised to find her work as a housemaid, although there were no jobs waiting for her when she arrived. After facing unemployment, years of domestic violence, and raising two young children on her own, a group of women who were enrolled in Dare Now Uganda’s community program approached Mary and encouraged her to enroll as well. Since then, Mary has learned a number of skills and started her own small business.

“When I joined the women’s group and committed to working and participating in the training program, I felt very afraid and wondered whether I would be able to cope with the program. Now I have also been empowered by the skilling program and my fellow women and started my own business supported with the capital I received from Dare Now Uganda to boost and expand my small business. Right now I have diversified my small business through selling a variety of things which increases my daily profit. I want to tremendously thank Rockflower for the continuous support given to Dare Now Uganda who have given us hope of living.”

Dare Now Uganda aims to not only economically impact women on a small scale, but to provide emotional support, training and education that will allow them to envision and create  a better future for themselves and their families.

Rockflower welcomes Pablo Freund to the Board of Directors

Rockflower is delighted to welcome Pablo Freund to the Board of Directors. Pablo brings to Rockflower a deep understanding of the current global financial systems and practices and how they have contributed to gender inequality and inequity. He understands the fundamental core paradigm shifts that need to occur in order for change to happen at the local level. 

Pablo Freund is a Senior Advisor with the Criterion Institute, a non profit think tank that works with social change makers to demystify finance and broaden their perspective on how to engage with and shift financial systems. He is an experienced financial services professional focusing on women’s financial inclusion and the development of gender lens financial services. He is the founder of Bare Maximum, a boutique advisory firm helping international financial institutions, nonprofits, and start-ups advance the emergence of an equitable, ethical, and sustainable global economy. He is also the co-founder of Be Girl, a social enterprise focused on making high-performance menstrual hygiene products radically accessible for women and girls globally. 

Pablo is the Gender Financial Inclusion technical expert for Inter-American Development Bank’s technical assistance program supporting Public National Development Banks’ effort to collect and report sex-disaggregated data and the UN Foundation’s Data2x Women’s Financial Inclusion Partnership, leading their sex-disaggregated data harmonization efforts. He also serves as the Financial Alliance for Women’s data science lead, managing the largest global private sector gender lens supply-side sex-disaggregated financial services survey for the publication of the annual “Economics of Banking on Women” report.

In addition to Pablo’s work in the financial inclusion space, he has extensive experience at the intersection of gender and energy access. Over the past several years, he has worked with organizations on the development of gender mainstreaming policies to increase women’s participation in the energy sector as well as access to electricity programs across Sub-Saharan Africa. 

He started his career in financial services with UBS in New York, prior to which he received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and History of Art and Architecture from Brown University, and a Master of Science in Sustainability Management from Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

“ I could not be more excited to welcome Pablo to the Rockflower Board of Directors. He brings a unique perspective and insight into the work of getting more money into the hands of women and girls on the global margins. His knowledge and expertise will deepen our capacity to get to the root of the problems Rockflower is seeking to address, primarily, how to ensure that those with the best ideas have the capacity and capability to see those ideas come to fruition. Thank you so much Pablo for really understanding the work we do at Rockflower and being willing to throw your hat in the ring to help us do so much more.” Tine Ward, Founder and CEO, Rockflower Partners Inc. 

“Given the interrelated nature of everything happening in our world, a whole systems perspective is more important now than ever before if we are going to resolve humanity’s most pressing challenges. Rockflower’s “Seed to Canopy” vision demonstrates a unique commitment and integrity of purpose to the future of our world that I believe is the antidote to despair and essential to manifesting the equitable and just world we hope for.  It is my honor to support Rockflower’s work towards this end.” -Pablo Freund

Help Save Society Foundation to defy the odds and provide much needed relief during Extreme Flooding in South Sudan

Over the past few weeks, heavy rain has led to catastrophic flooding that has affected more than 700,000 people across South Sudan. Several states are experiencing the worst floods recorded since 1962. Homes, farmlands, and businesses are being swept away and thousands are fleeing to either the capital city or to neighboring communities on higher ground. Climate change is likely to blame for this unrelenting flood period in South Sudan, where four out five people are living in “absolute poverty.” 

Rockflower partner, Save Society Foundation is located in Juba, the capital city of South Sudan. SSF works with marginalized communities, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, women, youth, and people with disabilities, to provide a better standard of living through economic transformation, improved health, quality education and  promotion of peace, conflict mitigation and democracy. Michael Ariamba, Executive Director of SSF has been updating us on the nationwide devastation caused by the recent floods. 

“Most of the victims are women and children...some 200 women with their children are taking refuge in their relatives’ houses/homes and they need basic needs such as shelter, blankets, cooking utensils, soaps, mosquito nets and plastic sheets. 

These women and girls, some of them need to be trained in entrepreneurship skills...to support what they are trying to do on their own in market places in Juba to help their children and also pay for their children’s school fees. This will sustain them while awaiting relief foods that can be seen as a quick solution to rescue them and their families from their dire situations.”

Food insecurity in South Sudan has been furthered by an increase in conflict within the nation. The movement of people to higher ground has caused conflict between communities, fighting for their own preservation. This has increased the scarcity of food and complicated the ability of intervention by humanitarian aid organizations. Some communities have chosen to relocate to the capital city, with some making a seven day trek to safety. “Women, children, and elderly people arrived exhausted and hungry,” said Mr. Jamal, who is the interim UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the country.

Climate change is undoubtedly affecting the entire world, but East Africa is facing particularly disastrous weather conditions, and impoverished nations like South Sudan are struggling to keep their citizens alive. South Sudan is facing an alternating cycle of both flood and drought that could leave them without agriculture. In eight of the nation’s ten states, the flooding has caused livestock to  drown, and vital crops such as sorghum and millet to be destroyed. Since August of this year the cost of food has risen by 15%, leaving more than 60% of its population suffering from severe hunger.”

Right now, South Sudan is in a dire situation. Rockflower is working to channel more funding to SSF as they work to aid their community and provide basic necessities. At the same time they continue to teach entrepreneurial skills to women in order to economically empower them through this difficult time. Our partners are seen as beacons of hope in their communities, and when disaster strikes, people look to them for support. We plan on providing additional funding to SSF, but need your help to raise this immediate assistance. We would greatly appreciate any donation to Rockflower at this time so that we may support our partners on the frontlines of these natural disasters.

WomenChoice Industries: Lucy Odiwa's Journey

How personal experience, a little impactful financing and a deep commitment to improving the lives of women and girls have contributed towards ending period poverty in Tanzania.

WomenChoice Industries, a Rockflower partner since April 2019, is a social enterprise that manufactures and distributes affordable reusable sanitary towels to women and girls  from low income communities in Tanzania. The early investment from Rockflower provided an opportunity to scale up  the production and distribution of the products, whilst at the same time providing important menstrual  hygiene management information and empowering  socially  disadvantaged  women  on the  MHM business model with financial and management skills. 

WomenChoice  Industries  co-Founder, Ms. Lucy Odiwa had a deeply personal experience at the start of her menstrual experience at Asumbi  Girls  secondary  school  in Western Kenya, which began her journey into this work.  At age 16 Lucy struggled with the challenge of access to menstrual care products, information and services with little open conversation around menstruation. Access to  information is restricted by social and cultural taboos, myths and misconceptions, such that it prohibits women and girls the ability to discuss the experience openly with their siblings, parents and or relatives.  Lucy recalls a particularly tough moment in a Maths class when she was called to calculate an algebraic equation in Mathematics, she realized as she was standing at the blackboard that she was also leaking blood onto her clothes. 

Confused and embarrassed Lucy ran to the dormitory, and on the way she  picked up a fellow   student’s white sock hanging from a clothesline and used it to manage her menses. Lucy would subsequently go on to miss school for five consecutive  days, missing out on important lessons and reducing her ability to perform as a nomal A+ student in Mathematics.  She would later discover in her research that many girls feigned sickness to be able to skip class during their periods so that they wouldn’t be put in the position to be ashamed if they were unable to manage their menstrual cycles in public at school. 

Young women and girls from low  resource  settings  in Tanzania, face  a myriad of  menstrual  hygiene management health challenges as they go about their daily routines. They lack  proper menstrual management absorbents, forcing them to  trade “Sex for pads’’  with men  twice or even three times their age.  This in turn exposes them to early and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions , sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDs. Just as importantly girls might miss school for up to 4-7 days a month, a total of 48-84 days  annually  due  to menstruation.

Lucy’s personal experience and the stories she heard from other girls, convinced her that something had to be done and she co-founded WomenChoice Industries as a solution to this   menstrual hygiene management challenge. Ms Odiwa innovated the low cost reusable sanitary towels “salama, safe pads’’.  The reusable sanitary towel is affordable, low priced,  chemical free, odourless, and can withstand up to 100 washings. It can save on menstrual hygiene expenses by between 75-90%  annually  and is kept hygienic by simple  hand washing with water and a bar of soap. The cost per pack of 5 pieces  of  pads cost  US$ 2.3 compared  to US$ 72 annually for disposable  sanitary  towels.

Rockflower’s initial investment of $7,500 allowed Lucy the breathing room she needed to expand her inventory and develop her business model. Now just over two years later she has taken the small social enterprise to a mid level business reaching a great many girls with low cost and affordable reusable sanitary towels. 

Achievements: 

• Manufactured and distributed a total of  34,234  packets  of  low  priced , affordable   reusable sanitary  towels  by the end of  June  2021.

• Established a schools based menstrual hygiene management information system, opening up the menstrual hygiene management conversation in 25 primary and secondary   schools  reaching 12,657  school  students  by the end of June  2021

• Empowered a total of 300 socially disadvantaged women and girls, sex workers, teenage mothers,  single mothers,  widows  and people   with  HIV/A  on  menstrual hygiene  management  models,  business and financial literacy skills engaging them as vendors  and sales  agents 

• Distributed a total of 16,756 girls in schools with  with low cost, affordable  reusable  sanitary towels  by  June  2021

WomenChoice Industries  has received several international recognitions and has become the top 50  and top 20 African business Heroes for its role in implementing the Sustainable  Development Goals  and supporting  women  led initiatives  

Challenges

The enterprise faced several developmental  challenges.

• Menstrual hygiene management  information, is shrouded with several social and cultural taboos, myths and misconceptions,  such that it is not openly discussed, this  has a huge impact on the potential sales of the reusable sanitary towels.

• The tax management system for the products imported from outside the country -  the government offers tax exemption for the imported disposable menstrual care products, but does not offer the same  exemptions for raw materials  associated   with the production of menstrual care products. This keeps the cost of importing these materials very high.

• The increasing operational  costs,  including transport  and logistics to expand access to  reusable  sanitary  towels into the remotest part of the country still presents critical  challenges impacting the product  accessibility and the ability to access the target  population promptly  and in a timely manner. 

• Period poverty: the inability of the local women and girls to purchase reusable sanitary  towels, the majority  of  women  still remain  unable  to  buy pads as the majority  earn  less than  US$ 1.9 a day.

• Lack of mobile phones for many of the sales agents and vendors.  WomenChoice Industries uses the WhatsApp application in the promotion and marketing strategies , but many of the socially disadvantaged women lack a smartphone gadget,  to promptly  access communication. 

Reflections on JWAS' COVID-19 Education Project

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly shifted the needs of our partner organizations and the communities they serve. Organizations, like Janaki Women Awareness Society (JWAS), whose main focus is to intervene and educate women and children in Nepal who are victims of child marriage, domestice violence and the caste system, have found themselves pivoting their work to protect and educate women and their families about the threats posed by COVID-19. In September of 2020, JWAS received funding to launch their project titled “Enhancing the knowledge of girls, women and their family's on COVID-19 and its secondary impact,” and has since completed their project and provided an update.

In the wake of the pandemic, this recent project was created to strengthen the ability of Nepalese women and their families to cope with the threat of COVID-19, continue education on sexual and reproductive health, gender based violence, and provide information about accessing health services during the pandemic. In total, 182 women and girls were able to benefit from community education sessions, while the approximately 625 family members of these women indirectly benefited from their increased knowledge around COVID-19 and preventative measures.

The team at JWAS was able to mobilize quickly and publish an informational, illustration-focused book on the effects of COVID-19 and preventative measures to increase public health. They also developed a six part radio program that was aired on their local radio station in their dialect of Maithili. The main component of this project was to reach marginalized women and girls in the community, and JWAS was able to accomplish this through community education sessions. The team created ten groups of twenty women and girls, and held ten sessions for each group. Throughout the duration of this project, an astounding 100 group sessions were held to educate women on COVID-19, sexual and reproductive health, and gender based violence. The group also listened to the girls and heard their concerns around these issues as well as the caste system, which still segregates and causes vast disadvantages for families in Nepal.

The results of the project were truly transformative, and the community sessions wrapped up right before the onset of the second wave of COVID-19, which JWAS believes left community members much more prepared to protect themselves and their families’ health. The women involved in the group sessions noted that the meetings helped them to understand the importance of wearing masks, using sanitizers and maintaining physical distance in order to stop the spread of the virus. Additionally, in learning about the devastating effects that childhood marriage has on young women’s physical and mental health, the group decided to continue educating women around them to save other women and girls in their community from this fate. In learning more about gender-based violence, the group members requested that JWAS provide training on the subject for their brothers and fathers so that the entire community can work together to put a stop to domestic violence and lack of rights for women. Overall, this project was hugely effective in both educating on COVID-19 prevention, and issues of sexual health and gender-based violence. The women involved now have greater knowledge to protect themselves, and are motivated to continue sharing this knowledge to create a healthier and more equitable community.

Updates on SOFDI's COVID-19 Mini-Project

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic many of Rockflower’s partners have been forced to suspend their projects for a period of time. Some organizations completely pivoted their planned projects and others created new projects to address the challenges faced by their communities as they battled the pandemic, more specifically, lack of resources and lack of education around COVID-19. 

The DRC is currently designated by the CDC as a Level 4 COVID-19 Zone, meaning that they have a very high level of transmission currently. To date, the nation has reported more than 50,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The pandemic has thrown fuel on an already blazing fire of devastation in a country in the midst of battling rampant terrorism, violence and further displacement of its citizens. 

The humanitarian situation in the DRC is catastrophic. Terrorist groups including the ADF, which the United States has deemed a terrorist group, are considered the deadliest of scores of armed militias that roam the country. Since 2013, the ADF has killed over 6,000 civilians. Terrorism and attempts at ethnic cleansing have lead to the current situation in which 4.5 million people are internally displaced, and more than 890,000 people from Congo are registered as refugees and asylum seekers. Recently, U.S. special forces were authorized to intervene to help the Congolese army fight the Allied Democratic Forces, an armed rebel group.

Rockflower partner, Solidarité des Femmes pour le Développement Intégral (SOFDI), a community-based, not-for-profit organization based in the Fizi Territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), launched a project in February to empower and educate women in the face of the pandemic. Rockflower funded this six-month micro-project that aimed to address these needs. This project has since been completed, and SOFDI has shared an update on the overall impact.

The COVID-19 Response Micro Project was mutli-faceted and addressed issues affecting women and children in the Fizi Territory. The team at SOFDI installed a number of hand-washing stations in public spaces and schools, educated teachers and community members about the virus, on how to prevent it and in addition distributed much needed food. 

One of SOFEDI’s public hand-washing stations.

They also provided 60 women with professional training in order to gain economic independence. The team was able to additionally include education on gender-based violence during the group gatherings. SOFDI raised awareness by creating a public campaign promoting COVID-19 preventative measures and the newly installed hand washing stations through radio broadcasts, megaphone announcements, pamphlets and banners throughout the community. The goal of the project was to directly work with 60 women to improve their education of public health, women’s health, and economic opportunities. In addition this indirectly affected thousands of people by providing hygiene materials and education around COVID-19.

Throughout the duration of the project, SOFDI conducted a number of interviews and field studies to better understand how effective the program was, and how they could continue to educate and empower the community moving forward. They found that there was a significant increase in the understanding of COVID-19 and its effects. Before the program, 37% of those interviewed were aware of the effects COVID-19, as compared to 86% at the end of this project, a nearly 50% increase. They also saw a 15% increase in community members who were practicing at least two preventative barrier measures. These include social distancing, mask wearing, restraining from physical contact, washing hands often and limiting indoor gatherings.

Additionally, 60 disadvantaged women were chosen to participate in the program, where they were divided into four groups, or cooperatives, and met weekly to discuss issues relating to the pandemic and to learn valuable job skills. Five women in each group were selected to pursue vocational training, in entrepreneurship and agricultural business. They focused on tailoring, soap making and information technology. The group leaders were then able to share what they had learned with the rest of their cooperatives. These women received valuable employment skills, as well as important information about COVID-19 that they could then share with other community members.

Addressing the community’s knowledge around COVID-19 was the primary goal of this project, however the organization was able to take advantage of these educational gatherings to address issues related to the promotion and defense of women’s rights each week. In these sessions, the women discussed issues of gender-based violence, human rights and sexual and reproductive health. The organization found significant improvement in the group’s knowledge of female empowerment and safety.

Looking forward, SOFDI aims to continue educating the community about COVID-19 and work toward stopping the spread of the virus. They are also hoping to set up a number of vocational centers for women and girls, where they can learn valuable job skills, as well as gain knowledge on women’s rights. The COVID-19 Mini-Project has had a significant positive impact on this community, for which the pandemic has added yet another layer of struggle to an already dire humanitarian situation affecting the DRC. Rockflower looks forward to continuing to support SOFDI as they consistently work to improve the lives of disadvantaged women and girls.