Empowering women to achieve economic independence

Maker-nhom women farm is part of ‘The Women for Women International Agricultural Project’ in Lakes State’s Rumbek East County. The aim of the project is to support women through farming to become self-reliant and to achieve economic independence.

Gabriel Mayom, the Maker-nhom women farm supervisor, says the organisation had trained 2,600 women between 2008 and 2011 in all sorts of agricultural related activities.

We train women on income generating activities, agricultural farming and life skills. This is the only big farm in South Sudan that supports the women of South Sudan,” Mayom claims.

Many rural women in the region have joined the farm and witness great changes in their lives, both economically and socially.

Mary Yar Matot, a widow and a mother of five, has been growing vegetables for the last four years in Maker-nhom women farm.

The women of South Sudan spend the largest part of their day doing household chores and caring for children (14.09.2011/Waakhe Simon Wudu).My husband died, but through vegetables growing, I am able to pay for the school fees of my four kids. I pay for food and health care of my children without difficulty,” Matot explains.

She grows up to 24 rows of different vegetables like okra, onion, pepper, beans and pumpkins.

According to Matot, poverty is the cause of many family disputes. By having this additional source of income, many of these disputes are resolved.

Men always hate ladies when you ask for soap, sugar, cloth and food, but I am able to meet all those needs through my vegetable production‚” she says.

Debora Achot Marol is another widow with nine children to cater for. Thanks to the income generated through  her work at the Maker-nhom farm, she is able to pay the school fees for four of her children.  

A widow like me in our community cannot afford to school four children when she is not educated” and Marol is happy to be able to cater for their foods, clothing and other educational needs like a man could”.    

Marol had been growing vegetables for five years and she plants 40 rows of different crops at the Maker-nhom farm.

My live and my economic condition have changed. In our society a widow is a vulnerable person who could not afford to pay school fees for children,” Marol says.

The income allows some of the women to expand their business. Matot for example opened a kiosk, selling sugar, maize flour, soap and tea. She as well bought two oxen for ploughing during the rainy seasons.

Some products produced by the women of the Maker-nhom farm (05.05.2012/Benjamin Majok Mon).Marol and Matot urge women in South Sudan to follow their example and to strive for a better social and economic situation by relying on themselves and on their own hard work.

I am telling other fellow widows and other women to come and join me in the farm so that they can change society,” Marol says.

The farm has also introduced a number of farm projects that range from bee-, poultry-, cattle- and goat keeping to dairy farming.

We have 75 bee hives in the farm that produce ample honey. Honey is marketable and brings a lot of income to the women in the county,” Gabriel Mayom explains.

We have distributed 152 goats to the women” and a group of five women is responsible for raising one goat. When the goats multiply, Mayom says, they are distributed among the group members.

The women who have been trained in the Maker-nhom farm have become successful community members and they set an example to follow for others by being self-reliant and by sending their children to school.

As Debora Achot Marol testifies, beyond the financial and social empowerment the Maker-nhom farm provides the women with, it gives them a sense of justice and equality direly needed in South Sudan: I am like any other man in this community because there is nothing a man is better at than me.”