Today’s guest is William Matovu, Uganda’s Country Director of Heifer International. We discuss preventing hunger and poverty by helping small family farms all over the globe create social networks, value chains and sustainable farming practices while also caring for the earth.

They strengthen local communities and help small local farmers obtain a living wage to sort out the many challenges poor people face such as providing children with education, paying health care bills and investing in their own business to build income and generate assets.

William works in Uganda and provides strategic direction. Making sure farmers are able to connect to the resources they need and obtain a living income. Supporting them to create a pathway to achieve their vision of getting out of poverty.

This work is important to him because he wants to provide opportunities for humanity, respecting that people have basic human rights. To be able to provide nutrition, maintain the environment, and help women become empowered which helps strengthen economies.

They work to help people become more concerned about their neighbors and understand the benefits that occur when working together.

Working with the bottom of the pyramid individuals, some of the issues William identifies is limited amounts of food, illiteracy, lack of education, disease, climate changes which makes farming difficult and drives people back into poverty and gender inequity.

Gender inequity takes resources away from women and children which prevents them from running their farm, driving them further into the poverty cycle.

One of the reasons for a lack of education is the cultural aspects and complexities. The illiteracy rate for people in Uganda is near 50% and for women its worse. Families will choose not to take a girl to school and only take a boy due to the social dynamics of women being less respected.

Another reason for a lack of education is a resource issue. Money and income are not fully available. Even if school is paid for they do not have the money for books or school uniforms. It is the cycle of poverty that continues the lack of education.

The gender variable is another element that keeps people away from education, which is why Heifer focuses on gender equity. They work to make sure women have an equal say and involvement because they are a huge resource that helps bring families out of poverty.

Heifer believes in impact, sustainability, and supporting farmers to have a living income, which is an important benchmark because a living income can also solve a variety of other challenges.

William discusses how Heifer works with small holder farmers to make better use of the resources they already have and invest in sustainable enterprises and businesses. They do not look to only provide productive resources such as a cow or strong seeds, but a lot of focus goes into providing knowledge on how to maximize the use of their current resources. To build small enterprise that can generate income.

They work to show how these farmers can maximize their existing resources, bring in technical assistance and tie together a business model to create a livable income. They work to organize them into viable producing organizations that can scale.

William discusses how they help farmers create a vision; focus on one given value chain, such as coffee or dairy. Then they support them to understand how that value chain is structured. Heifer digs deep into what value chain is created and identifies a lot of small issues that keep these farmers from creating sustainability.

Then they focus on working with all the value chain actors/players to create a situation of win win.  They improve market system by working with the government, private sector, opinion leaders, so that the small holder farmer can participate in the value chain.

Heifer fully understands the value chain and how the small holder farmer can be an asset in that system. Connecting them to markets and the private sector is an important step, to witness their farms as enterprises rather than small units they just live on.

Heifer wants to make sure that when they leave, they are sure that the system is sustainable and the farmers will not slip back in poverty.

Another reason that keeps small holder farms in poverty is a trust issue. They work diligently to utilize social capital to ensure they can cement the relationships these farmers make. This becomes a spring board to other opportunities because they understand how to engage in other markets through a business perspective.

They use the social capital tool as part of a new construct for these farmers and bridge the gap of social inequities. It’s about showing them where the problem lies such as women who provide 80% of the labor and are not making any of the decisions about how the money should be used. They are not being empowered to make sure they have access to productive resources that could help keep the community out of poverty.

Through these conversations people begin to realize that these inequities will keep them back in poverty.

Then they work with the men, women and youth to share/divide roles and connect with other members of the community who can engage in certain markets and value chains. They want to make sure the family is a stronger unit which will then allow the village and community to become stronger as well.

If you are a small family who owns a farm and is looking to get out of poverty, start with having an open mind to new information, to displace judgment and be willing to apply that new information. Then look to see what new training you can receive to become more productive and create more income. Then look to see if you can join a group of people who are also looking to focus on better production procedures for farms and get them connected to the market to sell whatever they are producing.

For those who believe in the mission of creating sustainable farming to help people out of poverty, you can contribute to the mission by providing $1 or $2. You can also share about what Heifer is doing with others, and volunteer with the organization. You can help Heifer with fundraising drives or go to different countries and do some of the work.

Final thoughts:

These people do not need hand outs, they need a hand up. For example they have help build these farmer cooperatives from nothing to making $500,000.

Heifer International Website

Heifer Facebook Page

Heifer on Twitter

Heifer on Instagram

Music by Blazo, Introducing