Launching a new fiscal year!

Greetings, dear friends and supporters – Thank you for clicking in on this update! We recently closed out the Apr 2022-Mar 2023 fiscal year and are thrilled with our progress, including raising nearly $25,000, increasing the number of women farmers to 25, exponentially magnifying the volume of food harvested, and taking significant first steps to create the DRC-based NGO.

All of these gains are getting us closer to real protection for the land and a viable future for the women, their families and the three villages the Project currently serves.

To our donors: Thank you for helping us realize the dream of Women Rising and bring the dreams of the women in the DR Congo to life! Your support has been immeasurable.

Even with our progress, the mining companies (both sanctioned and wildcat) continue to pose a significant threat.

Some villages not too far from us have been forced to pack up their limited belongings and seek new places to be, most often in the already overcrowded, poverty-stricken western slums of Lubumbashi, a 2-hour walk away. Nonetheless, we are “on the map,” given our recent engagement with UN Women and growing recognition by regional leaders in the Project’s home province of Katanga.

With solid fundraising through 2023-2024, we will be able fence the 2nd hectare, making it safe for the women to farm, complete the transition to an independent DRC NGO, purchase a 3rd hectare, and increase our cohort to 50 farmers to launch the 2024-2025 production year. It’s a big lift, but our Team is undaunted.

Our goal is to protect as much land and provide as big a lift to as many women as possible so that they can stave off hunger, find dignity, and help their families and communities stay safe and thrive.

Stay tuned for progress updates – digging a new well, instituting irrigation with our hand-held pvc pumps, building our first solar food dryer, + more!