Championing Women
In the old patriarchal local culture, women are second-class citizens. Though they carry most of the burden of family farms, household chores and raising children, the men control the money made from selling their meagre crops. Typically husbands seize the earnings of the odd women who do manage to make money outside the house. Sometimes they order women not to work out of fear of them gaining independence and disobeying them.
“There is a great need to gradually change these beliefs,” says Debora, our Women & Youth Organizer, “for men and woman to the see the benefits of a woman working and supporting her family.” The project employs over 80 women and has trained 450 women to manage 22 Village Savings & Loan Associations. These woman are setting an example to the rest of the villages. Women wearing trousers first met resistance but is becoming accepted!
Advances vs. Baseline Household Economics
In 2021, we did comprehensive surveys of 30% of the households in the first two project villages, Uluti and Mhanga, population 1,876, to establish a baseline from which to measure the project’s impact on their livelihoods and standard of living.
In 2026, the annual survey of 120 households found a 629% rise in average household income since 2021 from $156/year to $1,137/year. The survey found:
Most households chose to spend their increased income mainly on food, up 475%, and their children’s education, up 388%.
To chart their climb out of extreme poverty, we will continue to measure all four villages annually through 2051.
In a remote area where many families lived on $13 per month when we arrived, and cash employment was nearly non-existent, UCL has created 168 full-time jobs, and over 1,000 six-month seasonal jobs, covering housing, meals and medical for all, as well as over 30,000/year single task jobs. UCL pays better wages than the large commercial timber plantations in the region.
