Love Volunteers partners with a local charity in Rwanda to support this essential program. The Abagore Farming Co-operative (‘Abagore’ means ‘women’) supports participating families by providing supplies and a willing volunteer labor force to assist with the labour intensive farming program. Many of the families the charity works with are headed by women, so the co-operative was set up to give them the opportunity to earn money to look after their families. These families have been affected by the country’s troubled history, and by the economic fall-out. The women supported by this co-operative grow maize, carrots, and cabbages to sell in markets in the area. Through these actions they will not only earn an income that will benefit their families, but will also be contributing to food security in the community, ensuring that people can improve their nutrition and health. The women in the Abagore Farming Co-operative learn the value of trading skills and go on to then train more women in the community. Our partner supports the women in accessing markets in the area and helps them to become small business leaders, which in turn creates more jobs for the community.

Goals of this Project:

• Provide volunteer labor to support women growing crops to support their families
• Teach economic and trading skills to women in the community – and thus empowering them
• Contribute to food security in this impoverished nation
• Expose volunteers and children to different people and cultures

How you can help

This is a farming program with an extremely important community development element to it, and one that is essential to the community in which it operates and the families it helps to support. Volunteers on this program can expect to help in every aspect of this agricultural co-operative, from assisting with tending the land, harvesting crops, selling crops at local markets, and in assisting with educating the women involved in the project on sustainable agricultural techniques. Volunteers may also be called upon to teach English to the participants in order to improve their future livelihoods. This program is ideal for volunteers who like physical work, that are enthusiastic and don’t mind getting their hands dirty, that like working in teams, and people who love to interact closely with others. Participants must be physically fit and enjoying being outdoors, with work hours varied and dependent on the task at hand.

Volunteers will contribute in a number of ways and can expect to undertake the following tasks:

• Working on the land - tending to and harvesting crops
• Selling crops at local markets
• Educating participants on sustainable farming practices
• Teaching English language skills