Hoe in hand, Godelive Niyonagira heads to her fields in the quiet hills of Muyinza village, some 130 km south of Rwanda’s capital Kigali. The warm sun chases away a chilly wind that sweeps through the high slopes.
Niyonagira has a maize crop to manage, which fits into her bigger plan: to renovate her home and secure medical insurance. She can do both with the profits from her harvest, which have surged, thanks to a World Food Programme (WFP) initiative allowing women farmers to access loans at affordable terms.
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“I work hard to ensure my family has food,” she says, “and sell the surplus to meet my non-food needs.” Niyonagira is a single mother of five children.
Known as SheCan, the WFP initiative reaches more than 1,200 smallholder farmers in Rwanda – one of the most densely populated countries in Africa with more than 38 percent of its population (13.2 million people) living below the poverty line.