Meet the amazing women who work in agricultural groups! The first of a series of profiles.
Mama Lily and her baby boy, Misre. Photo by Luke Johnson.
Mama Lily is the mother to eight children, including four children registered in the Covenant Kids Congo powered by World Vision program. When she shared her story, she was cradling her youngest child, Misre, on her shoulder. Her baby boy fussed a little, making soft noises, but as she rocked him gently, he calmed and quieted again.
“When I gave birth to my child, my child was healthy, and I’m very grateful,” Mama Lily said. “My other children were malnourished. They were thin.”
When Mama Lily was pregnant with Misre, she joined a women’s agricultural group, learning how to grow, cook, and prepare the most nutritious food for her children. “As I was pregnant, I learned this, how to work with my hands, how to grow a bed of greens, and how to eat better,” she said.
Mama Lily’s women’s agricultural group is one of many such groups started with the help of Covenant Kids Congo powered by World Vision. The women in these groups have joined because their children have been impacted by malnutrition; in fact, almost every mother CKC interviewed shared that she had lost one or more children to malnutrition.
Mama Paola, the director of the women’s agricultural groups in the city of Gemena, DR Congo, said the groups have impacted 1,050 households, including 2,350 sponsored children. CKC provides important gardening tools, like machetes, rakes, watering cans, hoes, and seeds, while working with local NGOs to organize agricultural training. Women in the groups also learn how to bake and sell goods in the market, increasing their income.
As she improved her family’s diet, Mama Lily noticed a significant change in her children’s health. “Now they have regained their health,” she said. “They have grown well. They are no longer sick like before, and they’re going to school.”
Mama Lily expressed her thanks for Mama Paola, who started the group and led the agricultural training, and for Covenant Kids Congo powered by World Vision.
“God is helping me and my children and our whole family,” Mama Lily said. “He is giving me strength to work in the gardens and to care for my family.”
Walk alongside Mama Lily and other Congolese families living in the city of Gemena in northwest Congo. Sponsor a child or donate to Covenant Kids Congo.
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