Food Security for Women in Nicaragua

Petrona Castillo knows first-hand how valuable animals and education are to the world’s women. She’s a member of a Heifer project called, “Food Security: Woman, Environment and Development in Four Communities of Boaco,” in Nicaragua. 

“The project has helped us relate with other women in the community. When we meet, we do not talk only about the species, but we also talk about other things and we help each other,” Petrona says.

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The goal of this Heifer project in Nicaragua is to improve the food security and living conditions of women and children in impoverished communities through the provision of cattle, sheep and swine. The women are also given technical skills training in the appropriate management of animal species and tree nurseries. But as Petrona notes, so much more comes from the project and the animals.

“Before, some of the women had to buy milk and cheese for their children; now they make cheese and give milk to their children, because the heifers they received have already given birth,” Petrona notes.

Women are increasing the food security of their families and nourishing their children, and they’re becoming independent through the precious gift of their own capital.

And this is vital to their lives, their community and the world. As Pulitzer-Prize winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn assert in a new book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Knopf, 2009), the key to the world’s economic progress and health rests in unleashing women's potential. A Heifer project partner, featured in the book, underscored how important it is to give the world’s women a chance for independence and education.

It’s the exchange of ideas and training that gives the women in Nicaragua so much hope. “Although we are from rural areas, we don’t have knowledge on some species; when we’ve received unfamiliar species from programs in the past without training, we’ve failed,” Petrona says.

In the extensive training workshops, participants were taught about their responsibility to put into practice what they had learned, replicate it and organize other groups of women who would do the same. They “Pass on the Gift” of their animals, their knowledge and their hope.

The women’s groups in Nicaragua are enjoying their education and interaction. The women eagerly share what they learned from each workshop with each other. A group member named Lucrecia in the community says, “The exchanges of experiences have generated significant learning opportunities for women since they share their know-how with technicians of other organizations and with women from other communities who are also participating in the project. For me the exchange was excellent.”

The animals and the training Heifer has given in Nicaragua are true capital investments in the lives of women who are improving their families’ health and livelihoods.

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