100 Gardeners in 100 Days: Celebrating Charlot & Nora

The end of this week will bring us to the halfway point of our 100 Gardeners in a 100 days campaign. Since the start of the campaign on October 1st, we have signed up 23 new gardeners. A huge thanks to all of you who made that decision. But clearly we have work to do to reach our target of 100 new gardeners by January 7th. So let me share with you some exciting recent developments that might nudge you into becoming a monthly gardener.

Last week we received the incredible news of the official announcement that Charlot Magayi and Mukuru Clean Stoves have been nominated as a finalist for the 2022 Earthshot Prize in the "Clean Our Air" category. The winners will be announced at a live event in Boston on December 2nd.

Charlot and Mukuru have been an integral part of Rockflower since 2017 when we were able to provide support for her vision in the very early stages. She has since gone on to receive many awards and recognitions, including being named as Forbes Africa 30 under 30 this past June. In February 2021 Charlot joined the Rockflower Board of Directors, bringing her light, wisdom and lived experience to our work.

Rockflower is powered by individual donations both large and small, not from foundations or corporations. The funds that we were able to send to Charlot back in 2017 came from many small individual donations. Those who share their resources with Rockflower do so in the knowledge that none of us make it alone. Never is that more evident than when one of our partners makes their own financial contribution to Rockflower. Indeed one of the most severely backwards narrative is this idea that philanthropy comes from wealthy people who benevolently bestow their charity upon those less fortunate. In fact, quite the reverse is true, by being given an opportunity to share their wealth, they are the ones being blessed. Some of the most generous people I know are the ones who on the face of it have the least to share. To share whatever you have is one way to ensure both individual and collective freedom. Or in Charlot's wise words:

"When you provide support, no one ever really feels it’s enough and often you might be discouraged to give when these feelings creep up on you. But ... $10 is worth one life saving stove, and to another, a year’s worth of reusable sanitary towels, $10 is many things to many people. It's important to not wait until you have $10,000 to change the world when $10 could be impacting 5 lives today.” Charlot Magayi, Founder and CEO, Mukuru Clean Stoves

The second piece of incredible news last week was that Nora Spencer, Founder and CEO of Hope Renovations was named as one of the top ten CNN Heroes. Nora first contacted us back in 2018 through a partner application on the Rockflower website. She was in the early stages of building support for her vision for Hope Renovations. I wrote back to explain that Rockflower did not work in the United States but I was very inspired by her vision to engage women in the construction industry and by doing so ensuring that seniors would be able to age in place by having their homes renovated by her team of female builders. I continued to keep in touch with Nora and contributed personally whenever I could. Over the years we have struck up a good friendship and in 2020 Nora became a Rockflower gardener, firmly believing in the Currency of Mind and the abundance mindset. If you feel inspired by Nora, please vote for her to become the CNN Hero of 2022 on December 11th.

“As someone who runs a small nonprofit trying to solve big problems, I know the importance of being supported by strong partners who believe in the power of what could be. That’s why I am so proud to be a Gardener! It’s deeply rewarding to know that while I’m working to empower women here in the US, my monthly support is helping Rockflower empower women around the world.” Nora Spencer, Founder and CEO, Hope Renovations

I am hoping that as you read this and see the incredible achievements of both Charlot and Nora, that you will feel inspired to become a Rockflower monthly gardener. Whether you are a packet of seeds, a watering can or a wheelbarrow, all are welcome and all are needed to make our garden grow - no amount is too small and we are so grateful for your support.

- Tine Ward, Founder and CEO, Rockflower Partners Inc.

Rockflower congratulates Charlot Magayi & Mukuru Clean Stoves on being nominated as a 2022 Earthshot Prize finalist

It is with great pleasure and immense joy that Rockflower celebrates the nomination of Mukuru Clean Stoves as a 2022 Earthshot Prize Finalist.

Featured in the category of Clean Our Air, The Earthshot Prize will be awarded “to the most outstanding efforts to meet this challenge. To the innovators who create job opportunities in green transport and clean energy; to the businesses who remove more pollution from the air than they put into it; and to the communities who let us heat our homes, travel to work and feed our families without polluting the air that we breathe.”

Charlot Magayi has been an integral part of the Rockflower family for some time. In 2017, Rockflower partnered with Mukuru to provide early stage investment for a proof of concept to build 200 stoves. Since then we have watched in awe as Charlot has expanded her vision and her reach to achieve her goals. We were fortunate to have Charlot join the Rockflower Board of Directors in February 2021 to bring her lived experience and deep wisdom to the work of Rockflower.

In July of this year we held a series of Partner Workshops on the Rockflower Five Key Framework. In the session on the key of Economic Empowerment, Charlot joined Haja, Lucy, Roseline and Constance, partners from Liberia, Tanzania, Cameroon and Zimbabwe who shared their experiences on the many challenges they had experienced raising funds for their social enterprises and community based organizations. For everyone it took enormous resilience and faith to keep going before receiving that first piece of funding. Charlot summed it up best:

“The problem with the world is imagining that if we are going to give women the chance we first have to set them up for success, but they have already set themselves up for success and all you have to do is trust them and get out of their way” - Charlot Magayi, Rockflower Partner Workshop - July 2022.

We couldn't agree more! Thank you for your guts and and fortitude Charlot - we couldn't be more grateful that we were able to support you in the early stages and then “get out of the way” and watch you as you manifested your vision.

HORUWO’s Emergency Relief Work for Landslide Victims

Women affected by the Kasese Landslides with their emergency relief items received from HORUWO.

As climate change related catastrophes have increased in frequency and severity, we have received outreach from many of our partners asking us to provide essential aid to their communities. Rockflower is not set up to provide emergency humanitarian relief, our mandate is to provide early stage investment for social enterprises and community based organizations improving the lives of women and girls on the global margins. However, as was the case during COVID, partnership is an ongoing responsibility and one that requires a listening and attentive ear during times of crisis. For that reason, we have been working to put together an emergency fund, supported by our Monthly Gardener donations to address these crises.

In September, we sent $800 to HORUWO in the Kasese District of Western Uganda to provide emergency assistance to those displaced by catastrophic landslides. Climate change in sub-Saharan Africa has led to intensified temperature extremes, precipitation anomalies, and natural disasters that have left millions of people injured, homeless, or food insecure, and has caused serious economic damage. HORUWO’s Director, Biira Juliet, recently sent us an update on the use of the relief funds they received. 

She told us, “People have lost their lives, homes and farms/gardens destroyed and have less to eat, especially poor women with children or pregnant women who are vulnerable to these changes…All people who were affected and are currently living in the camp needed help. We were overwhelmed by the situation of women, especially those who are pregnant and those with kids.”

HORUWO used the money that was largely funded by our Gardeners, to help 40 teenage and elderly women and girls in the Kasika Village who are living in disaster camps. They purchased corn flour, soap, wash basins and sanitary pads to distribute. 10 elderly women received 10kg of corn flour each, and 30 teenage girls each received 2 packs of sanitary pads, one basin and one bar of soap each. These acts of intervention may seem small, but to those women at that moment, receiving hygiene items and corn flour meant that they were one step closer to having their basic needs met and could focus more of their energy on recovering and moving forward from this disaster.

Rockflower is committed to continuing our mission of providing early stage investment to social enterprises and community based organizations improving the lives of women and girls, and we are also committed to providing much needed support during times of dire need. In September we launched our campaign, 100 Gardeners in 100 Days, in which we hope to sign up 100 new Monthly Gardeners so that we can be sure that there is a stream of income available when disasters strike. If 100 people sign up for just $25 a month, that will be an extra $2,500 a month and $30,000 a year, which will add significantly to our emergency fund. These climate related disasters are only going to increase and the needs will be even greater. Whilst we continue to support and fund those whose innovations are providing much needed climate adaptation, we must also find a way to offer support in intervening moments of critical need. 

RUGLI’s Bag Weaving Project Has Uplifted Families

Rwenzori United Group for Life Improvement (RUGLI) works to empower women, raise awareness around HIV/AIDS, provide support to disabled, and elderly people and equip vulnerable community members with opportunities to improve their livelihoods. Recently, they provided an update on their project, Weaving Bags for Economic Independence, in which they’re providing training in weaving shoulder bags and entrepreneurial skills to women, including disabled women and young mothers, so that they can support themselves and their families.

The organization identified weaving shoulder bags as an in-demand skill that they could train large groups of women to do in order to start their own businesses. Many women in the area have been unable to support their basic needs, and have come to RUGLI for help. In response they’ve employed a number of community based trainers who have been teaching bag weaving skills and will continue to check in on the participants afterward.

This project is ongoing, and will be shaped largely by the goals and needs of the participants. Since all trainers and participants live relatively close to each other, they will continue to weave bags together, and can decide if they want to create individual businesses or form a collective. RUGLI shared testimonials from the participants on the impact of the project.

Tusiime Agnes told them, “I have been so honored to be part of this project. My children now have hope that after selling our initial products our lives changed completely. I am a mother of 5 children and the man died of HIV/AIDS in 2014 and ever since then we have suffered. We only ate once a day, my children lacked even clothes to wear. The skills I have learned and the startup capital provided to me have really helped me a lot. Thanks, RUGLI for always helping me whenever I am in need, may God continue to bless the work of your hands. Moreso, I have started a small business shop which has increased income inflows into my family and I have also put my children back in school.”

Another participant, Nyamwiza Venacia, explained, “I lost my dignity and honor when I was a 16 years old when I was raped and got infected with HIV/AIDS. This gave me the honor of being a mother but I never had any employment that could help me look after my child. I was dragged into prostitution so as to be able to provide the best I could for my child who never had a father. I have been a prostitute for 5 years now and I regret the day I began practicing it but I never had a way out. When RUGLI offered help I was really so grateful and positive about it. You have taught me weaving and entrepreneurship skills, provided us with startup capital and I have established my business. Thank you so much for what you have done for me, with this I believe people will have some respect for me as I will be able to provide basic needs for my child doing a decent job.”

Kabugho Moreen said, “I cannot express my happiness of what RUGLI has done for me, I am a single mother with one child. I dropped out of school when I was in primary four and after 5 years I got pregnant. When I got pregnant my parents chased me away from home to go to the person who was responsible for the pregnancy, life became so hard because the man also ran away. I have been struggling to earn income to support me and my child for the last 10 years, tried looking for jobs but life here is so hard, of lately (four months back) I was fired from the job where I was working as a maid and they were paying me UGX15,000 ($4.80 USD) per month. But because of this training acquired, I can manage to get that very amount in a day or two. I am able to get relevant needs for my child and I hope to get more. Thank you so much RUGLI and Rockflower for the support extended to us. We are grateful that you have changed our lives as women mothers.”

It’s astounding to see how education in just one skill can change the lives of entire families. The majority of these women did not have the opportunity to complete a formal education and have had no access to career training. With RUGLI’s support and belief in the power of education, they have been able to uplift and provide economic stability to these determined women.

KYID’s Community Discussions Around HIV/AIDS are Changing the Narrative

Kinyamaseke Girls Youth in Development (KYID), based in the Kasese district of Uganda, has been working to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in their area by changing the narrative and perceptions around the disease. The organization was started in 2008 with the goal of breaking the domestic violence cycle created by social structures undermining the rights of girls. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among school aged girls has increased drastically. KYID identified a real need in the community for people to gather and discuss the issue and learn more about stigma and prevention and they have shared the results of the project with us. What they uncovered in the process was shocking and will greatly inform their work moving forward.

In the Kasese District, 11.5% of the population is affected by HIV/AIDS, which is much higher than the national average of 7.5%. Most of the girls in the District have little or no education and are therefore unemployed. In order to meet their basic needs, they enter into marriages at a young age, with men who are not capable of supporting them. Some of these girls become victims of sex trafficking after being brought to large towns under the guise of traditional employment. Not only are they victims of abuse and sexual assault, but they are exposed to a number of STD’s including HIV/AIDS. Most are under 18 years old. COVID-19 has led to an increase of young people being exposed to HIV/AIDS, and a decrease in those getting tested. 

KYID knew that they urgently needed to open up discussions and bring the community together to better understand the causes of the increase in HIV/AIDS and to uncover the best way to help solve the problem. Throughout the course of the project, they conducted two exploratory meetings, five awareness sessions, three advocacy meetings, held two training workshops and produced five concerts to raise awareness. By connecting with the people in their community, they were able to uncover a lot about the issues at hand, much of which will inform their continued work. For the workshops, they focused on meeting with youth affected by HIV/AIDS to help them better understand their illness and put together a will.

Some of what they uncovered in these meetings involved the shift in parental responsibilities that has put much greater pressure on the parents. They learned that many of the girls affected by HIV/AIDS did not have their basic needs met by their parents, and come from households where domestic violence was prevalent. Additionally, many of the girls, having grown up in an abstinence first culture, have little knowledge about safe sex. 

Some conclusions from these community meetings were that educating and training needs to start with parents and adults in the community. KYID plans to hold awareness training for parents, school teachers, union leaders and youth counselors to help them identify risk factors in young women and how to help young women affected by HIV/AIDS. They also made the decision that one of the most effective ways to get the information out would be through plays and concerts. They had young girls create skits and songs to advocate for their rights. The importance of young men having education on these topics is also crucial. KYID will be distributing condoms and teaching boys how to use them in order to practice safe sex.

Something unexpected to the group was the consistent participation of those with dwarfism. The challenges they face are immense, and KYID is determined to help improve their quality of life. The little people in attendance spoke up about the terrible abuse and sexual harrassment they face. There is an old cultural belief that engaging in sex with a little person will cure ailments like HIV, which has led them to be raped and often infected with HIV/AIDS. 

“They were brave to be open and disclose that most of them are HIV positive because of people flocking in for them. The whole meeting was sorrowful and other people shed tears. We were concerned as human rights advocates for our fellow women being used as objects of laughter.”

KYID held a separate meeting for men and women with dwarfism to come together and discuss the extreme discrimination they face and how vulnerable they are to abuse. They have asked KYID to step in and assist them in advocating for their rights and bringing awareness to the community, which they plan to do, as they recognize this serious human rights violation.

“In Bukonzo County of Kasese District, we identified about 30 dwarfs to benefit from the training. We feel touched and concerned about our fellow girls and women to be left behind in matters concerning social development when they are suffering. In our training we will also have counseling sessions to find out those who are infected by HIV/AIDS.”

This exploratory project brought to light some shocking, yet extremely important discoveries. KYID now has a clear idea of what they can do to help improve their community, starting with helping the most vulnerable groups. Overall, the project was successful in teaching people about HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and how to break the stigma and has led to a larger discussion which will continue in various forms. KYID has a great deal of work ahead of them as they continue to fight injustices and advocate for those who need it most.

YWISD is Proving to Women That They Can Make It

In September, Youth and Women Initiative for Sustainable Development (YWISD) based in the Wakiso sub-district of Uganda, completed its first round of their project, Kisoboka (you can make it), where they educated 50 women and girls in tailoring skills. YWISD was founded in 2016 by 5 young, unemployed women graduates, who grew up witnessing their mothers being exploited by men in the agricultural industry. They saw women in their community doing the majority of the work tending the crops, and then allowing men to sell the products, and take most of the profits. YWISD was created to take a stand against gender and economic inequalities and to increase women’s participation in securing their livelihoods.

Kisoboka was created for indigeneous women and girls with disabilities to engage in viable employment opportunities to support themselves and their families and increase their overall quality of life. Beginning in March 2022, 50 women were selected to participate in a six month training program in tailoring. The goal of the training was to provide a practical, profitable skill to women who are unemployed and unable to find traditional work. YWISD identified tailoring and baking as skills with high demand in their community, and following this first round of training, they are beginning a second cohort to teach women baking skills.

YWISD has shared some participant stories with us to demonstrate just how impactful this project has been in the lives of women with few opportunities to support themselves.

Nakimuli Angelinah, a seventeen year old who left school in senior one said, “I stay with both of my parents. My mother is a house wife and my father is the one financially taking  care of us. Due to COVID-19, my father lost his job, making it difficult for him to sustain the family. Therefore, being a girl child, I was forced to drop out of school for my boy siblings to study. My  father has an old belief that educating a girl child is a waste of money. ‘After all, I am going to get married and leave home.’ He was planning to marry me off as he could see me as a source of dowry. When I heard about Kisoboka I hurried to join the training because I always wanted to  learn tailoring even though the funds weren’t available and I hadn't yet got any opportunity. It is  really a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and I am really so grateful. Thank you very much Angella [YWISD founder], may God really bless you for me because I have nothing to give back to you.” 

Mary Kabonesa, a participant and advocate for the creation of Kisoboka told us, “When I was in senior five, my father married a new wife and ended up separating from my mother. He was previously the one taking care of us, and he had stopped my mother from working. After marrying his new wife, my father refused to pay me and my siblings’ school fees, claiming that we would be able to survive without studying because he also didn’t study but was surviving. I was forced to get married  when I was 17 years old and I have 4 children and without any income. I want to be in a position to  provide basic needs to my children as well and to avoid what happened to us. I have always  wanted to learn tailoring skills and I was among those who suggested that YWISD could help extend to us these services. I am so grateful for the skills I have learnt for free of charge, they will help me earn a living.”

Another participant, Nabirye Mariam explained, “I lost my mother when I was in primary six. My mother was the one taking care of me and also paying my school fees because my father had neglected his responsibilities and no relative was willing to take me in. I had to drop out of school. This forced me to go to the city to look for a job and I got a job as a maid. However, without guidance from any parent or relative I found very many  challenges and I was forced into marriage when I was fifteen years old. I currently have three  children. I am the breadwinner for them, but I don’t have any skill other than digging people’s gardens to earn a living. I am grateful for this opportunity as now I will be able to earn a decent  income and provide basic needs for my children.”

The participants in the first cohort of Kisoboka are looking forward to starting their own businesses and are optimistic about the future and their ability to support their families and keep their children in school. This month, YWISD will begin its second cohort, training 50 women in baking. When the second training is complete, they will hold a graduation ceremony for both groups. 

Currently, YWISD is overwhelmed with interest in the program, as many women and girls were forced to leave school during the COVID-19 pandemic and are looking to earn an income. The organization has plans to construct an outdoor awning, allowing them to expand their capacity and train women outside even during the rainy season. They have 25 women registered for the next tailoring training and are working to raise the funds to implement the program. Kisoboka, which translates to “we can make it,” is living up to its name as it continues to provide opportunities for economic empowerment of women on the margins.

How SOFDI’s Soap Making Cooperative is Revitalizing a Village

Women's Solidarity for the Integral Development (SOFDI) based in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been a Rockflower partner for a number of years. Most recently they have been working to create sustainable livelihoods and improve hygiene in the village of Kazimia through teaching women how to make soap and operate a business. The organization aims to increase the active participation of women in decision making, politics and the governance system of all community structures. Creating opportunities for economic independence while providing education around human rights and financial literacy is a key pillar in achieving this goal. 

The province of South Kivu, located in the eastern part of the DRC, has been dominated by armed conflicts for more than two decades. Officially the war in the eastern provinces, which began in 1996, has been declared over. Several peace agreements have been signed, however in reality the war still continues, especially in the poorest parts of the nation. The unemployment rate in urban areas is 22% and school enrollment remains low which is one of the main reasons that new armed groups continue to form.This has led to increases in sexual violence and poverty.

Women in this area hold a great deal of responsibility and very little power to influence change. They care for the children, as well as the medical care of all family members and are responsible for fetching water, cooking on wood fires and preparing meals. With such a high unemployment rate, many women are in a position where they must support their families financially in addition to all of their other duties. 

The main source of income in the region is agriculture, although crop yields are highly variable and often do not provide enough food to carry families from one season to the next. Most of the farmers have poor quality seeds and equipment as well. In the village of Kazimia, the nearest town to purchase supplies is nearly 50 kilometers away, and for those who make the journey, the supplies they need are often not in stock.

SOFDI identified an opportunity to improve the local economy in Kazimia by revitalizing the soap making industry. Soap is one of the items that villagers must travel far to purchase and is often out of stock. It was clear that soap would sell in the area, and that it could be made in all seasons for a decent price. This led SOFDI to create the Umoja Ni Nguvu (Unity is Strength) Cooperative to support women in the area and create economic opportunities. They decided to train 15 women in soap making as well as how to manage income and expenses and provided some literacy classes so that the women were well positioned to operate a business. These 15 women are the direct beneficiaries, however the impact on the local economy and hygiene will benefit the whole village.

The first round of training has been highly successful. Throughout the training around 500 bars of palm oil soaps in 3 different shapes were produced. After the training, they produced over 1,500 bars of soap and their first sales allowed the cooperative to purchase more raw materials and continue growing the business. In total they earned the equivalent of $273.15 USD in their first round of sales. More recent sales have been more challenging as the price of raw materials has greatly increased. However, they are still committed to producing soap, even with a lower profit margin and the women who received the training are now ready to train others in soap making.

As the cooperative has gained recognition, their demand has increased significantly, especially because their product dissolves more slowly than factory made soaps. The quality is much higher. Currently production varies from 150 to 300 bars of soap per week and the women work three days each week. They have created a management team to weigh the materials and ensure the business’ success. This new availability of soap has led to a real improvement in the hygiene of families as well. Previously they had to stock up on soap since they needed to travel so far, and many families couldn’t afford to do so. Now they can purchase soap as needed.

The potential for the growth of this business is huge. The members of the cooperative want to work to meet local demand first before expanding into surrounding areas. An unexpected benefit is that many women and young people are coming to the factory to stock up on soap to resell. This is great for the local economy, and the cooperative welcomes it. 

SOFDI’s Executive Director, Dr. Alice Lukumbu, who was one of the featured speakers for the recent Rockflower workshop on Peace and Security, said, “The creation of this unit has benefited the women and the whole village in many ways. Before the start of this activity, obtaining soap required great effort because we had to go to Baraka and Uvira to buy it. Not only is the journey tiring for so little, but also the stocks were often limited and one could move around and get nothing in the end. The finalization of the artisanal soap factory cooperative has overcome their last doubts and allows them to dare to believe that their life will no longer be quite as it was before. I think that in addition to the material benefits, such an attitude is beneficial for the advancement of the village.”

100 Gardeners in 100 Days: Will you be one of them?

Climate change related catastrophes are increasing in their frequency and severity. Here in the United States, Puerto Rico is recovering from the devastation left by Hurricane Fiona and as I write this email Hurricane Ian has left a trail of enormous destruction in Florida.

For us, the last eight weeks has seen a steady increase of emails from our partners around the world, asking for emergency help in the face of their own intense climate change induced disasters.

Rockflower is not set up to provide emergency humanitarian relief, our mandate is to provide early stage investment for social enterprises and community based organizations improving the lives of women and girls on the global margins. However, as was the case during COVID, partnership is an ongoing responsibility and one that requires a listening and attentive ear during times of crisis.

These are real people, with real names, in real moments of need. Siddique in Pakistan has been working around the clock for weeks to ensure that the 45,000 people under the care of CSP are given the assistance they need as a result of the devastating flooding which has covered a third of Pakistan in water.

Moreen in Mbale, Uganda has been assisting those whose lives have been upended by recent flooding there, and Juliet and Mary in Kasese, Uganda, have been helping those affected by the recent mudslides who have lost homes and family members. Michael in South Sudan was left speechless by the devastating flooding in his home town in South Sudan.

All of this can feel overwhelming, but one thing I have learned from all the years of doing this work is that small acts of intervention really do matter.  We have sent funding assistance to these partners, which has provided some much needed respite, but we need to do so much more. I started to think about what that “more” would look like.  

Many of you are already monthly gardeners to Rockflower and for your generosity we are eternally grateful. But often I hear people say "I don't have much to give - what difference would $25 a month really make?" My reply is always - I can promise you it would mean a great deal. 

Starting today, October 1st for 100 days through to January 7th 2023, we plan to sign up 100 new monthly Gardeners. 

If 100 people sign up for just $25 a month, that will be an extra $2,500 a month and $30,000 a year, which will add significantly to our emergency fund. These climate related disasters are only going to increase and the needs will be even greater. Whilst we continue to support and fund those whose innovations are providing much needed climate adaptation, like our most recent partner Flicker of Hope in Kenya, we must also find a way to offer support at times of dire need. 

Please consider becoming a monthly Rockflower Gardener - I can promise you that it will be one of the best investments in hope and possibility you will make.

-Tine Ward, CEO, Rockflower

Flicker of Hope Empowers Women Farmers to Implement Agroforestry

Flicker of Hope, based in Nyamira County, Kenya has been working hard to bring smokeless bio-briquettes and cookstoves to the county through their project, Promoting Smokeless Fuel & Sustainable Incomes for Women. As a recent addition to the Rockflower family, Flicker of Hope has made great strides in just a few short months.

This project, although it has one clear goal, to bring bio-briquettes to the area, is complex in its systemic approach to accomplishing this goal. Ultimately the project will work to combat climate change, improve public health, provide sustainable livelihoods to women, fight resource scarcity, and air pollution. In a recent update from Flicker of Hope, it is clear that they are well on their way.

In this first phase of the project, they are working to rehabilitate degraded areas through agroforestry. Previously, deforestation has been a large issue, as wood is being burned for fires, and land is cleared for crops. It has caused damage to the soil, degraded animal habitats, and made the area even more vulnerable to climate change, which is causing a lack of viable crops. Flicker of Hope has identified 200 women farmers who could plant trees on their farms to improve their land and gain additional income. The brush and leaf litter from the trees will be used in bio-briquettes eventually. 

The farmers in the program will learn how to grow indigeneous tree species that have largely been removed from the region. One of these trees is Moringa, a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree with antioxidant properties. They are encouraging them to grow these trees around the perimeter of their farms so that they can maintain most of their farmland and it will provide a windbreak. Some of what will be taught includes tree selection, tree care and planting site selection. What they are hoping to see as the trees grow is a decrease in erosion, groundwater being drawn upward, more fertile soil, regulation of temperature in the local micro-climate, and increased habitats for wildlife like birds.

Michael Nyamweya, Project Coordinator at Flicker of Hope writes, “Ensuring there are suitable habitats for animals means the entire ecosystem can work in harmony and continue to function in a healthy way. When ecosystems are degraded they are more vulnerable to extreme temperature fluctuations and less likely to bounce back and continue to provide services such as carbon sequestration and the storage of groundwater.”

The organization recognizes the inherent lag time in this project, as trees need years to grow. In the meantime, they will be teaching the farmers an improved method of raising chickens that will increase their yield. With this method, the chickens are ready to be sold within 35-40 days which will allow the farmers to earn more income, and feel less dependent on the trees before they are fully grown. 

“Through increasing the farm’s resilience, agroforestry will help women farmers to secure their yields against climate change and degradation. It will, therefore, enhance food security. Further, women farmers will be able to source biomass from their own farms, reducing the time needed to fetch firewood which specifically benefits women…The goal is to inspire and facilitate women farmers in adapting agroforestry to increase their farm’s climate resilience, productivity, and fertility while regenerating degraded land.”

Flicker of Hope is creating sustainable changes to their environment and the livelihoods of their community, with the role and benefit of women in mind. Upon completion of this phase, they hope to build a model farm to showcase the efficacy of regenerative agroforestry and educate others about how different systems suit the local context.

The Power of Connectivity: Reflections on my Summer with Rockflower

Coral Crossland, Rockflower’s 2022 Summer Intern

This summer I worked as an intern at Rockflower, where I was able to support and learn alongside a team dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls around the world.

As I was exploring my different interests for summer internships, I discovered that a passion of mine is helping women and girls around the globe. I began researching many different organizations and nonprofits that shared this passion, and so, when I came across Rockflower, I was instantly intrigued. As I scrolled through the website I found I was more and more captivated by the terms and ideas being discussed. Rockflower seemed to have the answers to questions I had been asking myself - Do different nonprofits connect with each other? How do they receive funding? How do they grow from an idea to a fully functioning system?  

So, though I was initially drawn in by the core objective of Rockflower, its goal to provide funding to women and girls on the global margins through investing early in community based organizations and social enterprises, I was really interested in Rockflower because of its unique approach to attaining this goal. 

This summer at Rockflower I learned what this approach was. More specifically, I learned what the key concepts that Rockflower focused on were: the five keys, Radical Idealism, Practically Realized, the Currency of Mind and how to Cultivate the Garden with the Seed to Canopy model. 

I was lucky enough to help create and attend the 2022 Partner Workshop series where each workshop was centered around one of the five keys. In each discussion, experts of each field would talk about their own experiences and barriers they’ve faced. Although each discussion was designed to be centered around a specific key, it became clear that this was nearly impossible and the importance of assessing the issues as a whole quickly became evident.  I saw this during the Economic Empowerment Workshop when the discussion became about education, when the discussion on Maternal and Reproductive Health turned into a conversation about peace and security, or even when a line was drawn connecting the importance of access to water and food and economic empowerment.  This was a recurring theme throughout the series and it seems impossible to limit the conversation to a single key. 

This then ties in the importance of “Cultivating the Garden” with the Seed to Canopy Model. It is just as important to view the canopy as a whole, as it is to view each piece individually. One of my favorite things about this model is that it allows us to think of our different communities as all part of a singular garden, and reminds us that a garden reaches its full potential if it is tended to as a whole. 

One of the things I first loved about Rockflower were its philosophies of Radical Idealism, Practically Realized and the Currency of Mind. My main takeaway from the summer is that if you have an idea, you should go ahead and do it. Rockflower is unique in its ability to view things broadly and as a connected web. This may seem like too large of a task, as it is tackling a multitude of issues all at once, but Rockflower is proof that this method works and that this viewpoint is not only possible but necessary. Experiencing these unique philosophies has allowed me to look at life through a much wider lens and to assess a vision as a whole, as well as analyze each part individually and then reflect on what the desired outcome should be. Rockflower taught me that these conclusions aren’t radical and crazy thoughts, but true solutions to issues that, if realized, could be made a reality. 

To sum it all up, my time with Rockflower this summer taught me a lot about the complexities and barriers of accessing funding and gave me exposure to many different organizations and projects happening around the world. But, most importantly, my biggest takeaway this summer is the importance of the connectivity of people and ideas and to take a step back and view things as a larger system, rather than as individual moving parts.

Emergency Relief Funding Needed for Community Services Program, Pakistan

The Situation: 

Community Services Program, Pakistan, has been a Rockflower partner for over a decade.  Since 2012 we have partnered with them on projects across a spectrum of our Five Key framework -  maternal and reproductive health, economic empowerment, peace and security and education. The most recent being the exciting Bridging the Digital Divide: From Colombia to Pakistan, bringing digital literacy to rural and remote communities. 

However at this moment CSP and 45,000 people in the communities they serve are struggling against the magnitude of the recent catastrophic flooding. Right now, over one third of Pakistan is covered in water, that is the equivalent to the whole of Colorado. 

Mr. Siddique Hussain, Chairman of Community Services Pakistan has been traveling to the affected areas in the last two weeks and shared the following: 

“I am traveling in the flood affected areas and have assessed that the natural calamity of the floods in Pakistan occurring in various parts of the country needs our immediate attention. With the immense destruction we are facing it is essential to provide rations, medical aid and assistance provision for the flood affectees who have lost their healthcare mechanisms due to this aggressive flooding. Especially females are being neglected and their essential needs, including basic hygiene and sanitary items. This is the time to stand together for humanity.”

The background to the flooding: 

What is causing this unprecedented flooding? Pakistan is home to 7,200 glaciers and they are melting fast. This is a direct effect of an increasingly warming planet, caused by global emissions. Pakistan is responsible for just 1% of those global emissions but will be one of the top 8 countries in the world subject to its devastating effects. 

The knock on effect of these melting glaciers are a series of dominos waiting to fall. 

“In the mountains of Pakistan, water from glaciers forms high-elevation lakes, which are often dammed by glacial ice. When there’s too much runoff, those lakes quickly expand and the ice dams can break, producing what’s called a “glacial lake outburst.” - VOX 

Pakistan’s climate minister, Sherry Rehman in an interview with The Guardian, makes the case for why rich nations must make reparations for the catastrophic consequences of their actions. 

“Historic injustices have to be heard and there must be some level of climate equation so that the brunt of the irresponsible carbon consumption is not being laid on nations near the equator which are obviously unable to create resilient infrastructure on their own,” - Sherry Lehman, Climate minister 

Getting Assistance to where it is needed: 

Add to this crisis the discrimination some Islamic charities are feeling in the rush to provide help as some are facing concern over bank derisking practices. 

“Pakistan is far from the only country where humanitarian responses by Islamic NGOs have seen their financial services disrupted by banks. Payments have also gone missing without explanation for programs in Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan, according to Itani and others in the sector — all places deemed high risk by banks, but also with Muslim majority populations. 

Financial services to NGOs serving Ukraine, meanwhile, have largely gone smoothly, which has heightened a sense of discrimination that’s being felt by some in Muslim organizations, who also see their work as part of religious duty. “  DEVEX 

By having a ten year relationship with CSP we are able to get immediate relief to people. 

We have already provided direct support in the form of food aid, but so much more is needed. As a fund that specializes in early stage investment into previously underfunded community based organizations and social enterprises, emergency relief is not our usual remit. However, we cannot sit back and watch as one of our foundational partners struggles to meet the enormous needs of its constituents.

Please consider any donation amount to assist those who are currently struggling to get through the day.

• $43 buys a food pack for one family for 30 days 

• $23 buys a food pack for a family for 15 days 

• $13 buys a food pack for a family for 7 days 

Reflections on HORUWO's Community Beekeeping Project

Hope for Rural Women (HORUWO), a community-based organization in the Kasese District of Uganda working to implement community health education and livelihood improvement projects, has just wrapped up their beekeeping project. This project was created in response to climate change, which has caused  both extreme flooding and droughts and nearly wiped out the region’s farming industry. HORUWO sought to create a sustainable source of income for men and women facing poverty, HIV/AIDS and illiteracy. The Kasese district has an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 11.2%, creating major health problems for men and women who are already facing poverty. 

The organization found that beekeeping could be a sustainable replacement for traditional farming. The raw materials to create beehives are readily available and honey has a number of medicinal properties, in addition to being highly valued in local and international markets. Beehives are much less sensitive to extreme changes in weather which makes it a smart long term source of income. Beginning in February of 2022, the organization selected 35 members of the community who lacked a source of income, many due to HIV/AIDS and illiteracy, to train in beekeeping. They purchased 15 beehives and trained the cohort on how to manage an apiary, collect honey and sell it at market. 

They have just completed their first cohort of the program and it was a success. The beehives are thriving, and the community members are now able to provide for themselves and are beginning to earn income through this new skillset. HORUWO has received additional funding from Rockflower and is now looking to the future and hopes to expand the project and create livelihoods for even more people in poverty.

Rockflower Partners with New Elementary, Namibia

Rockflower is pleased to announce our recent partnership with New Elementary Early Childhood Education (NEECE), an NGO based in Namibia with the mission of improving the quality and raising the standard of Early Childhood Education in vulnerable communities. The organization works to revitalize schools and create stimulating and safe learning environments that support the cognitive development of children.

New Elementary operates on the basis that high-quality early care and education is a crucial component of a child’s holistic development. This becomes particularly important in settings where children are exposed to the adverse childhood experiences commonly associated with living in poverty.  

Rockflower will be supporting New Elementary in the revitalization of their second school, Mountain Kindergarten. This preparatory school is located in Goreangab, in the Hadino Hishongwa district of the Samora Machel Constituency in Katutura, Windhoek – amongst the city’s most impoverished settlements. The school operates as both a daycare and pre-primary school for children ages 6 months to 3 years old. The team at New Elementary will work with the school staff to improve the physical structure of the building, enhance the learning environment and curriculum, and provide training and capacity building opportunities to the teachers. 

All children deserve access to quality education in a safe environment, and educators require adequate facilities and materials to provide the best education possible. New Elementary is working hard to make this a reality for children in schools across Namibia.

Reflections on our Partner Workshop Series

In the fifteen years it has taken to build Rockflower Partners, one thing has been central to our mission, and that is to ensure that every single partner feels seen, heard and to know that their lived experiences and voices matter. Finding a way for them to translate that agency into a shared platform with access to best practices, challenges and solutions has long been a goal, but as a small team it has been tough to facilitate.  However, after the January 2022 partner survey responses made clear, now more than ever there was a need to find a way to make this happen. 

So this summer we embarked on our first Partner Workshop Series. By inviting all of our current partners from across twenty two countries to come together for a five week series of zoom meetings, they were able to learn directly from each other, as well as from Rockflower Board Directors and Advisory Board members. Each week throughout July, we hosted a conversation on the Rockflower Five Key Framework: Economic Empowerment, Maternal & Reproductive Health, Education, Access to Food & Water and Peace & Security. 

Choosing four speakers from within the partner community and the wider Rockflower network, with specific experience on the designated key, allowed for a broad but deep exchange of experiences, challenges, ideas and thoughtful connection. Each session finished with thirty minutes of open discussion in which attending partners could ask questions, contribute their own experiences, and get to know each other better. 

Many important findings have emerged from this workshop series. Perhaps most gratifying has been the overwhelmingly positive feedback from partners at their delight in being able to see themselves mirrored in so many of their fellow community based organizations and social enterprises around the world. The sense of not being alone in some of these often impossible scenarios held incalculable value for all of the participants. 

Another very important insight from the workshops was the degree to which each one provided a thread of conversation that could be woven into the following week’s key topic. Economic Empowerment led to conversations about women's power over their own bodies in Maternal and Reproductive Health, which led on to the importance of continued secondary and tertiary Education for women and girls.  In the conversation on Access to Food and Water, addressing the existential threat of climate change and the rising cost of food as drivers of conflict and instability, touched on many of the issues discussed in the final workshop on Peace and Security. 

Rockflower believes in the philosophy of “Radical Idealism, Practically Realized”. We deliberately positioned these workshops to provide an overview of the larger global perspective, but then demonstrated how armed with that knowledge, partners could use it in the precise application of practical solutions to their everyday problems. Partners sensed hope in the sharing of ideas and the meaningful engagement and connection with each other, which has led to some new substantive solutions and ideas. We are witnessing just how strongly this connective root system will impact the growth of the Rockflower garden as we build our “seed to canopy” funding model. Please read more for some of the key takeaways from each workshop. 

Economic Empowerment

Roseline, Haja, Charlot and Constance started us off with a vibrant and lively conversation on Economic Empowerment. Not surprisingly with four powerhouse African women leaders, the discussion was frank, heart centered and of course filled with a great deal of humor.   

The discussion began with an opportunity to talk about what it really meant to be “empowered”, and more specifically “economically empowered”.  An overused word in many instances, we focused on the growing need for access to capital, training and business opportunities that actually lead to funding, and the best way to access markets. This laid bare the fundamental reality of just how much women contribute to the foundational strength of the economy of any nation. 

Charlot shared her deep frustration at the misconception that African women entrepreneurs need to receive ongoing training before they can access funding. She reflected on a quote that summed it up for her:

 “The most over-mentored and underfunded woman is the African Female Entrepreneur.”

As a young mother of 16, growing up in the slums of Mukuru in Nairobi, she had trained herself on the skills of entrepreneurship out of the sheer necessity of having to feed her child. 

This was echoed by Lucy Odiwa, of WomenChoice Industries later in the Q&A section, who shared the countless number of times she had been asked to attend training so that she could “train” to be a viable candidate to receive funding, only to be told to go on another training.  Whereas men are trusted to be given the funding right from the start without the requisite “training”. 

 “The problem with the world is imagining that if we are going to give women the chance we first have to set them up for success, but they have already set themselves up for success and all you have to do is trust them and get out of their way” - Charlot Magayi 

Roseline and Haja shared similar experiences in accessing funding for their community based organizations -  African Youth Alliance in Cameroon and FOWACE in Liberia. The barriers included being unable to receive funding without an audit or extensive list of previous project impact, but as they aptly pointed out, how can you show that before you have been given funding to bring your vision to life? The suggestions of  “go create some impact and then come back and tell us how you did so we can decide if we want to fund you”, are so frustrating when you cannot do that without funding in the first place. 

Additional practical advice for the partners on the call from Roseline was to suggest that they maintain an internet presence even with the simplest of websites and/or social media. Continue to keep growing networks and always ask for referrals, this is what builds trust and confidence. 

Haja described the importance of women’s savings groups in being not only a place to learn and be mentored on business management and savings but as a way to come together and share problems and experiences. This sense of community and distributed leadership is what has inspired so many of the women to continue with the program. 

Constance was keen to express a plea to financing institutions at all levels to acknowledge the unequal processes in place for women entrepreneurs. Stop asking for collateral and instead see women’s bold visions for what they are worth. Empowerment for Constance means the ability to make decisions for yourself and this is what led to her vision for the Women Advocacy Project. To prevent child marriage in four districts around Harare, Zimabawe, finding a way to provide economic empowerment was essential. This led to the creation of Clean Girls Soap, a social enterprise, run and managed by girls who had previously been on track for child marriage. 

The conclusion: It's not very complicated - give women the money and they will return it ten fold to their communities.  

Maternal & Reproductive Health

The conversation on Maternal & Reproductive Health was extremely informative, whilst also deeply personal.  Lucy, Dr. Chris, Somto and Audrey, shared wide ranging perspectives on the cultural taboos, personal challenges and direct assault on menstrual health hygiene, family planning, and choice and consent over women’s bodies. 

Despite these organizations being very different in size and mission, they share a common goal - to ensure that more girls and young women have access to reproductive education and menstrual hygiene products, which results in greater retention in secondary school, greater accessibility to higher education and increased employment opportunities. Lucy and Audrey who both run menstrual hygiene social enterprises - WomenChoice based in Tanzania and Be Girl currently working in several countries in Latin America and Africa, shared their personal experiences as to what led to their involvement in menstrual health.  

Lucy gave a brutally honest assessment of her own experience of starting her menstrual cycle, and the accompanying shame and embarrassment that led her to want to ensure that other girls did not suffer a similar fate by developing affordable menstrual hygiene products and education materials. 

“It is really important for a woman and a young girl to understand themselves initially, first of all as an individual, to know their worth, to know how they should be handled actually…Girl empowerment is nothing dangerous, it simply tells a girl that you are free to have a dream of your own, you are free to have a vision.” - Lucy Odiwa 

Audrey, although based in Washington DC, had spent time working on cross-sectoral issues in Ethiopia and saw how menstrual health for young girls was a key leverage point in ensuring access to education and mental well being.  She shared how Be Girl is extremely focused on ensuring young girls receive the education they need to know and understand their bodies and showed us an example of the manual period tracker that Be Girl has developed. 

Dr. Chris and Somto from the Society for the Improvement of Rural People in Enugu State, Nigeria, were delighted to be able to contribute to the conversation, given that there is so much taboo around men discussing these topics. 

Dr. Chris explained, “It’s a taboo almost, to talk about issues around menstrual poverty or menstrual issues” and went on to describe how they work to address many of the myths around menstrual hygiene and the misinterpretation of religious and cultural beliefs which can sow disinformation and doubt on an already complicated topic. 

As Gender Lead for SIRP, Somto reiterated:  “The importance of men and boys can not be overemphasized …It is so important to have men and boys as allies.” - Somto Ugwu 

It was indeed extremely gratifying to see so many men on this call.  Tonny from Hope for the Future, Uganda made the extremely salient point that individuals and communities should continue to question why governments spend trillions of dollars on defense when the equivalent spent on the health and wellbeing of women and children would generate exponential benefits in security for nations. This was an issue we would revisit in our next three workshops. 

Education

Despite a great deal of progress in ensuring more girls have access to education, today there are still 130 million girls who lack the ability to go to school. One of the most devastating side effects of the COVID pandemic has been the impact it has had on girls education worldwide, particularly in countries such as Uganda where schools were closed for over 2 years. 

However, this period of time has also seen a fast tracking of many innovative solutions in the delivery of education. By upending traditional formats and looking at cost effective ways to ensure those in rural communities with little access to the internet gain access to learning, there has been a real momentum to use this crisis as an opportunity. 

With Tania, Siddique, Miriam and Dancan, we were able to hear from leaders from a cross section of understanding and experience regarding the value of education across different cultural and social contexts from Colombia, Pakistan, Kenya and the USA.

We talked about existing barriers to accessing education including the impact of poverty, access to technology and digital education and how to broaden the types of education girls receive by looking toward global future needs. 

One of the most important themes to emerge from the workshop was the concept of role models and representation. When discussing the hugely significant impact of the election of Francia Marquez, the first female Afro Colombian to hold the office of Vice President, Tania stressed how monumental this was for poor indigenous women to understand that there was actually a path out of poverty through education and mentorship, together with sheer bravery and determination. 

“It is always important that we keep representation in mind, because we cannot be what we can not see” - Tania Rosas

Another big topic was that of access to information. Dancan wanted to point out that similar to representation you do not know what you are capable of until you have a better understanding of what resources are available to you. Key to his work with Jiwo Paro is to ensure a wider distribution of information so that women can access their own inborn talent. 

Siddique stressed the importance of engaging the decision makers at the government level who have control over the gender budgets. A key component of the success of the Bridging the Digital Divide: from Colombia to Pakistan, the Rockflower pilot project being implemented by Tania and Siddique, has been the ability to act as a catalyst for the Ministry of Education to scale up the project. 

Miriam’s perspective as a lawyer brought a wider lens to the subject of Education by linking to an understanding of fundamental laws and rights, “There are laws in place for a reason, you are entitled to live a better life… and this can often lead to more political and civic engagement… If you understand your fundamental rights… then you can engage in the political process” - Miriam Foley 

But time is running out and as Tania reminded us at the end of the workshop, there are so many young people whose potential is being stymied through sheer lack of access and opportunity. 

Access to Food & Water

The number of people classed as “acutely food insecure” by the UN before the Covid crisis was 130 million, but this has since increased to 345 million due to the crisis in Ukraine. 50 million people are just one step away from famine. The rising cost of fertilizers and fuel, and the ongoing threat of catastrophic weather, is adding to an already heightened sense of fear and chaos, creating the perfect storm for social unrest, political instability, forced migration and the continued deep suffering of already marginalized communities. 

Against this rather gloomy backdrop, we had an opportunity with Brianna, Lucas, and Anandan (Twisi was unable to join us on the day) to provide some insight into the different types of food and water security issues at a local level, in the very different geographies of The Gambia, Nicaragua and India. 

Lucas and Brianna discussed their respective experiences and approaches to working as outsiders in community based programs and social enterprises. As a vet and social entrepreneur, Brianna has been able to bring her expertise without enforcing or prescribing solutions not generated by the community. Lucas shares this ethic and has worked closely with the women of L’Astillero to ensure that all decisions were participatory, in particular the budgeting and agroecology center planning.  Humility was the key word, and prompted discussion on the value of the traditional and indigeneous learned experience. 

Anandan held particular expertise in this regard,  detailing his work in ensuring indigenous knowledge on how to purify water is preserved through oral and written tradition. Local knowledge is key to transforming systems and communities. 

Lucas and Anandan also both referenced the ability of communities to build seed banks as a practical tool to ensure food security. Lucas detailed his own revelations when building the Center of Agroecology, that the reason that he could not access seeds was because they were all controlled by a few large multinational corporations. These were the same choices available to the local community of Astillero. The other partners on the call really liked the idea of seed banks and made plans to cross pollinate ideas in this regard. 

We also discussed localization vs globalization of food supply chains and the importance of diversifying farms and livestock as one form of mitigation against the effects of climate change. Brianna highlighted the difference between food security and food sovereignty, and how because of international food and trade policy so many people in emerging economies do not have ownership over their food production. Nutritious foods are cost prohibitive, for example milk is 16 times more expensive than rice in The Gambia, which is why the focus at Gambian Goat Dairy is to deliver cost effective animal source protein. 

We touched on the issue of land rights for women and referenced a recent Landesa paper "Women and Dirt"  in which they make the case for gender parity in land rights as a solution to issues of food security. 

One thing was clear  - waiting for the international community to fix climate change was too much of a long shot for so many of our partners. They need solutions today. 

“If the community of Astillero waits for the global community of politicians and diplomats to solve climate change, they are all going to be dead by the time that’s done so we need to prepare for building resilience on the ground” - Lucas Worsdell

Peace & Security

By providing a broad overview as to what peace and security means in different contexts and settings, but then to show how this directly affects communities and individuals, we were able to ensure that the partners on the call could draw a line between the information shared and their daily experiences. 

Peace and Security is not just the absence of war, it is a multi-layered understanding of the needs and wants of different groups and communities, at a personal, local, national and international level. 

With Dr. Alice, Rajaa, Sahana and John, we had a wide ranging conversation on what it takes to develop systems and strategies to counter violence, greed and injustice.  All of them have deep experience and a personal commitment to building a world in which peace is paramount.

Dr. Alice delivering her remarks in French, (our grateful thanks for translation by Will Burgat)  brought us into the heart of the issue, by describing the daily task of helping victims of atrocities become survivors and then contributors in the redesign of their communities through their lived experience.  There was a deep weariness in her voice as she described the continued witnessing of rape and murder and the daily repercussions of a reality in which Security Resolution 1325 does not actually live up to its intention. There are still not enough women involved in the concrete actions to bring about peace. In 2020 she was involved in talks with armed groups in order to bring more women to the discussion but was met with push back and the suggestion that they should only come if they bring women with weapons to the talks. Her plea was to ask how the UN can find a way to insist that more women from civil society are present at the “real peace talks” not just the secondary track two discussions. 

Rajaa shared the deeply personal experience of her father, a policial and human rights activist, having been detained and tortured in a Syrian prison for almost ten years of her life. When the uprising began in Syria in 2011 she was studying for her PhD in Mathematics in the US, but returned home to Syria knowing that she had to be involved in documenting the human rights abuses. She started CCSD with a group of activists determined to see a better future for the women of Syria, and continues to engage with civil society activists, youth leaders and all those wishing to see a greater emphasis on the women, peace and security agenda. She is extremely keen to ensure that all the lessons learned from the last ten years of work in Syria be shared with those in conflict situations so that all of the rich resources and learnings can be put to good use. 

 Sahana gave us a detailed analysis of the work of bringing multi stakeholders together in order to ensure the agenda of Women, Peace and Security is put front and center in the minds of policy decision makers. She applauded the partners on the call for their bravery and willingness to imagine a better and more peaceful world and for their consistent daily work to make this a reality.  Indeed, Security Council Resolution 1325 came from women in the Global South saying to those in the North - “What you are doing is not working, we need a better way” . She also reiterated the need for a collective vision of what peace would look like, and to take a step back to assess what is working and what is not.  By being willing to co-create something better there exists a real potential for a more secure world. .  

“Women want to change the dominant security narrative  … for the benefit of everyone. We can change the narrative of what is possible by seeing through a feminist lens” - Sahana Dharmapuri

John took us deep into the reality of the “captured state” - which is what happens when war economies take hold and become a perpetual money making machine for a few corrupt individuals. In order to tip the balance for those living in these countries who want an even playing field, the importance of using the tools of network sanctions and challenging the incentive structures that reward violence and authoritarianism cannot be overstated.  John’s decades of work in the DRC meant that he was particularly in tune with Dr. Alice’s deep feelings of frustration and shared how his own journey had evolved as an activist, to focus on dismantling the means by which war machines and kleptocracies thrive. This was a timely discussion, as his piece in Project Syndicate last week demonstrated on the occasion of Secretary Blinken’s visit to the Congo and Rwanda. 

We finished with a conversation on why Peace and Security is so difficult to fund, and not just in the world of philanthropy. As the world keeps spending trillions of dollars fighting wars only to rebuild after the destruction, a tiny portion of that invested in prevention would bring untold dividends.

“It's so hard to quantify the results of investments in peace” - John Prendergast

Conclusion: 

This was just the beginning of a series of workshops that Rockflower will be producing throughout the year as we digest the conversations and dig deeper into other ways to ensure that our partners have access to a shared platform of tools, techniques and approaches that can continue to contribute to the improvement of life and well being for so many women and girls and their communities. 

We are grateful to everyone who participated and thank all of our speakers for their insights, vision and clarity. 

Rockflower Partners with Flicker of Hope, Kenya

Rockflower is pleased to announce our newest partnership with Flicker of Hope, a community based organization located in Nyamira County, Kenya. The organization aims to organize and empower vulnerable rural populations in drought prone areas, with an emphasis on women and children, by helping them to build sustainable livelihoods and to empower the communities to become self-reliant. Rockflower has provided funding for their project, Promoting Smokeless Fuel & Sustainable Incomes for Women, which will be addressing a number of issues including resource and water scarcity, deforestation, pollution, public health, and the lack of sustainable employment in the area. 

Nyamira County is an area with very few options for earning a living. The area is prone to crop failure and drought. One of the only consistent resources in the area has been wood from the forests, which are used for fires and building materials. However, the prevalence of deforestation has caused the few watersheds in the area to dry up. Due to a lack of resources, the forest is being destroyed, water is being depleted and the air is becoming polluted from all of the smoke. 

Flicker of Hope is partnering with Rockflower to bring smokeless bio-briquettes and cookstoves to the county. This project will reduce deforestation, utilize untapped resources, increase public health, and provide income to rural women who will produce the bio-briquettes. The briquettes are made primarily from brush and bushes, which until now have not been utilized as a resource and also inhibit forest growth.

Additionally, this is a self employment opportunity for rural men and women. They will train people on how to collect the brush and provide a consistent source of income to those people. Jobs will also be created through the production of the bio-briquettes as well as through distribution and transportation of the product. The organization will focus on providing jobs to disadvantaged women and girls. 

Rockflower looks forward to working with Flicker of Hope as they promote the effective utilization of resources, conservation and preservation of the environment, improved opportunities for child education, adoption of healthy & hygienic lifestyles, financial inclusion, skills development, entrepreneurship & women empowerment.

Rockflower congratulates Board Director Charlot Magayi on being named one of Forbes Africa 30 under 30 for 2022

Rockflower is delighted to congratulate Board Director, Charlot Magayi, on yet another well deserved recognition of her work to bring clean cooking technology to underserved communities through her organization, Mukuru Clean Stoves

Charlot was just named as one of Forbes Africa 30 under 30 2022. With over 600 nominations and an in-depth referral process the competition was high, but Charlot’s story and the magnitude of her achievements proved to be a winner. 

“Our journey with Charlot began in 2017 when she was raising initial investment for her Mukuru Clean Stoves social enterprise. We provided very early funding for a proof of concept, from which she was able to leverage other sources of funding and bring her vision to life. I could not be more thrilled for Charlot for this recognition, as she is the embodiment of grit, resilience and determination. She brings a unique perspective to all that she does and blesses all those she meets with her empathy and understanding.  We were fortunate to have her join the Rockflower Board of Directors in February 2021. As I was quoted in the Forbes piece - watch this space - she will be President of Kenya before too long!”  - Tine Ward, Founder and CEO, Rockflower Partners Inc. 

In addition to this recognition from Forbes, Charlot was also awarded the Waislitz Global Citizen Award in 2019, The World Bank’s Inaugural SDG’s and Her First Prize and the 2019 AWIEF Empowerment Award for her work empowering marginalized women in Kenya and her fight against indoor air pollution.

This past Mother’s Day Rockflower highlighted the importance of the Mothering Economy in celebrating mothers and those tasked with mothering. Looking at our current economic structures from the perspective of mothering, there are many other ways to measure progress that are not limited to traditional metrics of growth.

Within the Rockflower partner family, there are so many mothers and other individuals tasked with mothering who demonstrate daily the deep breadth of knowledge available in how to keep households, communities and nations thriving. By listening to their wisdom as they insist on a different future for their children and grandchildren, we can place ourselves at the center of their willingness to nurture, not just your own child, but every child, with a capacity to imagine a future based not on “getting” but on “giving”, and an intrinsic ability to predicate all of this on a practical and achievable framework.

Charlot is the embodiment of this future and this mindset, something that has been known by so many women for decades, understanding that a new economic paradigm really is possible if those who are best positioned to direct the funds are given the opportunity to do so. 

“It [the mothering economy ] would mean that the economy as a whole world would function to serve and nurture the most underdeveloped economies within it, that the accumulation of wealth from one economy at the expense of another that has not yet matured, would not be looked down upon. The 'maternal gaze' would be a more selfless, rather than selfish approach to obtaining and distributing wealth.” - Charlot Magayi 

Rockflower's 2022 Partner Survey

In January 2022, Rockflower sent out a short survey of ten questions to our current and past partners. We received 28 responses from 16 countries. What we found was a common thread of mutual respect, understanding and a fierce determination to keep going against all odds. 

Rockflower began a decade ago with the simple intention to get more money into the hands of women and girls on the global margins,through a holistic Five Key framework. This would then provide them with agency and opportunity to make decisions about their lives.

We are a small team with a mighty will to ensure that we do all we can to provide funding and support to our partners. We are called Rockflower Partners Inc. for the simple reason that we are the sum total of our partners' needs and their subsequent successes. 

This survey provided a great deal of insight into the challenges our partners are facing, their visions for growing their organizations, views of Rockflower and its own plans for growth, and their strong desire to collaborate across organizations and nations. 

One of the questions asked was about receiving follow-on funding from other organizations after receiving funding from Rockflower. We were delighted to find that 92% of our partners who responded to the survey, the majority of whom had no access to international funding before partnering with Rockflower, were able to attract follow-on funding from other global organizations. This clearly demonstrates the value of being the first to fund small community based organizations and social enterprises. 

The ability of our partners to obtain follow-on funding is a clear demonstration of the Currency of Mind™. Rockflower’s philosophy is that the Currency of Mind™ is the most valuable and powerful currency that exists, everything of value starts with an idea created in someone’s mind and when shared it increases, expands and takes on energy. We place the Currency of Mind™ at the center of all of our work. 

We asked our partners to describe what the concept of The Currency of Mind™meant to them.  YSWID in Uganda shared that, “Even when we don't know where money will come from we listen to people in our community and offer to find a solution to their challenges. The ideas people have about their challenges are very important for the success of the project so we respect them and we offer to help them even when we don't have money."

Another key finding from the survey was our partners’ strong desire to collaborate and learn from one another. Over 90% of our partners indicated a desire to communicate and collaborate with other partners within the Rockflower Family and demonstrated a willingness to network across areas of expertise and different geographies. With this insight, we are planning to create virtual spaces for collaboration and growth.

JWAS, a partner organization based in Nepal told us, “We would also like to increase our networking with like minded organizations. We believe that knowledge sharing, learning exchange and networking help us to grow. So we would like to share the impact of our work to the global audience, this could be done by in person visit as well as virtually. Similarly, we are interested in conducting the learning exchange event and to share the outcomes to the global audience."

The survey also asked about the biggest challenges faced by each organization. Our partners have persevered through extreme obstacles including war, famine, political unrest, and most recently by supporting their communities through the pandemic. What is abundantly clear is their need for additional resources.  

Organizations like Gambia Goat Dairy, have gone on to meet with great success, but this was not always the case, they credit Rockflower with funding them in the gaps when it was really difficult to obtain mid-level funding. 

They told us, “[One of our biggest challenges has been] mid-scale funding. We had an influx of seed funding but struggled to find funding to scale our results from 5 years of work in Gambia – Rockflower completely supported this transition first with targeted smaller-scale funding for necessary projects (2019-2020) which catalyzed our development as a teaching and research program. Then they stepped in to help us scale through Penn Global HAREF matching support – an essential component of mid-scale funding that will allow us to expand over the next three years.”

Responses like these have illustrated the need for a Seed to Canopy™ funding model, something we have been developing for a number of years and plan to implement in the near future. This model will provide ongoing restorative financing opportunities to those at all stages of the investment process, strengthening capacity and longevity for all involved. 

One last key finding from our survey was less tangible, but for us, one of the most important. Partners indicated their respect for Rockflower’s willingness to consistently engage in honest, meaningful conversations. They felt that the team was approachable, and that they could be transparent in their requests and engagement. When asked for five words to describe Rockflower, the most repeated words were: Trustworthy, Authentic, Reliable, Practical, Loving and Empathetic.

Overall, the partner survey proved to be an incredibly useful tool that will help shape our future endeavors. It is evident that our partners truly feel part of the Rockflower Family knowing that they all have valuable insights and knowledge to share. As we work consistently towards increasing investment capital to fund our future Seed to Canopy™ model, creating collaborative spaces for our partners and continuing to develop the Currency of Mind will be uppermost in our minds.  

Please consider becoming a monthly gardener to bring these visions to life:

A Year in Review from Gambia Goat Dairy

Gambia Goat Dairy is a team of Gambian agriculturalists and Penn Vet faculty and students dedicated to creating a brighter, more livable future through creating productive and environmentally conscious agricultural systems that alleviate poverty, improve maternal and child nutrition, and prioritize community wellbeing. Since 2016, we’ve been exploring the role of agriculture in solving the interconnected, wicked global problems as outlined by U.N. Sustainable development goals:

• 1. No Poverty

• 2. Zero Hunger

• 3. Good Health and Wellbeing

• 6. Gender Equality

• 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth

• 10. Reduced Inequalities

• 12. Responsible Consumption and Production

• 13. Climate Action

• 17. Partnership for the Goals

At Gambia Goat Dairy, and through our Executive Director Brianna Parsons’ employment as a lecturer in Sustainable Agriculture at Penn Vet, we always think big about our world. Our global population is projected to increase from 7.7 to 10 billion people by the year 2050. With this, we’ll face major global challenges. Our world will need to produce more food in the next 50 years than has ever been consumed in human history. To do this in the face of climate change creating ever-growing uncertainty threatening traditional agriculture, innovations in agricultural productivity and producer resilience needed to build a world free of hunger.

West Africa is already facing these challenges, and their impact will only worsen as the region experiences some of the highest global population growth and some of the worst impacts of climate change. Currently, 23% of children under 5 years suffer from stunting malnutrition. Stunting malnutrition has intergenerational, adverse health consequences such as impaired cognitive development, decreased immune function, increased likelihood of disease, and reduced growth rates. Animal-sourced foods, like milk, meat, and eggs, have been proven to reduce stunting malnutrition, but these foods are 16-times more expensive in West Africa than they are in the U.S. These foods are more expensive for two reasons:

1. Underproductive livestock agriculture in the region - An average cow in in The Gambia produces just 3% of the milk per day that a cow in the U.S. can produce!

2. An influx of imported milk and meat products – imported products aim to fill this gap but undercut the domestic agricultural sector, by shipping excess foods produced across the globe into the region and ‘exporting’ the profits from their sales at the expense of Gambian agricultural sectors

As a result, malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies consequently plague West Africa’s most vulnerable populations who rely on cheaper carbohydrate staples to fill their stomachs. Strategic, targeted investment into productive local livestock systems is an important means of reducing malnutrition while growing a critically important domestic industry . Productive smallholder agricultural systems have widely beneficial effects on societies by creating wealth, improving environmental stewardship, promoting food sovereignty, and boosting community nutrition. We aim to create a model that works for leveraging sustainable livestock agriculture to improve holistic community wellbeing in Gambia.

Gambia Goat Dairy (GGD) is a social enterprise that employs sustainable agricultural practices to spur economic development, empower communities, and end malnutrition. We are creating a teaching and research farm from the ground-up that investigates and employs agricultural best practices to improve wellbeing of humans, animals and the environment alike. Our small-scale commercial farm will sell pasteurized, affordable dairy products, increasing access to nutritious foods for the people in our community. We will investigate innovative educational strategies to share agricultural knowledge with farmers throughout the country and ultimately expand pasteurization capacity to create a national dairy cooperative and dairy industry. We strive to achieve impact in the following key areas:

1. Improving maternal and child nutrition through access to safe and affordable, domestically produced animal source foods

2. Improving smallholder farmer wellbeing through economically viable, domestic agricultural production – thereby improving food sovereignty of the country and spurring economic development through agricultural systems

3. Empowering women agriculturalists across the food value chain through targeted agricultural and business outreach

4. Integrating youth employment opportunities and deploying youth outreach strategies to inspire the Gambia’s future generation to create attractive employment opportunities across the agricultural value chain

5. Promoting environmentally sustainable agricultural practices across the region and creating a model for environmentally responsible agriculture 

With The Gambia as the site of our pilot project, we are creating a model dairy system that can be widely prescribed to generate wealth for smallholders. GGD combines systems thinking with entrepreneurship and veterinary expertise, defining problems with data to formulate evidence-based solutions with tangible measures of impact. Understanding the complexity of the problem helps us design solutions that will work when solving such interconnected and challenging global problems. 

Our team is made up of two full-time Gambian employees – Sulay Camara and Sainey Badjie who’ve been working with us since 2018. Dr. Brianna Parsons (VMD MSEd) serves as Executive Director and helps link The Gambia to Penn Vet. Other Penn Vet faculty/alumni involved in Gambia Goat Dairy include Drs. Tom Parsons, Katrin Hinrichs, Carla Chieffo and Dave Galligan. We also support Penn undergraduate, veterinary, and professional students through in-country and research internships, and to date have sponsored eight students with five additional students planned to work with us in the summer of 2022. Lastly, we engage in strategic partnerships to amplify the impact of our work, most recently exploring collaborations with the Medical Research Council of The Gambia, the University of The Gambia, and the Banjul American International School.

Sainey Badjie and Sulay Camara

Brianna Parsons and Sainey Badjie

In December 2021, Gambia Goat Dairy was awarded a Penn Global Holman Africa Research and Engagement Fund award for nearly $200,000 over the next three years. Rockflower Fund generously supported this application with $30,000 in matching funds allocated over three years. With this award, we can finally build the teaching and research farm we’ve envisioned for the past 6 years. We’ll investigate agricultural best-practices, including animal health, husbandry, and nutrition. We’ll research the economics of smallholder livestock agriculture, to produce recommendations of methods to improve smallholder revenues, and we’ll continue researching best pasture management strategies – a critically important research area that’s been neglected in The Gambia over the past decades. All of our research projects will be designed to answer critical questions to Gambian farmers, and all our findings will be shared with the community through evidence-based educational outreach to get this information into the hands of the folks who need it the most.

And given our intimate ties with Penn Vet, a world class veterinary teaching and research institution, we ultimately plan to use our findings from our work in Gambia to create entrepreneurial methodologies as tools for stakeholders across the region that reduce risk and increase impact of home-grown initiatives. Here at Gambia Goat Dairy, we understand that the local community is often best positioned to create solutions that work. We strive to support those working in this space through knowledge sharing around a vision for a prosperous future. By recognizing the interconnectivity of global challenges like poverty, nutrition, and women’s empowerment, we can intentionally design solutions poised to promote global equity and wellbeing, and create a community of like-minded visionaries working together to create a better future.

The Pehran Project Celebrates its Third Round of Graduates

Rockflower partner, Community Services Program (CSP), Pakistan has completed the third round of the Pehran project, a Rockflower funded initiative providing employable skills to disadvantaged women in Kashmir, or who may already produce handmade crafts, but struggle to earn money. This 12 month project, broken into multiple cycles, recruits women who are interested in learning or improving upon a trade and supporting themselves financially. In this third round of students, CSP trained 24 women in embroidery, stitching, dressmaking, design and marketing. The goal of the project is to elevate the level of crafts that were produced so that the women could sell in-demand products, and have the knowledge to operate a business.

The rural women of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K) actively participate in the production of Kashmiri arts and crafts, but face significant hurdles in maximizing a return on their efforts - for themselves as well as their families and communities. CSP’s team, led by Mr. Siddique Hussain, understands that providing women with the opportunity to learn a trade, and how to market that trade effectively will not only benefit them economically, but will also help to build self esteem, a sense of responsibility, teamwork and effective communication skills. Throughout the training, the group also held two sessions focused solely on life skills, led by board member, Dr. Shazia. 

CSP is determined to train and support so many women that eventually, the Gurase Valley will have an established brand and reputation for its crafts. They have set up four training centers, led by graduates of the Pehran Project, to continue providing support and education. 

The third round of training ended in July of 2021, and CSP has been closely following the graduates on their entrepreneurial journeys. The organization found from previous groups that many of the graduates still need support in tapping into the market as they work on starting their businesses. The benefit of having multiple rounds of graduates, is that they are able to teach and support each other given what they’ve learned in both the training and in their own business. Not only has CSP provided job skills, but they’ve created a community of women ready to support one another as they work toward their mission of creating a reputation for craftsmanship in their community. 

Success Stories from CHICOSUDO's Women Empowerment Through Vocational Skills

Nelia Kabambe is a 17 year old single mother living in Traditional Authority Nkanda in Mulanje district, Malawi. She is one of twenty women who were given the opportunity to receive vocational skills training through a program implemented by Rockflower partner, CHICOSUDO. 

Nelia (right) learning to sew alongside her baby.

Nelia lost her parents at the age of twelve, and was unfortunately left to support herself. With very few options, she was forced to leave her education behind. She made one of the only decisions that she could and decided to marry a man, and be his second wife. Despite her young age and lack of experience, she took on the role of a wife in order to survive. 

In 2019, Nelia, who now had a child, was approached by a volunteer from CHICOSUDO who invited her to take part in their ‘End Child Marriage Now!!!’ program. Through this program, she received counseling on sexual and reproductive health, was provided an outlet to discuss concerns in her marriage, and received support through continued community programs.The knowledge she gained from the program allowed her to think critically about her situation, and to understand that there were other options for her. With the support of CHICOSUDO, she made the difficult decision to end her marriage, and live with her grandmother and baby. Nelia was determined to create a better life for herself and her child.

Over the past few years, Nelia has struggled to earn an income and support herself, her grandmother and her child. She is now 17 years old, and has been taking on casual jobs in order to make money whenever possible. However, through CHICOSUDO’s most recent project ‘Women Empowerment Through Vocational Skills' Nelia is learning the skills and tools necessary to become self-reliant.

Participants completing their tailoring assessment.

The goal of the project is to empower survivors of child marriages and single mothers by equipping them with skills, tools and education to support themselves and their families. Over the past few months, CHICOSUDO has worked to train twenty women in stitching, tailoring and embroidery while also providing education on sexual and reproductive rights and other emerging social issues. 

The organization is now close to completing this program, which consisted of 12 weeks of training in sewing and tailoring. The women have learned how to sew by using paper, how to maintain old clothes, and how to sew their own garments. The program has been highly successful, with over 85% of the course materials covered by the eleventh week. The decision has been made to extend the program by a few weeks to ensure that all of the women have learned the necessary skills. For the course’s final project, the women will sew uniforms for underprivileged children in the community. 

Not only are the participants learning these valuable vocational skills, but CHICOSUDO is also working to put a revolving loan scheme in place so that the women will have access to capital and can start their own businesses. The business loans will have an interest rate of 30% which will allow more money to go back into the fund, so that more women can access the loans. Over time, the fund will grow and so will their businesses. Upon completing the training, 85% of the women intend to start their own enterprises.

As the training comes to an end, the women, who are survivors of child marriages, are feeling hopeful and empowered by their ability to become self-reliant. Nelia is excited to complete the program and start her own business, or partner with others in the group to create a larger business. She now feels that her child will have better opportunities, and that she will be able to support her family despite all that she has been through. The work of the volunteers at CHICOSUDO has changed the lives of many women like Nelia through supporting them to leave abusive marriages, and providing them with the necessary skills to move forward and succeed on their own.