Dignity. Agency. Health.

Farming & Girls' Education in West Africa

Twenty years ago, Agricultural Missions (AMI) designed and implemented a program in Liberia and Sierra Leone to assist rural communities in their recovery and rehabilitation following concurrent civil wars. These struggles destroyed rural villages and towns, collapsed the social and physical infrastructure, and displaced much of the rural population as villagers fled for the relative safety of cities and large towns.

Week of Compassion has been a faithful funding partner of AMI’s West Africa Initiative (WAI) over the last decade. WAI programs focus on improving food security, advancing the status of women and girls, and promoting the participation and leadership of youth within their communities.

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​March 8 is International Women's Day, and March is Women's History Month. One of Week of Compassion's ongoing sustainable development goals is to empower women and support women-led entrepreneurship. When women and girls are empowered to learn, to create, to lead, and to grow their skills, the impact reaches far beyond a single project.

Their priority was to restart farming and food production in rural villages as people gradually returned to their communities. In keeping with AMI’s philosophy and Theory of Change, long-term sustainability requires the deliberate development and participation of local community facilitators who provide technical and organizational support.

Expanding the program follows the ‘Village to Village’ (V2V) method, with support of new groups by existing ones, offering mentorship, organizational development and training, material support such as tools and seeds, and even cash loans for start-up costs. In both Sierra Leone and Liberia, WAI is expanding this work through the Youth Agriculture Program (YAP), empowering youth and young adults to develop leadership skills and contribute meaningfully in their communities.

At the end of 2025, there were thirty-one active groups in Sierra Leone and twenty in Liberia, serving approximately 1500 farmers and their families, about 10,000 individuals in all! Thanks to community strengthening, reduced inflationary pressures, and increased production of staple foods given more favorable weather conditions, all groups have seen increased food security in their local communities.
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Bindu and her neighbor Rebecca have farmed land together for the past 5 years as members of Kerker-TA Youth Agriculture Group in Kerker-TA Village, Kpeyea District, in Bong County, Liberia. Besides growing rice and hot peppers to harvest for
their families, Bindu sells produce to generate income, and is able to share with neighbors who are in need. She says, “The tomato harvest will be shared with Rebecca and her family. We will sell some and use the money for household expenses and schooling for our children, some for saving for future purposes.”

Rebecca is grateful for this farming group and the WAI program: “Since I joined this agriculture group, I benefited from training in the Farmer Field Schools. I have learned how to preserve my harvest, how to use the food I grow to cook healthy meals for my family, and received help with seeds for planting and tools to work with on the land. The store helped our harvest to last for a longer time to provide food and to save seeds for the next planting year. I believe I am blessed.”

Alongside farming and family resilience, the Gender Rights efforts of the West Africa Initiative continue to be in demand and highly successful in both countries. Community awareness can reduce and prevent the acts of violence women and girls are subjected to within their homes and communities. Creating local committees and involving traditional leaders and government agencies to offer counseling and support to both victims and perpetrators has been vital to the program’s success.

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Support for girls in Junior and Senior Secondary Schools is advancing the status of girls and women through increasing the levels of formal education and the development of women professionals and leaders. Nearly 350 girls have received support for books and uniforms as well as other school supplies, and already enjoy improved status and recognition from their families and communities. The dropout rate among girls enrolled in the program was significantly below that for the general population for high school girls.

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Executive Director Vy Nguyen finds inspiration in the cohesion and ongoing vision of the West Africa Initiative model, and Week of Compassion’s partnership in this work:

“The Village-to-Village approach, the way youth are leading through YAP, and the
integration of storage, livestock, nutrition, and gender justice — this is not a series of disconnected activities. It is a coherent, locally rooted system that continues to grow in depth and credibility.

Rebecca’s story and the other stories in both Liberia and Sierra Leone say more than any data table can. Dignity. Agency. Health. Girls staying in school. These are the kinds of outcomes that matter most. We are grateful for Agricultural Missions’ leadership and for the facilitators and community leaders on the ground who carry this work forward.”

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The Women’s Empowerment Fund at Week of Compassion is a vital means of creating this transformative hope. Gifts to the WEF can be made here.

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We are grateful to Winston Carroo and AMI for the details and photos
for this story, from their 2025 program report.

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