A wonderful mention for Earthlore in the AWDF year end newsletter.

Au revoir, 2017! It’s been an inspirational year, and we hope you’ve enjoyed seeing and experiencing the work of our grantees. To round off the year we wanted to share some of the best stories from the individuals our work touches. These are the reminders of just how transformative this year has been for the women who continue to change the future of Africa, today. Catch up with the work of our grantees, the various activities we engaged in for 16 days of Activism and end the year on a note of hope, warmth and perseverance. EarthLore works to preserve traditional ecological knowledge and practices, seed diversity and governance systems essential for navigating climate change and defending land against growing threats from mining and industrial exploitation A year ago, Make Halala started attending EarthLore’s community dialogues and the Ukulima agroecology trainings.She lives in one of EarthLore’s operational areas in Avontuur, Mpumalanga. She  is passionate about traditional farming but, poverty, unemployment, the loss of traditional seeds and foods is high in Avontuur, making life for women-headed families particularly difficult. So discovering a way to farm without buying seeds, fertilisers and pesticides has been very exciting and inspiring. The more involved she became with Earthlore, the more new ideas were introduced to her family garden – from intercropping with marigolds to stop cutworms eating their tomatoes, to water harvesting using boxed ridges, to making compost and liquid manure, to planting pulses with seeds from the Seed Fair in Zimbabwe. She is a good teacher and is constantly encouraging neighbouring farmers to adopt these approaches as well. And is helping transform her communities approach to food. Slum Women’s Initiative for Development , a grantee based in Uganda, helped these women secure land titles! Florence  Elume, a widow with two children displaying her Land title registration certificate with joy. She is a farmer and used to be a primary school teacher.“ I learnt how to lobby municipal council and local NGOs as I am able to tell them our needs. I also know the steps that one needs to take to process land rights.  I have my land rights and I know I have full ownership of my land. This title means a lot to me. Because it assures me that I have security of tenure. I can get a loan from the bank for my business, I can even sell if I wish to do so. I have Power! Power! Power! Every year AWDF supports 16 Days of Activism to End Gender Based Violence, a campaign to fight against any form of gender based violence around the world. We do this through providing grants to women’s rights organisations to organise activities around the selected targeted marginalised women. We also organise events ourselves. This year, AWDF’s 16 Days of Activism grant support theme was dedicated to women living with disabilities. On Saturday 25th   & Sunday 26th , AWDF collaborated with Drama Queens (a non-profit  theatre   organization  that seeks  to   tell  the varying  stories  of   the  modern  woman, particularly black women   on  the continent  and  in  the diaspora) in a play named “the Seamstress of St Francis which was centered around violence against women, prevention and support. On Friday 8th December, the campaign ended with an Open Mic and Poetry night organised by Drama Queens in collaboration with AWDF. Copyright © 2017 African Women’s Development Fund, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at one of our conferences.Our mailing address is: African Women’s Development Fund Plot 78, Ambassadorial Enclave Accra Ghana