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Cultivating Change: Celebrating the stories of small-scale farmers & workers around the world

22 December 2023

When you work with more than one million small-scale farmers, miners and workers across 40 countries, it results in a million stories of change. Read some of some of the stories of personal achievement and collective effort from the people who inspire our work around the world.  

Solidaridad’s work is is based on 50 years of solidarity with farmers, miners and workers in producer communities where we work with them to achieve a decent income, shape their own future, and produce in balance with nature. Interested in seeing even more stories, scroll through all of our stories from 2023 here.

Jeremias Gomez Repero, coffee farmer in Colombia

Aurora Zeas in an entrepreneur in Nicaragua and owner of Zeas Apícolas, a honey producer that provides a wide range of honey-based products. This article tells the story of how she navigated various challenges to build a successful business with the help of a crowdfunding platform called PlusPlus that supports small to medium enterprises in developing countries.

Latin America

  • Banding Together to Conserve & Restore Mangrove Habitat 
    After a fire destroyed a large part of an important mangrove forest on Guatemala’s Pacific coast, national and international institutions joined the local ‘31 de Julio’ community to restore and conserve the vital ecosystem. Read their story here.
  • A Coffee Farmer Adapting His Farm to Conserve & Provide
    Don Jeremías Gomez Repero was raised on a small family farm in the department of Caquetá, Colombia. Today, Jeremías and his family are learning how better farming practices can reduce emissions, protect biodiversity and provide for their needs at the same time. Read Jeremías’ story here.
  • Nurturing Resilience One Bee at a Time
    Aurora’s passion for bees began as a child in Nicaragua from the first time she put on a beekeeping suit and heard the buzzing of bees. Now she’s overcome challenges and channeled her passion into a successful business, Zeas Apícola. Read Aurora’s story here.
  • Sandra Zanardi creates a vision for her orange grove in Brazil
    Sandra never saw herself as an orange farmer, but after the death of her husband, she took the reins of her family’s orange grove in Brazil. Now, with support from Solidaridad’s Fruto Resiliente project, Sandra has improved her farm’s performance and is set to reap a plentiful harvest. In the process, she has created a vibrant new future for herself and her children. Read & watch Sandra’s story here.
Bibek Sen is a small-scale farmer with a 1.6 acre tea garden he inherited from his father in Maynaguri taluka of Jalpaiguri district, North Bengal, India.

By enrolling women dairy farmers with the milk collection centre of a prominent milk marketing company in the country, women are getting a better price for their milk, but more importantly, the money is directly transferred to their bank account, giving them ownership.

Asia

  • A Sugarcane Farmer Finding New Avenues for Income in India
    Swati Sanjay Pavale is a small-scale sugarcane farmer in the Maharashtra region of India. Recently, she joined a programme that is helping her find new ways to produce more sugarcane in an environmentally-friendly way, while also boosting her income. Read Swati’s story here
  • Digital Innovation Connects Women Dairy Farmers to Markets in Bangladesh
    Though women have always worked in agriculture – even outnumbering men in Bangladesh and India – their inclusion in the formal supply chain remains low. In Bangladesh, women are involved in many of the activities on dairy farms, yet their work often goes unrecognized. A new programme is changing that. Read their story here.
  • Farming Tea for a Better Livelihood
    Bibek Sen is a small-scale farmer with a 1.6 acre tea garden he inherited from his father in Maynaguri taluka of  Jalpaiguri district, North Bengal, India. He’s committed to improving his tea from the ground up and focused on soil health to boost quality and attract a higher price. Read Bibek’s story here.

Mary Wairimu Oloo is a coffee farmer who lives in Kenya’s Trans Nzoia County

Africa

  • From Field to Facials: Work with Solidaridad Spurs a Spa Dream
    The struggle to find work in South Africa is real. Since 2000, the unemployment rate has held steady at over 20 percent; in 2023 the country maintained the highest unemployment rate in the world. New programmes from Solidaridad are bringing practical training,  jobs, and hope to women and men, like Thandeka Mashinini, who are working for their future. Read Thanadeka’s story here.
  • Rakia Shaibu: Local Radio Personality & Shea Nut Collector
    Rakia Shaibu is a regular featured guest on Shea Nut Time, a radio programme that has created a sense of purpose for her and other shea nut collectors and processors in her community in Northern Ghana. The programme is helping thousands of women in the region to improve their business skills, health and safety, and implement climate-smart agriculture and income diversification. Read Rakia’s story here.
  • An Exemplary Kenyan Coffee Farmer
    Mary Wairimu Oloo, who lives in Kenya’s Trans Nzoia County, moved back to her family’s coffee farm after retiring from a government role. Since then she has been diligently improving productivity on the farm, diversifying her income and helping others along the way. Read Mary’s story here.
  • A Strategic Partnership for Waste-to-Compost Circularity 
    Kwabena Mends, a young entrepreneur and founder of EMFED Farms in Assin Fosu in central Ghana, has launched an innovative programme that promises to transform agricultural practices, reduce greenhouse emissions, while also providing an important new source of income to neighboring farmers. Read Kwabena’s story here.

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