The month in pictures: July

In partnership with a local civil society organisation, Drop of Hope Association, which supports young people, AKF has co-hosted friendly football tournaments. The matches are especially targeted at girls, providing an opportunity for them to build their skills and fitness, spend time together, and most importantly, have fun. This work is supported by AKF and Global Affairs Canada’s Adolescent Girls’ Education in Crisis Initiative (AGENCI), which supports girls when they are most at risk of dropping out of the education system.

Survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) participate in the first workshop of a new AKF project supporting the economic reintegration of SGBV and human trafficking survivors in Madagascar. The session welcomed 35 women for psychological and peer support, and was hosted by Women Lead Movement Madagascar, a civil society organisation and partner of AKF.

The project is part of AKF’s wider efforts across eastern Africa to advance gender equality through civil society, funded by Global Affairs Canada.

The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) in India is leading efforts to green some of the most degraded and toughest landscapes in the country. Here, a one-year-old microforest, planted in partnership with the local community in Dhalsalgaon village, Madhya Pradesh, sits in stark contrast with the surrounding terrain, degraded by climate change. Under AKF’s GROW initiative, AKRSP India – with active community participation – has established more than 1,400 micro-forests and planted more than 3,224,000 trees.

A bountiful harvest in northern Mozambique’s Chiure district! Here, AKF technicians have been training young people in diverse agricultural and horticultural skills. They are growing everything from cabbages, lettuce, beetroot and okra to tomatoes, peppers, onions, and sweet potatoes. The healthy produce grown is helping these young agriculturalists to feed their families and generate surplus income.

This initiative is being supported by the European Union in Mozambique, Camões, I.P., and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Maputo.

Around 55% of Tajikistan’s population has access to safely managed water supply services, with significant disparities between urban and rural areas; only 24% of Tajikistan’s rural population is covered by piped water supply. Mehroj lives in southwestern Tajikistan’s rural Khatlon district. AKF recently installed a new water supply system in his village, supporting 372 households. Mehroj and his family now enjoy improved sanitation, cooking, and washing facilities at home – and he is particularly excited about playing in the water with his friends.

Adylzhan holds a handful of soil, enriched with biopesticides made from leftover food scraps. Through a regenerative farming project, Adylzhan and other farmers like him are learning how to re-cultivate soil which has become degraded from livestock grazing, using homemade biopesticides to improve soil quality. Regenerative farming techniques like this help rural communities to build climate resilience and sustainably increase yields.

A women’s group in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, gather in the shade of a solar panel in their village. The solar panel was originally established to power irrigation for agriculture, but the women quickly noticed that the panel was producing excess energy. They decided to utilise it to power flour mills, eliminating the need to travel long distances for wheat grinding. Together they run a thriving all-women enterprise, producing flour for cooking and to sell for supplementary income.

AKF is supporting this initiative in partnership with EKOenergy.

Sauti Ya Wanawake Pwani – a women-led civil society organisation in Mombasa – held an all-male forum to discuss how men can be agents of change to curb sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in their community and advocate for gender equality. The participants learnt about the gender issues affecting their community and discussed solutions for reducing violence against women.

The project is part of AKF’s wider efforts across eastern Africa to advance gender equality through civil society, funded by Global Affairs Canada.

Oyatsho is a 33-year-old entrepreneur from GBAO, eastern Tajikistan. With 12 years of experience in wood processing, Oyatso brings raw materials from Khorog – the nearest city – and manufactures his own products, including doors and windows, tables and chairs, and more. The demand for his quality products was increasing; through AKF and USAID’s Local Impact project, Oyatsho had the opportunity to present his business and express his need for new equipment to meet the increasing demand. His proposal was accepted, and through the project he has acquired the equipment he needed and is planning to employ up to four people in his workshop.

In the streets of Old Damascus, the AKF team collaborated with community members to plant 45 new trees in pots. The idea was proposed by a group of young volunteers who wanted to raise awareness of environmental sustainability in their neighborhood and bring their community together in a shared activity.