Each year, we release our annual report to illustrate the impact our organization and our partner organizations have had on sparking change in rural communities around the world. In 2021, the world continued to be plagued by crises, but we witnessed and were inspired by the resiliency of people who have committed to improving the lives of their neighbors and communities.
A few highlights from the 2021 Annual Report
- In Honduras, Groundswell is collaborating with Vecinos Honduras to promote and scale ground-up alternatives that can reverse decades of extractive agricultural practices; political and economic dysfunction; and extreme vulnerability to climate change, including persistent drought and devastating hurricanes. We are working with 52 communities and over 10,250 people to support agroecological farming on eroded mountainsides; to improve family nutrition and incomes; and to strengthen community-based organizations and cooperative enterprises to regenerate local livelihoods and rural economies, with women and young people playing leading roles.
- In Nepal, we are working with our partner, BBP-Pariwar, to form and strengthen women’s solidarity groups for mutual support and action-learning to improve their lives and communities. The women are adapting and spreading to other families agroecological techniques like worm composting and biological fertilizers and pesticides; diversifying farms by planting fodder and fruit tree seedlings; developing community seed banks; and improving household vegetable gardens, rainwater harvesting, and small livestock management.
- In Senegal, together with our partner organization Agrecol Afrique, we are promoting and spreading strategies to address the collapse of soil fertility and livelihoods in the Sahel, and reverse the extreme vulnerability of rural communities. Working in the ecologically fragile, risk-prone Kaffrine region, we are supporting a local movement to spread farmer-managed natural regeneration of trees (FMNR), dry-season vegetable gardening, and other techniques to regenerate soil fertility and food production. Over 1,660 women have gained access to land, water, and training, and are regenerating degraded land for dry-season-vegetable gardening.
- In 2021, we piloted our Youth Storytellers program with our network partners ANSD in Burkina Faso and Vecinos Honduras in Latin America. We supported them to identify interested young people in program communities and facilitated them to retain basic communications training and equipment to produce brief videos on local success stories. These young people are using communications to drive positive social change, and gaining a sense of agency as they recognize, document, and strengthen the power of community-based organizations to spread real solutions. While Youth Storytellers are sharing their videos locally through social media and gatherings, we are finalizing over 15 videos to allow them to shape the narrative internationally in 2022.
You can hear the voices and watch their stories here.
To learn more about the work our partners are carrying out in their local communities, the support that Groundswell International provides, and to see a breakdown of our 2021 financials by the number, read our complete 2021 annual report.
