Ruth Akinyi is the founder of Wasichana Tunaweza (Girls We Can). When only a teenager, she found herself pregnant and forced to drop out of school. With a small amount of funding from her established chicken flock, she was able to return and complete her schooling. She is now helping 20 teenage mothers to do the same through her permaculture-based poultry program.
The program covers essential topics such as permaculture, organic approaches to flock health and well-being, and marketing and business skills. Upon graduation, the young mothers receive indigenous chickens to start their enterprises, with ongoing chicken and egg sales generating income to support their families and the return of the girls to school.
As such, it operates at the intersection of environmental justice and gender equality, addressing these dimensions simultaneously in primarily two ways. Firstly, by supporting girls’ education with the aim of not only addressing systemic, gender-based inequalities, but also improving community resilience to climate challenges and natural disasters. Secondly, by teaching the young mothers about permaculture, the program seeks to equip the students with the knowledge and practical skills necessary to build sustainable communities and proactively respond to local, environmental challenges.
Ruth’s aim is for the students to graduate with a sense of agency, with the ability to teach other women and community members, and for them to become part of a growing network of young women with the knowledge, skills and community support to shape a more just and sustainable world.