IIRR

We are trying to end poverty in rural communities, making them independent while living more fulfilled lives with a higher quality of life.

On a more detailed level, we are trying to provide access to clean water in various rural communities across Asia and Africa, so that children and women no longer have to spend their time walking back and forth to a well far away to fetch water. Clean water in school would also mean that girls could stay in school instead of skipping school for a week each month to manage their periods.

We want to keep them in school to achieve a higher level of education. We also want farmers to expand their income by teaching them more effective farming methods.

We are fundraising money for digging wells in rural areas, we are teaching local teacher's how to become digital using computers, tablets and phones, we are providing 2 free goats to each girl through our Goats4Girls Initiative so that they can live off the income of the goats and stay in school, we build schools for students to attend, we helped train 5,000 farmers who trained and practiced climate-resilient techniques, crop diversification, and waste management; over 2,300 children learned about health, climate-smart agriculture, and BIG programs and have planted vegetables in homestead areas.
Our work in the Philippines has impacted the lives of over 500,000 children, parents and teachers. More than 250 lighthouse schools grew and distributed seeds and seedlings to communities and other schools. More than 320,000 students and community members improved their nutrition. More than 140 child development centers also adapted the integrated school nutrition model. Nearly 4,000 farmers were trained and given seeds, livestock, and planting materials to develop climate smart livelihood options.
In South Sudan, over 25,000 pastoralists benefited from our program. Over 2,000 school children learned gardening skills, benefiting 10,000 internally displaced people and giving 11,500 households access to seeds. A total of 3,000 agro-pastoralists were organized to foster livelihood diversification.
Nearly 100,000 local and international development practitioners visited the Yen Center (our global learning and demonstration facility) and gained practical lessons on integrated family farming, agroforestry, and other climate smart approaches.

We have established country offices in each country that we work in, and we use 87% of each dollar received on our programs to educate and train rural communities in order to reach empowerment.
In the previous years, we have had great reach, affecting the lives of many for the better in Ethiopia, Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Phillipines.

Some examples thereof:
In Kenya in regards to education:
4,703 more girls enrolled and attending school making a 232% increase from 2017
7,648 new students enrolled in school bringing 162% increase from 2017
566 children with special needs are now enrolled in school
2 education cluster forums expanded and established
96 supplementary braille books, 5 sound balls, 1 smart packing braille, 5 talking watches and 10 geometrical sets provided to children with special needs z 15 new schools (14 primary and 8 secondary schools) established
746 primary school books and 289 secondary school books were provided
150 revision books, 120 solar lamps, 163 leadership badges, 18 academic badges and geometrical sets provided to 180 girls with excellent school attendance in both curricular and co-curricular activities

In Ethiopia:
IIRR programs have benefitted:
110,000 pastoralist girls accessed equitable quality education in Southern Oramia
2,000 pastoralist girls were prevented from dropping out of school because of Goats4Girls initiative
Household income of some 10,000 households heads improved by 50%
16,000 women business owners improved their business in 7 towns of Northern Ethiopia
Over 50,000 pastoralist reached through 40 women and youth livestock enterprises to strengthen livestock market linkage in Southern Ethiopia.

In Uganda:
In Uganda, we have organized over 2,300 farmer groups with total membership of 100,000 farmers of which 64,000 (64%) are women.
Our work has collectively benefited over 500,000 individuals through financial inclusion and Entrepreneurship development, sending the children to schools, improving access to health care, improving their financial literacy, economic skills development and improving their agricultural and livelihoods.

In South Sudan:
400 children (8-13 years old) were mobilized in agriculture clubs, trained and equipped with basic skills in vegetable growing and marketing. A total of 1800 have benefited from learners replicating the knowledge and skills learned in their homes.
20 teachers trained to lead and guide agriculture clubs.
10 target schools have designated portions of land for demonstration. The plots are also used for learning during practical scence lessons. BIG skills are contributing to increased household incomes and job creation for the out-of- school youth zSome teachers earn USD200 from the sale of excess vegetables as compared to $15 salary they earn each month.

Cambodia
Education and nutrition:
Over 2,300 children learned about health, climate-smart agriculture and BIG programs and have replicated growing vegetables in their homestead
80 parents and trainers, 74 teachers applied new techniques and best practices for vegetable growing
3,000 kgs. of mixed vegetables were distributed to students, teachers, and communities

Resilient livelihoods:
5,000 farmers in almost 200 villages (1,589 females) trained on climate-smart agriculture, crop diversification, and waste management. Farmers are now applying climate-resilient techniques to planting rice, vegetables, and cassava plants
There is 40-80% increase in farmer beneficiaries’ income. They now have improved production, higher productivity, and higher income from vegetable farming
Over 300 training and coaching sessions organized for rice, cassava production, and safe vegetable farming
Over 2,200 high-value drought and salinity tolerant fruit tree seedlings distributed in two provinces
5 demonstration farms established as learning sites for farmers to know more about the concepts and techniques for nutrition-sensitive agriculture
37 Village Development Fund and Saving Groups (VDFSGs) were established in 9 Community Protected Areas and 14 Community Forests were established across 2 provinces
Over 1,600 members of village development fund gained new skills on fund management and chicken production to improve the economic condition
USD 561,570 saved from the Village Development Fund, which can be borrowed by smallholder farmers as capital for their small businesses

More than 80% of farm families in Sre Phreah Village, Mondulkiri Province raise chickens. One of their main challenges is the need for a supply of healthy chicks. They are challenged with raising unhealthy chicks that have high mortality rates, poor growth, and are sickly.
IIRR, through the funding support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) through the Ministry of Environment (MOE) and Forestry Administration (FA), trained 586 farmers (389 women) on native chicken raising and established 30 broiler demonstration farms and 12 chick producers at the commune level. The demonstration farms serve as a learning site for other farmers on how to raise native chicken.

IIRR worked closely with GIZ, the Regional Economic Development (RED III), and District Agriculture Office in training 1,123 cassava farmers in Oddar Meanchey Province on sustainable cassava cultivation. Around 60-70% of the farmers adopted the new skills they learned and they observed that their income from cassava doubled. Twenty-one farmers were selected to demonstrate the practices, conduct farm trials, and disseminate successful practices to other farmers in the community. They received technical advice and visits from IIRR trainers, DAO Officers, and GIZ Technical Advisors to increase their confidence in applying the techniques they learned.