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Women play a key part in the success of Action Against Hunger's interventions and account for the majority of our beneficiaries.
Women in Action Against Hunger's work
Action Against Hunger works in contexts in which the majority of labour for domestic food production at the household level is carried out by women. Women spend long hours in the fields, tend domestic livestock and vegetable gardens, gather firewood, haul water, prepare and cook food, take care of children and manage household finances. In most cases, women use almost all their income to meet household needs. At the same time traditional culture and land laws often prevent women and girls from gaining an education and obtaining access to communal resources and public services that would allow them to improve their families’ livelihoods. Our work in approximately forty countries is closely linked with the role women play in improving their families’ livelihoods.
Nutrition and Health
In acute hunger crises, our principal work concentrates on therapeutic and supplementary feeding of the severely and moderately malnourished, who are usually women and children. Supplementary feeding to less severely affected people is done on an outpatient basis, whilst therapeutic feeding for severely malnourished patients, who are often close to exhaustion and death, is usually on an in-patient basis. Whilst in the centres, women are given health education on preventing malnutrition, improving infant feeding, child rearing and other health practices. Many of these women, often due to conflict or poverty, have not had access to basic education. Cultural beliefs govern the treatment of illness and malnutrition and also determine the most common child rearing practices, some of which can be detrimental to child and family health. As women are usually responsible for child rearing, this basic education received in our feeding centres can mean the difference between life and death.
Health educators and community health workers trained by Action Against Hunger address cultural practices which result in poor family health care and poor child spacing leading to malnutrition. This can be simply by helping women to understand their natural cycles, methods of family planning and simple messages about treatment of common symptoms such as diarrhoea and fever. Home visitors and health workers in the feeding centres educate mothers around myths surrounding breast feeding and infant feeding practices. In Sudan for example, it is a common belief that if the husband resumes marital relations, or if the mother becomes pregnant again, the baby will die if breast feeding continues. This leads to early cessation of breast feeding and malnutrition of young babies. In some countries, cultural dietary beliefs bar women from the consumption of highly nutritious foods or restrict access to them, leading to malnutrition in the family with the mother often the most affected.
 Whilst resident in therapeutic feeding centres, women are also taught essential skills to improve nutrition within the home. These range from nutrition demonstrations using local foods to prepare nutritionally balanced and affordable meals, to working in demonstration gardens attached to the centre. In the demonstration gardens, women are taught how to successfully grow nutritious food and methods of food storage and conservation for food access throughout the year. This kind of education enables women to be more independent in managing the nutrition and health of their families, thus preventing further morbidity and mortality.
Food security
Action Against Hunger is working in partnership with the local organisation CINDI in Kitwe, Zambia, an area which has the highest HIV prevalence outside the capital Lusaka: official estimates stand at 26.6%. Together we are implementing a project to improve the health and nutritional/food security status of vulnerable and HIV/AIDS affected households. The project targets the most vulnerable groups: orphans, child headed households and single parent households. The majority of these are female.
 In Zambia, nutrition and food security within the household are mainly the women’s responsibility. Women are responsible for putting food on the table and choosing the content of each meal. As a result, the food security/nutrition component of our project is mainly targeting women. Women are the focus of income generating activities (such as chicken rearing, handicrafts and vegetable gardening) in order to improve household food security and nutrition. In addition, the majority of participants in sessions outlining the importance of good nutrition for people living with HIV/AIDS, are women. These sessions enable women to understand the importance of providing a balanced meal for those they are caring for and give advice as to how this can be achieved.
Research has confirmed that children of educated mothers are less likely to become undernourished and are generally healthier even if confronted with severe food shortages. Health education sessions, such as those described above, held at Action Against Hunger’s feeding centres and within the community, are confirmed by FAO as the “single greatest weapon in the war against poverty.”
Water and Sanitation
Public health engineering that sounds at first very technical and male-oriented can have a big impact on women’s lives. In Liberia, the construction of wells by Action Against Hunger was much appreciated by local women as they provided a source of safe water close to the home. This was particularly important as it meant that they did not have to go far from their villages and therefore were not exposed to possible violence or even rape. School latrines constructed by Action Against Hunger in the Philippines improved not only the hygiene situation for all children, but also greatly contributed to the dignity and security of girls. As a result, more girls are regularly attending school and have a chance to improve their prospects for the future.
Capacity Building
Famine is not only about the availability of food and resources but also about access to these. Action Against Hunger conducted a study in rural Armenia, which found that women lose out when it comes to decision- making regarding food resources and the allocation of common investment. In fact only 4% of these women took part in decisions over agricultural production in their communities. Action Against Hunger initiated and supports long term projects to overcome this clear gender division between family and community. Today, 55% of those participating in our community activities are women. This paves the way towards gender equality in the community and ensures that issues specific to women are taken into consideration in community politics. It also helps women to redefine their contribution to communal living in a public setting and helps to establish them as equal, valued citizens.
“When I started I was so scared of everything, I was checking and double-checking all information and documents, everybody in the street where I live was looking with surprise and curiosity at everything I did. I have changed a lot. This work gave me much belief in my knowledge and energy. My children and family respect me more. Everybody changed their opinion of me. Now I have many women working for me and they are changing and I see how well they do all the work and how much self esteem it gives to them....I am sure every woman can do what I have done and achieved. They just need to start.” (Woman in Sissian/Armenia)
For Action Against Hunger the fight against hunger must include gender equality. Empowering and educating women are key factors in improving livelihoods and breaking the cycle of hunger and food insecurity for coming generations.
For our full report "Women and Hunger", please click here.
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