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Literacy classes and agricultural support improve a community's standard of living
Loans and Literacy Boost Food Security
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Photo: USAID/Laura Lartigue
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"I can now ensure that my children go to school, and I can better support my husband by buying food and stocking it to get us through the difficult rainy season," says Nyamba Konate.
"Providing quality textbooks will help our children succeed in school," says Education Minister Guilavogui. "For that we are extremely grateful."
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For four months of each year, the local granaries in the Siguiri region of northeastern Guinea are empty and its residents malnourished. Poor farmers often direly need a financial boost just before the planting season so that they can maximize field productivity. But while regular seeds cost about $1 a kilogram, improved varieties can cost more than three times that.
USAID is working to improve the lives of Siguiri's residents by giving small loans to farmers so they can buy improved seeds and tools, which allow much higher yields and, in the end, better food security for the community. In 2004, USAID helped 6,922 households buy improved seeds, oxen and farm equipment, and showed 4,237 women how to begin gardening and trading their produce to enhance their families' incomes and nutrition.
In a country where the adult literacy rate is only 41 percent, and where rural children — girls in particular — face daunting barriers to basic education, strengthening the educational system is essential to development. To supplement the textbook initiative and encourage girls to complete primary school, USAID began offering a scholarship program for young girls in the 2004/2005 school year. USAID is also helping train primary school teachers to improve the quality of classroom instruction. To ensure the sustainability of these initiatives, USAID works closely with the Guinean government and is the largest bilateral contributor to Guinea's Education for All program, a World Bank-sponsored effort to increase rural access to schooling and reduce crowding in urban schools.
The Initiative's substantial results have reverberated throughout Dinguiraye and other communities in Upper Guinea. Malnutrition in all Dinguiraye residents has dropped from 44 percent to 17 percent, while malnutrition among children aged three years and younger fell from 20.7 percent in 2001 to 15.7 percent today. Today, 30 percent of all new mothers in Upper Guinea receive vitamin A supplements within six weeks of delivery - five times more than in 2001 - and, as a result of USAID collaboration with local partners and the Guinean government, 99 percent of children nationwide also receive the supplements. The Initiative has been effective in reducing poverty in Upper Guinea as well; household incomes for members of women's groups participating in the USAID program in Dinguiraye have increased an average of 69 percent.
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