Dear Friend,

Thank you for your continued generosity and support throughout 2024. Your commitment to empowering individuals with dignity and opportunities is deeply appreciated.

In November, I visited Sierra Leone to meet with our team and see firsthand the impactful work being done. I was particularly impressed by the young women who are taking leadership in addressing the challenges posed by climate change, including hotter dry seasons and irregular rainfall. Their efforts to plant trees in schoolyards have transformed the school yards, providing shade and fostering a sense of responsibility and empowerment as they care for their community.

This year, we are also launching a school feeding program to improve children’s nutrition, while working with local female farming cooperatives to promote climate-smart agriculture. Our Sierra Leonean team is excited to build sustainable food sources and share farming knowledge with their communities…and ultimately to help lower malnutrition and increase school participation.

In Honduras and Guatemala, your support enables us to continue providing safety and economic opportunities for women and girls. Our team in Honduras is dedicated to creating systems to prevent violence against women and girls, helping them stay in school and access economic opportunities.

Your generosity is making a tangible difference. I often reflect on the challenges we face, but when I visit the field and hear stories of transformation, I know that we are creating lasting impact. Thank you for being part of this journey and for helping individuals rise out of poverty and support others to do the same.

With gratitude,

Meet Luisa*, a 28-year-old mother from Todos Santos Cuchumatán, Guatemala. Luisa’s life, like many in her community, was shaped by daily struggles, but her story is one of perseverance, hope, and transformation.

As a single mother to her 10-year-old son, Juan, Luisa faced many challenges. But at just 18 years old, she made a life-changing decision. She joined CAUSE Canada’s microfinance program in Guatemala, designed to empower women like Luisa to take charge of their future, build businesses, and improve their families’ quality of life.

Luisa’s first loan was small, and she invested it in two sheep. Encouraged by her aunt, who had already experienced the program’s impact, Luisa was drawn to the idea of financial independence and entrepreneurship. Her aunt had shared how the program helped women in their community build small businesses and improve their livelihoods through accessible loans and support. Luisa knew this was her opportunity to break the cycle of poverty in her family and create a better life for herself and her son.

Luisa embraced the challenges of entrepreneurship with determination and a clear vision. She invested wisely, grew her business, and expanded her livestock. From her modest beginning with 2 sheep, today Luisa has grown her herd to 37 sheep and she now has other small animals and crops to sell. Over the years, her success with CAUSE Canada’s support has not only transformed her life but has also enabled her to contribute to the well-being of her family and her community.

Luisa is only one example of what is possible when women are given the resources, knowledge, and encouragement to succeed. Her journey proves that with the right support, a single mother from a small, rural village can rise above adversity and become a leader, an entrepreneur, and an inspiration to others.

Your partnership with CAUSE Canada supports women in Guatemala, Honduras, and Sierra Leone access the tools and opportunities they need to succeed. Thank you for believing in women like Luisa and for investing in their futures.

*Name has been changed

“My name is Saio. * I am 17 years old; I live with my father and 5 other siblings. Our mother was our main advocate for our education but unfortunately, she died in a tragic road accident. Since she died, things have never been the same in my life.

Our father ended up having a second wife, and the second wife has 3 male children whom he cherishes more than us. My father does not believe in girl child education. He had a strong belief that girls are meant to be in the kitchen, and they are not supposed to be educated because if they do, they will not follow traditions and they will always disrespect elders, especially their husbands. 

Even though I loved and valued my education, my life began to shift. My education became less important, and I began working to support my younger siblings and their education. 

During this difficult time, I was introduced to CAUSE Canada’s, work to help adolescent girls that have dropped out of school. This has been life changing for me as my father participated in one of the stakeholder’s training courses where they discussed the importance of girls’ education and began to change his perspective. 

Soon after the training, my father spoke with one of the staff and had me registered to return to the classroom. Through the program, I received counselling and mentoring to help me understand the benefits of my education and support from the local Mothers’ Club. Through this experience, my level of boldness and confidence has increased. I am now doing extremely well in my classes, and I am hoping to eventually pursue my dream career to become the electoral commissioner for Sierra Leone. 

I want to thank CAUSE Canada for changing my life and supporting girls in my community.”

*Name has been changed

In the fall of 2024, we wrapped up our adolescent health project in Guatemala and Honduras. If you have been partnering with CAUSE Canada for a while, you already know about the substantial work done in Central America to reduce maternal and infant mortality. Through this work, we have continually been stunned by the very young ages of many of the mothers participating in our programs. First time moms are commonly less than 18 years old, and many were around 15 – too many were even younger. This work led to the PODER project (PODER which means “power” or “I can” in Spanish).

PODER was able to bring the education, health, and justice systems together to help address the high pregnancy rates of adolescent girls. At the same time, by employing local and Indigenous staff, the project worked closely with communities and parents to help overcome some of the major cultural barriers related to gender norms, keeping girls in school, and helping meet adolescents’ health needs.

Given the high rates of violence against women and girls in these regions, it was critical to help empower communities and build systems to respond to this type of violence. We were thrilled that the teams in both countries started convening the justice system, and other government and non-government groups to develop systems of care to address the needs to prevent and respond to this violence.

In Honduras, through your support and the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, the municipality of Quimistan and CAUSE Honduras are now working with other municipalities to help implement local legislation and coordinate efforts to improve the prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence and prevent early pregnancies.

We all know that if families and communities are going to leave poverty, it is critical that women and girls can participate. Making these communities safer for girls and women will help open many opportunities for people to leave poverty.

Thank you to the Government of Canada CFLI, Global Affairs Canada and to you for your partnership in Guatemala and Honduras.

In September, We Eat What We Plant launched in Sierra Leone. This first year, the project is working in two schools, with Mothers’ Clubs members, community members and local farming cooperatives.

During the 2024-25 school year, the project is seeking to improve sustainable access to healthy and nutritional food for primary school students in vulnerable rural areas to address food insecurity and nutritional challenges. Next year, it will scale up and expand to more communities and schools. This three-year pilot project will help families learn how to grow and prepare healthy, nutritious food, how to care for their sanitation systems to have clean water that helps ensure food is safe to consume, and it will discuss the serious health impacts of when girls eat last.

We are grateful for your support along and the support of ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West Africa States) and Spanish Cooperation (AECID) for seeking new ways to solving big problems that continue to stop children from growing and learning.

This project is funded in part by ECOWAS and AECID in the framework of ECOWAS PMAI-AO.

A special thanks to our monthly supporters who believe She is the Change. In 2024, we saw women and girls working as catalysts for change in their own communities – like we have never witnessed before. In Sierra Leone, we started to hear stories about how different the classroom is starting to look as more girls are going to and staying in school. Parents are starting to see girls’ potential, not only as mothers and wives but as future income earners that can and are helping to support families to permanently leave poverty. Thank you for being part of this. 

Please know that monthly giving significantly increases the impact of your gifts as it allows CAUSE Canada to better plan and budget for projects knowing that the funding will enable proper investment in helping people realize opportunities to reach their full potential. It also helps to reduce administration costs.

Not yet a monthly donor or want to know more? Visit cause.ca/sheisthechange. We are happy to tell you how you can stand with the strong, hopeful, fearless women and girls who are impacting their communities to leave poverty.