2023 Year in Review: Forces for Good [Photo Essay]
Every day, members of the Helen Keller Intl community are choosing to be forces for good. Community health heroes, entrepreneurs, parents, youth, and Helen Keller staff work tirelessly to help improve health, nutrition, and vision for people in their communities, countries, and around the world. We’re highlighting some of the incredible contributions made by members […]
Sweet Potatoes: Nutrition, Economic Security, and Inspiration
In her village in west central Burkina Faso, 34-year-old Kacoara Dahourou, a mother of four, knows firsthand the hardships of financial insecurity and hunger. Growing nutritious foods in a region that receives little rain – and finding affordable foods close to home – has long been a challenge for her. She also harbors a lingering fear that […]
How Baking Bread is Changing Lives: The Success of Sweet Potatoes
Five years ago, a difficult economic situation forced Thaimu Banugura to leave his hometown, Jaiama Nimikoro Kono, in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Despite having completed his West African Certificate Exams to graduate from secondary school, Thaimu struggled to find work in his new home of Makeni in Sierra Leone’s Northern Province, and he […]
Empowering Mothers: Transforming Nutrition in Rural Communities in Sierra Leone
In rural communities across Sierra Leone, limited access to nutritious and diverse food has been a constant concern. 33-year-old Mariama Koroma knows this reality all too well. A farmer and single mother of three children, Mariama lives in Rogbere village in Tonkolili, Sierra Leone’s northern province. Like many other mothers in her community, she has […]
Helen Keller’s Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potatoes Lead Nutrition in Nepal
52-year-old Bishwo Nepal and his wife Gayatri Nepal remember almost losing their whole harvest the first year they farmed. Only one crop survived: orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. Bishwo was able to sell his sweet potato harvest earning enough money to save the family farm and perhaps their livelihood. The couple lives in the Bahrabise Municipality, in […]
Koinadugu Women Fight Hidden Hunger through Farming
On a frosty Sunday morning, a group of farmers wearing brightly colored African waist scarves, called lappas, gather together in front of Haja Conteh’s house in the Koinadugu district of Sierra Leone. The all-women farmers group, called “Denkola Two Women in Agriculture,” are planning their harvest of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes on the three-hectare farm they […]
