How your donation is building resilience in the world's most vulnerable communities

Yes, an important part of our mission is responding to emergencies, like earthquakes in Nepal, Türkiye and Syria, and floods in Pakistan and Bangladesh. But much of work is in long-term development. Our mission is to help people living in extreme poverty achieve major improvements in their lives which last and spread without ongoing support from Concern. As part of our programming, we build resilience in the countries we work with against shocks and climate change, and seek to address the root causes of poverty through our development, education and advocacy work. 

When you make a donation to Concern, whether a monthly gift or a once-off general donation, it goes to where it’s needed most. That donation will help farmers in Malawi, or provide children in Sierra Leone with education supplies. It could rehabilitate a well in Sudan, or provide psychosocial support to those facing conflict in Haiti. It will help families in Kenya build resilience against drought, or support survivors of gender-based violence in Lebanon. 

Every day, with your support, our teams on the ground in the world’s most vulnerable countries are making a difference and working towards a world where extreme poverty is eradicated.

Rising sea levels, cyclones and floods have made Bangladesh extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Ruksana Begum, a mother-of-three who lives in Cox's Bazar, the world's largest refugee camp, with her husband, children and mother-in-law, knows this all too well. “We always live with the fear of cyclones and storms. We suffer most during the rainy season when cyclones happen frequently. High water tides often destroy our houses during cyclones," she told us.

Ruksana’s husband works as a fisherman, but when he is unable to catch fish, the family struggles to put food on the table. Ruksana often went without food in order to feed her children, even when she was pregnant and in need of nutrients. It was also hard to grow food themselves, as cyclones and flooding threatened to destroy any crops they managed to grow.

When she met SHED, a partner organisation of Concern, Ruksana was offered a lifeline. Here, she was introduced to the concept of climate-resilient vegetable gardening, providing an opportunity to immediately provide nourishing food for her family, and generate income. 

Ruksana was taught how to grow vegetables in hanging gardens and sack gardens, to protect them from flooding. Not only is she able to feed her children the vegetables, but she plans to sell them to make money for her children’s school fees.

She said: “This vegetable garden will help [my children] with their nutritional needs. I will be able to eat these vegetables in the future.”

SHED continues to visit Ruksana and other women in the programme to support them with their gardens and to offer nutrition advice. By building resilience against future shocks, Ruksana feels more capable in providing for her young family. 

Gabdibe Keymaye is the headmaster of Tcharaw Primary School in Sila Province, Chad. When he arrived at the school in 2019, it had been closed due to lack of funding, and he and local parents struggled to open it again to provide an education for the children of the community.

“I opened it with the parents’ association, and we only had a few pupils at the time,” he said. “The parents struggled to help teachers by giving us food and necessities like soap for our survival, but we didn’t have much. In this school before, we had no benches for the pupils to sit on, and even the few ones that were available were all broken. It was hard for the pupils, and it was hard for us to conduct the classes.”

Concern’s HOPE II programme aims to reach approximately 4,000 vulnerable girls and boys in Sila Province with quality primary education. After receiving funding from the programme, the registration of pupils increased at Tcharaw Primary School, and pupils are missing less classes. Gabdibe shared: “Now we have more books, good furniture, notebooks, and the pupils also have pens and pencils. They now have all the necessary items to study well. Now even when the pupils meet you outside, they are more confident in themselves. They say ‘Good morning, Sir’, ‘Good evening, teacher’ and they construct sentences in French much better than before. They now read together when in school and even when they are alone at home.

“We also now have a new classroom, and [Concern] gave us a bookshelf which we use to put our items inside. With the new class, it has helped us so much because the pupils are always excited and happy to come study in the new classroom. We also received sporting kits which we did not have before. Now our pupils play football and also other games.”

The community still faces challenges when it comes to education. Many children drop out of school as they get older, as they stay home to help their parents with farm work. However, Gabdibe hopes that more funding will help keep more children in school and teach parents the importance of providing an education for their children. 

Ruth Epat Koli, who lives in the town of Naoros in Turkana, Kenya, is a very busy woman. A mother of 10 children – two of them adopted –, Ruth is also head of the local mother-to-mother support group, with the women looking after their local farm. However, an ongoing drought in the region made sustaining their livelihood extremely difficult. 

Ruth explained: “Before Concern’s support, we used to fetch water from the river. We would carry 20 litres in a jerry can on our heads.” As this water was needed for cooking, drinking and washing, the women could not irrigate their land efficiently. 

Concern was able to support the village of Naoros by rehabilitating their water system. The borehole water system, powered by solar panels, provides water for five days after being turned on. Our staff trained locals in operating the borehole system, which sustains 460 households in the village. Animals that previously had nowhere to graze and had to walk to the river to get water, can now graze at the trough. The borehole also provides water via taps and hoses to the local primary school – and the women’s farm. 

The water available allows the farmers to feed their livestock and grow vegetables; while they have also diversified the variety of crops they grow, furthering their resilience against climate shocks. Ruth has also begun to use organic manure on the farm, rather than expensive chemical fertilisers. 

Ruth said: “When Concern came in to support - look how we are now. We still face a challenge with livestock, due to lack of pasture. But we can now access our vegetables here. We can rely on spinach, cowpeas and watermelon. 

“Now, we normally have market days. We collect vegetables and sell them for money. Sometimes we keep them and use them for home use. Nothing is wasted here. We can use the fodder and give to the animals. The livestock that we still have are sustained.” 

She added: “We appreciate what Concern has done for us. We were really affected by drought, particularly lactating mothers, mothers of children with disabilities, and children who were malnourished.” 

However, Ruth and the other women of the mother-to-mother group want to continue their livelihoods by themselves, having initiated their farm project prior to the drought and the rehabilitation of the water system. She said: “We want to get to a level where we can stand by ourselves.”