The People Behind the Flag

By Ella Durbin

Elizabeth Wayongo

Elizabeth, a recently widowed mother in Western Kenya, was the sole provider for her family. With no income, the 49-year-old fell into depression, became bedridden, and stopped taking her HIV medication regularly. Then Elizabeth met Violet, a health worker with the USAID-funded AIDS, Population, and Health Integrated Assistance (APHIAplus Western) Kenya project. Over the course of three months, Violet joined Elizabeth on clinic visits to pick up her medication and nutrition supplements for her family. Elizabeth is one of over 800,000 Kenyan women who have benefited from USAID-funded programs, reshaping their lives and communities.

Millions of people across Sub-Saharan Africa face challenges similar to Elizabeth’s. Although the region only accounts for 10% of the world’s population, it is home to more than half of the global extreme poor.

Stanley Kimeli

Stanley, a 35-year-old father of three, was a small-scale farmer in Kenya, where his family had long depended on agriculture for both food and income. Many family farm owners like Stanley live far away from busy markets where they can turn a profit selling their crops, making it impossible to compete with bigger farms. After Stanley received agricultural training from USAID, he transformed his farm, increasing crop yields and building lasting food security for his family.

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Baby Shikari

Baby Shikari was a rice farmer in Bangladesh. After she refined her agricultural practices with training and technological support from USAID, her family enjoyed a more nutritious and reliable diet. With larger harvests, she could share food with her relatives and earn additional income by selling the surplus at the local market.

Baby Shikari is not alone. According to the UN, women comprise almost half of the global agricultural workforce, yet they face barriers to owning land, getting loans, and securing farming tools and technology. USAID uplifted communities by enabling women to take charge of their own economic power and provide a better future for themselves and their families.

Desh Rani Chaudhary and Sona Devi Chaudhary

In Nepal, lentils have great economic value, and growing them improves soil quality, provides an essential source of protein, and enhances farmers’ access to markets and government subsidies. With training from Feed the Future, a USAID-funded program, Nepali farmers Desh Rani and Sona Devi nearly doubled their lentil harvest, yielding enough to feed their family and sell surplus in bulk at a nearby market.

These stories are why we’re marching flags up to the Hill.

The USAID flags we are handing out depict two hands, clasped together. Stanley, Elizabeth, Baby Shikari, Desh Rani are one hand. We are the other. When we ask a Member of Congress to put that flag in their office, we’re asking them to remember that the debate in Washington was never really about a logo.

And if you’re in DC, join us at 11 AM on July 21 in the Longworth Cafeteria to help hand them out.

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