Stories of change
Trócaire helps people to take practical steps to overcome poverty and human rights abuses.
To bring about real change we work in close partnership with people in poor communities. They participate fully and identify the best way to tackle their problems. Our work has a substantial impact on many lives, helping people to get access to food, achieve an education, earn an income and tackle the causes of poverty at government level.
How your money was spent last year
See what your money has done!
Helping people support their families
Lina and John Mario from Colombia have fun as they feed their family’s Global Gift chickens. But while they
look carefree, they live in a conflict-torn, impoverished area of Colombia.
Their father John Jairo was forced to grow coca for drug barons. He didn’t have any choice as this was his only way to feed his wife and children.
The Colombian government, in a bid to reduce cocaine production, offered coca farmers help to make a living another way if they destroyed their coca crops. John took the government at its word. “When I was promised support from the government to find a new livelihood I destroyed my coca crop. But I didn’t get any support,” John said. “My main crop was gone and I was left without any way to
look after my family.”
John knew he needed help urgently or he would have to turn back to growing
coca. He got in contact with a local organisation that supports farmers and communities caught up in the long-running violence. The organisation is run by the Catholic Church and funded by Trócaire.
John received enough support to begin rebuilding a new way of life and source of income. The organisation gave John and his wife chickens and a fish farm. Then they were trained in how to handle both. The Peraltas now sell eggs and fish at their local market and John is now hopeful. Despite the conflict and insecurity that surrounds him, he knows his way of making a living is safe.
More examples of how you have helped support familes across the globe:
42 families saved from eviction in Colombia
In Uganda: From little seeds great things grow
Ugandan village gives green light to solar power
Defending human rights
This is Emma Marie Mukamazimpaka (photo, back row, second from left). At 42 years old, she has 8 children. She lives in Rwanda, in the village of Vuganyana, near the capital Kigali.
She is part of the indigenous Batwa community, very poor Rwandans who are known for their great skills at making pottery. In Rwanda, the Batwa or “potter” community experience terrible discrimination. In a country where the majority of people live in poverty, the Batwa are the poorest. People look down on Batwa families, they are considered inferior and they do not receive the benefits or support that other people receive.
Emma Marie and her family (right) have always made a basic living by selling pots, and a small amount of subsistence agriculture. But each pot she makes sells for just Rwf 100 (€0.12) at the local market, and the small piece of land she cultivates was never enough to feed her family.
Emma Marie and her family were used to discrimination, but they did not know their rights and therefore could not report violations. Continue reading story.
More examples of how you've helped people defend their human rights
A victory against impunity in Guatemala
In Video: Human rights stories from Sierra Leone
Asking governments to respect human rights in Mozambique
Tackling Gender inequality
The Congo's (Democratic Republic of) sexual violence epidemic is usually associated with the East of the country, where active conflict is still ongoing, and with soldiers or rebels as perpetrators, but you only need to scratch the surface to discover it is a much broader and deeper phenomenon.
In DRC’s westernmost Province of Bas-Congo, which saw much less violent conflict than the East, sexual violence is also disturbingly common. And while there have been some cases perpetrated by soldiers and police around the Angolan border, the majority of cases are perpetrated by civilians, members of the same community, sometimes even members of the same family, and mostly against young girls. This indicates a much deeper problem – that sexual violence did not just arrive with the war, and that it is embedded in harmful socio-cultural practices and the vastly inferior position of women in Congolese society.
Trócaire’s partner Inter-Actions (photo above) is based in Tshela, a remote corner of Bas-Congo Province near the Angolan border, and in September began a project that aims to help survivors of sexual violence in the local area find justice. The project uses a combination of awareness-raising on DRC’s landmark 2006 law against sexual violence, and legal aid and accompaniment to individual survivors.
It is still early days but Inter-Actions have already received 35 complaints of sexual violence incidents, mostly rape and mostly against young girls, some as young as seven. Continue reading story.
More examples of how you've helped tackle violence against women
Tackling Gender Based Violence in Afghanistan, Uganda and the Congo (DRC)
Rubina: challenging Gender Based Violence in Pakistan
Human Rights making a difference in Women's lives
in Sierra Leone
Women making a difference in Pakistan
Living with HIV/AIDS
Monica and Morrison and the Gift of Food
