Empowering female students benefits the whole community. In appreciation of IIRR’s work, the county government commits to build a boys’ dormitory to help young herder boys get an education.

The simple skills we learned to protect our personal safety will make a huge difference when we are on duty. We have witnessed our friends get hurt in action and have seen the pain that caused them and their families.

These new opportunities have improved my communication and teaching skills. But even more important, the changes the project has made on our school garden, and the children’s nutrition and health—those are immeasurable.

This training helped to broaden my knowledge on community-managed disaster risk reduction. It helped improve my fieldwork for better impact.

I sent a participant to one of IIRR’s training courses in the Philippines. This person came back changed I thought—whatever you did to him worked. His view about development has changed. This person was later promoted to take over my role in the organization in Bangladesh.

You may say that I didn’t grow bigger or taller, but eating vegetables made me active and strong and enhanced my resistance to illness. I am no longer sickly and I want to be a teacher.

Things have changed for the better. My husband also has stopped drinking alcohol and now supports me in running the family farm. We are a family now!

After receiving training on BIG, I was motivated to grow vegetables. Last season, I harvested two huge bags of onions. It was more than enough for my family and I was able to sell the excess and buy a female goat. My wife and children are so excited, and we are taking up vegetable growing as a business.

I would like to thank IIRR’s girls’ scholarship program for the opportunity it gave me to reach this level. There are so many girls like me who could be freed if similar support could be extended to them.

IIRR is the best place for getting new and modern knowledge regarding capacity building.