Nigiste Yalew's Journey through Poultry Farming and Forest Restoration

Nigiste Yalew, a 57-year-old woman from Jibasira kebele in the South Gondar Zone, has faced many challenges in her life. She is a subsistence farmer with just 0.5 hectares of land, not enough to support her family. “I often struggled financially and had to borrow money from informal lenders and relatives,” she recalls.

Her situation changed with the arrival of the ORDA Ethiopia Landscape Restoration project, funded by Cartier for Nature. This project selected her for poultry production support, as she met the criteria like being a woman-headed household with low income.

After receiving training, Nigiste began rearing chickens. “I now have 19 healthy chickens and collected over 1,910 eggs, selling 1,710 of them for 20,520 ETB,” she states. The eggs improved her family's nutrition, and she used her earnings to buy essentials, such as a mattress and clothing, and even opened a savings account.

Looking ahead, Nigiste plans to expand her poultry production and explore Shoat production. “I am grateful to ORDA Ethiopia and the CFN project for changing my family’s life,” she says, filled with hope for the future.#CFN