I first met the widows at the town of Mile 91 in October 2023.
Karim Kamara, the mastermind of COFA projects in Sierra Leone, had taken me to Mile 91 to meet the primary school children who had been part of Nourishing Young Minds and Bodies, the summer school program, from the beginning of our support back in 2020, before COFA was founded. The school is part of Grace Hands Ministry, and when we arrived that October, we were greeted by a crowd. In addition to the children, Pastor Lamin and his wife Marion, the backbone of Grace Hands, were there. And to one side, a group of women were holding up a sign that read:
We the Widows Say Welcome
We need: 1. Business loan 2. Adult education and skill training 3. Goat farming 4. Agriculture 5. Storage facility
October 2023
That 2023 visit was just before Mohamed, Karim, and the COFA team were getting ready to enroll the second class of Growing Family Prosperity, the agricultural self-sufficiency project, in four new villages. They had already identified the five neediest families with some land in each of the four villages. I asked if they could add five Mile 91 widows, for a total of 25 new families. They agreed.
Fast forward to July 4, 2025.
On this visit to Mile 91, I found out what happened after GFP was started there in 2023—it’s different from what happened in the other villages.
July 4, 2025 – in front of a communal cassava field ready for harvest
The widows are all part of the Grace Hands community, which is very “communal.” Pastor Lamin was concerned that singling out just five women from the much larger pool in the community could create a socially damaging rift. He suggested expanding the plan by making the five chosen women group leaders, each of whom would add eight women to their group, making five groups of nine or a total of 45 women. But how could so many people benefit when COFA support was designed for just five families? Each group of nine would receive the same first year support as each family in the other communities, including amounts of seeds just sufficient for a single farm.
Here’s how they made it work. The first crops were planted in five communal plots—one per each group of nine—and were devoted entirely to multiplying seeds. These first crops produced enough seed to furnish all nine farms, as well as having modest amounts left for consumption and marketing. With the multiplied seed stock, each family planted their own fields—with production and proceeds under their individual control—and they continued to plant the communal plots together—with proceeds shared equally. This innovative plan has continued for almost two years now.
Mohamed and the extension workers interact mainly with the original five leaders who share tools, supplies, and training with the rest of the group. For instance, Mohamed and company trained the leaders in producing organic fertilizer (see blog post COFA 2024: A Look Back), and the leaders then trained their groups. Now everyone is using organic fertilizer, which, as Mohamed pointed out to me, is better than chemical fertilizer for the environment, the water supply, the crops, and ultimately, the consumers, as well as the farmers’ pocketbooks.
I thought we were doing pretty well with a $2000 investment to bring one family to self-sufficiency, but make that nine! Mile 91 is a special community, clearly, but we think the idea might work elsewhere, so Mohamed is going to approach two or three of the currently enrolled families in other villages to see if they would like to become leaders of similar groups. And we’re planning to add a couple of more widows as leaders in Mile 91 to the 2025 GFP class.
Notice that the women we met with on July 4 had outfits made of matching fabric. When the communal plots began to turn a profit, they decided to spend part of the proceeds to celebrate their success with beautiful dresses that display their common purpose and solidarity.
We’ll know by November how much all 45 Mile 91 families produced over their second year. From what was growing there on July 4, I’m expecting to be impressed. I’ll report back when the results are in.
Hellen Gelband
July 2025