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Kelvin Is Transforming His Life With Education

on  February 20, 2020

Every year, the United Nations marks the importance of human rights and equality with World Day of Social Justice. Being observed today, February 20, the 2020 theme is “Closing the Inequalities Gap to Achieve Social Justice.” According to the UN, social justice advances “when we remove barriers that people face because of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.”Kelvin, age 18, and his family live near Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in a small community near the polluted banks of the Haina River. Many of the homes in the area are made of cardboard, the streets are not paved and community members have access to electricity only a few times a week.

Kelvin and friends at a parade in Batey Bienvenido.
When Kelvin was younger, the community’s living conditions and a lack of food in the area contributed to him becoming malnourished. To earn money and support his family, Kelvin began working on the streets full time as a shoe shiner.La Merced Foundation met Kelvin and began supporting him, which enabled him to transform his life. Kelvin and his brothers were placed in the child and development center, and his family began receiving Rise Against Hunger meals through partner CitiHope International, becoming one of about 200 local families to receive the proper nutrients for their everyday diets through the meals.
Tomás García, Coordinator of La Merced Foundation.
Originally, the food was the main reason Kelvin’s parents wanted their children to go to the foundation’s child and youth development center. But Kelvin has also returned to school, and he and his brothers now have a place to study, complete homework and receive tutoring.Kelvin is healthier and recognizes that the foundation not only helped him, but also his entire family. “After eating the meals, we feel more energy,” Kelvin said. “I am able to keep learning things that are helping me. I just completed computer, basic English and literature courses with the foundation.” Today, Kelvin and his mother are in vocational training programs, while his other siblings are in the child development and artistic programs.
Kelvin, along with his mother, Patricia.
The vocational training and education Kelvin is receiving is important for his future and as a step for removing barriers that interfere with equality. This year’s World Day of Social Justice theme of “Closing the Inequalities Gap” calls attention to the impact employment can have on equality. According to the International Labour Organization, over 212 million people were unemployed in 2019. But education can be a building block to decreasing that number. The United Nations notes that education both directly and indirectly impacts economic growth and poverty. Education “provides skills that boost employment opportunities and incomes while helping to protect from socio-economic vulnerabilities” and, therefore, education is “likely to reduce inequality, lifting the poorest from the bottom of the ladder.”Kelvin and his family are proud of the education they are receiving and proud to serve as an inspiration for other residents. As Kelvin continues his education, we’re excited about what the future has in store for him!

About the Author

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.