The Five Coops
Marange Womens Alliance Building a Chicken Coop
Marange, Zimbabwe is a diamond and gold mining community where poverty prevails, many families face hunger, cannot afford school fees and lack access to health care. The Marange Women's Alliance (MWA) is a project of the Responsible Jewelry Transformative. Together, RJT and MWA develop projects in Zimbabwe based on the needs of the women of Marange. The Five Coops are one of these projects, creating income and food security for women and their families.
The Five Coops bring income, food security and financial inclusion to the women of Marange.
In August 2023, attendees of the Chicago Responsible Jewelry Conference donated over $7,000 to fund five chicken coops for the Marange Women's Alliance. MWA has built five coops in five villages. The women raise broiler chickens and sell them to schools, mines and local markets, creating a reliable livelihood for food insecure and vulnerable women and their families.
Twenty percent of profits are returned to the women, who have used them to access formal financial services through a bank, including funeral insurance. This builds financial inclusion and long term security for families in isolated villages.
Each chicken house also displays the direct number of a trusted police department, providing women with a pathway to safety.
The Sixth Coop: Penhalonga
The next coop will be built in the gold rush area of Penhalonga. It will extend the model developed in Marange, providing women with a reliable source of income in a community affected by the gold rush. A separate fundraiser for the sixth coop will open soon.