EDUCATION FOR WOMEN
As well as being a fundamental right, educating women and girls is a crucial step in supporting women’s economic rights. In Nigeria, where millions of children are still out of school, and twice as many girls as boys will never even start school. There has been an increase in the number of girls in education over recent years, but this is not always translating into better employment opportunities for women. This shows how entrenched gender discrimination is in wider society, including in labour markets, and the huge burden of unpaid care that falls on women of all ages.
Our work centres around:
- Training, supporting, and empowering women as farmers, entrepreneurs, workers, and members of farming households.
- Closing gender gaps in the performance of farms and enterprises led by men or women.
- Building inclusive and competitive businesses that generate decent opportunities for women and men employees, suppliers, and consumers.
Working with Women's Organisations
TSF's work is around promoting women's engagement as leaders so that their voices are heard directly at all levels of decision-making. This approach helps to create long term change in transforming gender relations in communities. By opening the space for women's leadership alongside men, our approach supports women’s empowerment and the transformation of women’s positions in households and communities.
WOMEN ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
The Samaritans Foundation works creatively and proactively to support women across the country to gain equal access to the knowledge, jobs, and finance that enhance both their incomes and their opportunities for the future.
Economic rights include the right to decent work, equal pay and land and adequate housing. These are rights that women living in poverty are often denied. Women who are also discriminated against due to other aspects of their identity - such as their age, religion or ethnicity - face even greater barriers to the fulfilment of their economic rights.

Globally, women take on three times as much unpaid care work as men. This includes caring for children, the sick and the elderly, taking care of household tasks such as cooking, collecting water and subsistence farming. The poorest women in the country face the largest burden of unpaid work, because of the lack of public services and infrastructure - like healthcare and clean water - to support them.
More women are getting paid jobs, but the amount of unpaid care work that they face at home is not being reduced at the same rate. This leaves many women facing a ‘double burden of work inside and outside the home. When paid and unpaid work hours are combined, women currently work longer days than men.
WOMEN AND HUNGER
In such a country facing conflict and hunger, women often eat last and least – sacrificing for their families. But empowering women and girls can end hunger for good, and transform whole communities in the process. Through the Food programs, TSF makes sure women and girls have equal access to resources, opportunities and food.
TSF aims to support the leadership and participation of rural women in strategies, policies and programmes on all issues that affect their lives, including improved food and nutrition security, and better rural livelihoods. This initiative also engages with governments to develop and implement laws and policies that promote equal rights, opportunities and participation so that rural women can benefit from trade and finance, market their goods and make a strong contribution to inclusive economic growth.
Donate to TSF Women's Empowerment