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Self Help Africa
Self Help Africa is an Irish international charity that promotes and implements long-term rural development projects in Africa. Self Help Africa merged with Gorta, in July 2014, and the combined entity was known for a period as Gorta-Self Help Africa. In 2021, the organisation merged with the UK-based international non-governmental organization, United Purpose. The enlarged organisation took the Self Help name. Self Help Africa also owns a number of social enterprise subsidiaries: Cumo Microfinance, TruTrade, and Partner Africa.
The charity works with rural communities in fifteen African countries – supporting farm families to grow more and earn more from their produce. Self Help Africa provides training and technical support to assist households in producing more food, diversifying their crops and incomes, and accessing markets for their surplus produce.
The charity, which has also undertaken development projects in Bangladesh and Brazil, also helps rural communities to access micro-finance services, and supports sustainable agricultural solutions that enable rural farmers to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change. Self Help Africa works with local partners across its African programmes to support the provision of good quality local seed and planting materials. This work includes assistance to local communities to multiply their own seed, and provision of support for rural groups so that they can get certification for the seed that they produce.
Self Help Africa has its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, UK offices in Shrewsbury, Belfast, London and American offices in New York and Boston. It is a recipient of funding from Irish Aid, the European Commission, US AID, the United Kingdom Department of Foreign and Overseas Development (DFID), of variety of trusts, foundations, other institutional donors, and the general public. It has three subsidiary companies: an ethical auditing provider, and two trade network promoters.
Self Help Africa was founded in 1984 when an Irish priest asked Irish farmers to send seed potatoes to famine-affected parts of Ethiopia. It was established by Noel McDonagh and Father Owen Lambert in the immediate aftermath of the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia.
As of 2007, Raymond Jordan was Chief Executive Officer of Self Help Africa. In mid-2008, Self Help Africa merged with Self Help Development International (SHDI) and the UK agency Harvest Help - both also set up in the wake of African famines in the mid-1980s.
As of 2013, Self Help Africa reported an annual turnover of €9.5million.
In 2014, Self Help Africa merged with Gorta, the oldest development organisation in Ireland. Gorta was established in 1965 as 'Gorta: The Freedom from Hunger Council', in response to a call by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for member countries to raise public awareness and financial support for long-term agricultural development. The word Gorta, meaning "extreme want" or "hunger" in the Irish language, was chosen to reflect both the work of the organisation in combating hunger and to reflect Ireland's own legacy of hardship during the Great Famine known in Irish as An Gorta Mór. Initially set up by the Irish Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Gorta moved to the remit of the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1979. In 1998, Gorta severed its links with the Irish government to become a completely independent NGO with its head office in Dublin. Gorta remained the Irish affiliate organisation of the FAO. Since the 1960s, Gorta funded small and large-scale agricultural development projects in close to 50 countries across Africa, Asia, South and Central America. In later years, a majority of projects were focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of funding for a large-scale rehabilitation centre for differently-able children in Tamil Nadu, India.
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Self Help Africa
Self Help Africa is an Irish international charity that promotes and implements long-term rural development projects in Africa. Self Help Africa merged with Gorta, in July 2014, and the combined entity was known for a period as Gorta-Self Help Africa. In 2021, the organisation merged with the UK-based international non-governmental organization, United Purpose. The enlarged organisation took the Self Help name. Self Help Africa also owns a number of social enterprise subsidiaries: Cumo Microfinance, TruTrade, and Partner Africa.
The charity works with rural communities in fifteen African countries – supporting farm families to grow more and earn more from their produce. Self Help Africa provides training and technical support to assist households in producing more food, diversifying their crops and incomes, and accessing markets for their surplus produce.
The charity, which has also undertaken development projects in Bangladesh and Brazil, also helps rural communities to access micro-finance services, and supports sustainable agricultural solutions that enable rural farmers to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change. Self Help Africa works with local partners across its African programmes to support the provision of good quality local seed and planting materials. This work includes assistance to local communities to multiply their own seed, and provision of support for rural groups so that they can get certification for the seed that they produce.
Self Help Africa has its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, UK offices in Shrewsbury, Belfast, London and American offices in New York and Boston. It is a recipient of funding from Irish Aid, the European Commission, US AID, the United Kingdom Department of Foreign and Overseas Development (DFID), of variety of trusts, foundations, other institutional donors, and the general public. It has three subsidiary companies: an ethical auditing provider, and two trade network promoters.
Self Help Africa was founded in 1984 when an Irish priest asked Irish farmers to send seed potatoes to famine-affected parts of Ethiopia. It was established by Noel McDonagh and Father Owen Lambert in the immediate aftermath of the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia.
As of 2007, Raymond Jordan was Chief Executive Officer of Self Help Africa. In mid-2008, Self Help Africa merged with Self Help Development International (SHDI) and the UK agency Harvest Help - both also set up in the wake of African famines in the mid-1980s.
As of 2013, Self Help Africa reported an annual turnover of €9.5million.
In 2014, Self Help Africa merged with Gorta, the oldest development organisation in Ireland. Gorta was established in 1965 as 'Gorta: The Freedom from Hunger Council', in response to a call by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for member countries to raise public awareness and financial support for long-term agricultural development. The word Gorta, meaning "extreme want" or "hunger" in the Irish language, was chosen to reflect both the work of the organisation in combating hunger and to reflect Ireland's own legacy of hardship during the Great Famine known in Irish as An Gorta Mór. Initially set up by the Irish Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Gorta moved to the remit of the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1979. In 1998, Gorta severed its links with the Irish government to become a completely independent NGO with its head office in Dublin. Gorta remained the Irish affiliate organisation of the FAO. Since the 1960s, Gorta funded small and large-scale agricultural development projects in close to 50 countries across Africa, Asia, South and Central America. In later years, a majority of projects were focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of funding for a large-scale rehabilitation centre for differently-able children in Tamil Nadu, India.