Radio booster for Shrewsbury charity that helps African farmers

Self Help Africa, based at Dickens Court, in Hills Lane, will be the focus of the three-minute BBC Radio 4 Appeal.

It is being voiced by science, natural history and environmental broadcaster Liz Bonnin who will tell listeners how Self Help Africa has helped women like Lina Loriet, a 33-year-old mother from Kenya, to combat the effects of climate change.

Steph Smith, fundraising executive at Self Help Africa, said: “In rural Africa, the people least responsible for climate change are feeling its worst effects. Africa’s women farmers are locked in a struggle to provide for their families in the face of drier, hotter and more unpredictable weather conditions.

“In Lina’s case, she has witnessed both drought and flooding in her village over the past few years, while in other parts of Kenya they have experienced attacks by swarms of desert locust, which have also been blamed on global warming.”

She adds that the BBC Radio 4 Appeal provides the charity with a hugely valuable opportunity to raise awareness and funds, to support the organisation’s work in sub-Saharan Africa. Every £65 donated will support a mother just like Lina to grow different crops, rear livestock and cope better with the changes in climate that they are facing, says Steph.

Self Help Africa is an international development charity that works through agriculture to end hunger and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. They support smallholder farmers to grow more and earn more from their land. They currently work in eight African countries, supporting more than 300,000 rural poor households.

The BBC Radio 4 Appeal is broadcast on behalf of UK-based charities every Sunday at 7.54am and 9.25pm. For more information visit selfhelpafrica.org/uk.