Juba (South Sudan). In the heart of Juba County, South Sudan, between the villages of Nesitu, Mori, Mogiri, Bilinyang, Mafau, Jebel Lemon, Kodoro, Adodi, Shirkat, and Gumbo, the AGREE project promotes agriculture capable of providing food, income, and dignity to the communities, with a specific focus on women.
The geographical area of intervention is characterized by widespread poverty and an acute food and livelihood crisis. Female farmers are the linchpin of the local economy and, at the same time, the most vulnerable. Agriculture is backward and at subsistence level.
The initiative guided by VIDES Italia, together with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of Mary Help of Christians Preprovince (AES) and the various project partners-CoPE, Simurg, the University of Pavia, and the FVGS ETS Foundation, aims to support the resilience and productivity of farmers’ family businesses, facilitating safe and equitable access to training, resources, production inputs, appropriate techniques, post-harvest management, and initial market contacts.
The direct beneficiaries of this initiative, which aims to contribute to Sustainable Development Goal no.2, “End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”, are 611 women (575 village farmers, 16 village trainers, and 20 “framework women” from the Mazzarello Cooperative), with approximately 35,000 indirect beneficiaries in the villages involved. The project, which will take place between January 2023 and June 2026, is funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).
Salesian Method Handbook and Contribution of FVGS ETS
The Foundation FVGS ETS contributes to the systematization of the Salesian method applied to sustainable agriculture, through the drafting of intermediate reports that consolidate its theoretical and operational bases and support its dissemination. FVGS ETS has produced two interim reports (2023 and 2024) that form the backbone of the Salesian Method Manual applied to sustainable agriculture.
The Manual translates the Preventive System – founded on the three pillars of reason, religion, and loving-kindness – into procedures and tools for agricultural work: real-world task-based field teaching, the centrality of the educating community, female leadership, shared soil and water management, and the connection between training, community microfinance groups, and market outlets. The two intermediate reports already produced can be consulted on the website FVGS ETS.
Project AGREE – with its operational headquarters at the Mazzarello Women Promotion Center in Gumbo – does not just add technical training; it integrates pedagogy and production. Appropriate technologies, such as drip irrigation, drying, and the valorization of local seeds, make sense because they are part of an educational process that values responsibility, community organization, and basic economic management. In this way, female farmers move from isolated producers to protagonists of rural micro-enterprises, with a greater ability to plan crops, negotiate prices, access credit, and provide stability to family income.
The expected outcomes of this Project, which is still ongoing, are therefore increased productivity and incomes, food diversification, access to markets and microfinance, and the strengthening of female leadership, and climate resilience.
“Only by joining our hands can we build a dignified future, in which food security is reaffirmed as a right and not as a privilege. With this conviction, I would like to emphasize that in the fight against hunger and in promoting integral development, the role of women is indispensable, even if it is not always sufficiently appreciated.
Women are the first to provide for the bread that is lacking, to sow hope in the furrows of the earth, to knead the future with their hands hardened by toil. In every corner of the world, woman is the silent architect of survival, methodical guardian of creation. Recognizing and enhancing her role is not only a matter of justice, but also a guarantee of more humane and sustainable nutrition.”
These are the words spoken by Pope Leo XIV at the FAO Headquarters in Rome on 16 October 2025, which remain a wish so that we do not tire “of asking God today for the courage and energy to continue working for a justice that produces lasting and beneficial results.”
Poner de pie en la sociedad a la mujer y su familia, por medio del emprendimiento agrícola con tecnología a mi modo de ver es la actuación del Evangelio de Jesús: ” Ámense unos a otros como Yo los he amado” ” He venido para que tengan vida y vida en abundancia!”. Gracias queridas Hermanas por su hermoso testimonio!. Las acompaño desde Villeta, Paraguay!