Our Story
In Spring 2021, a group of four masters/PhD students from Texas A&M University, including Ryan Staples and Meikah Dado, competed in an international business case competition where they were tasked to pitch innovative solutions to inefficient food systems driving world hunger. The team decided to focus their solution in Uganda, where one-third of the population suffers from chronic malnourishment.
Staples’ and Dado’s team pitched the idea of providing tablets with extension videos uploaded on them to women subsistence farmers in Uganda. The idea led to a top three finish over 65 top business schools from around the world including Harvard, Wharton, NYU, UC-Berkley and London Business School. During the award ceremony, the question was asked, “Ryan, are you disappointed your team placed third?”
His response was, “Absolutely not. This moment is but the springboard from which this idea will become a reality.”
From that moment on, Ryan has been pushing to take the case competition idea and make it become a reality. He has raised thousands of dollars from generous family, friends and A&M professors to fund the pilot project and to establish Her Mighty Hands as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. He secured the partnership of the non-profit Field of Hope, and is now joined by 4 brilliant women, including case competition team member Meikah Dado, to join him on the founding board.
Twenty women participated in the pilot program. Ten had smartphones. Two families sent their children to school for the first time ever. And this is just the beginning.
References
1- https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/52c3c66390dc436da192ea782a2bdb3d/download/
2- Palocios‐Lopez, A., Christiaensen, L., & Killic, T. (2017). How much of the labour in African agriculture is provided by women? Food Policy, 67, 52–63.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2016.09.017
3- Farnworth, C. R., Baudron, F., Anderson, J. A., Misiko, M., & Stirling, C. M. (2016).
Gender and conservation agriculture in East and South Africa: Towards a
research agenda. International Journal of Agricultural Education and
Sustainability, 14(2), 142–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2015.1065602
4- Mpiima, D. M., Manyire, H., Kabonesa, C., and Espiling, M. (2019). [IW1] Gender analysis of agricultural extension policies in Uganda: Informing practice? Gender, Technology and Development, 23:2, p. 187-205, DOI: 10.1080/09718524.2019.1657610
5- https://www.fao.org/3/cb7496en/cb7496en.pdf
6- Denton, F. (2002) Climate change vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation: Why does gender matter? Gender & Development, 10:2, p. 10-20, DOI: 10.1080/13552070215903