Empowering an isolated, rural Knuckles community

A few months ago when the MJF Charitable Foundation visited the community of Pitawalapatana, they found approximately 100 farmers entrapped in a web of economic exploitation. Prohibited from using their traditional method of tilling rice fields, these farmers resorted to growing vegetables which they sold to middlemen. These middlemen exploited the innocent farmers by paying them a fraction of the market value for the vegetables. The Foundation introduced an empowerment programme which has enabled 100 farmers in this community to free themselves from the clutches of middlemen and have greater control of their future.