In a small community off the coast of Sierra Leone, Salamatou Bangura often struggled to feed her children. Though she worked long hours buying and selling seafood from the local fisherman in her village, until recently, it wasn’t enough. “I couldn’t afford to cook every day,” she recalls.

That all changed when she began to receive $10 every month through a social safety net program for extremely poor households. Bangura began using the money to put food on the table, pay school fees, and invest in her business. And when tragedy struck, and the family home burned down, Bangura used the money to rebuild, all the while ensuring that her children remained well-fed and in school.

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