Where do we begin this month? First let us tell you the story of how Sister Agnes has become a pig farmer in addition to overseeing the poultry farming operation. Back in December she was away at a retreat with the other nuns and took a walk one day and walked by pigs owned by a local priest in the village. She spoke with him about who she was and her efforts to raise money to see that the children in her feed and house program could have a good education. Education in Kenya, even the basics in primary school cost money and for those who have aptitude for vocational education, there are not many funds to support them. The priest was having difficulty getting enough feed for his pigs and offered to give Sister Agnes a male and female pig if she wanted to get started in pig farming. The priest had a pick-up truck and arranged to deliver them to Sister Agnes who is from another village. There was an old shed on the property by the convent where the sisters live that would work as a temporary structure for the pigs. Sister Agnes contacted the local residential school and asked if she could have the food scraps for the pigs and she was now in the pig raising business!
The female gave birth to 8 piglets in January. The shed is not very secure and dogs killed two of the piglets so 6 survived and the mama pig is pregnant once again and will give birth soon. Sister Agnes had given the piglets injections for worming and vitamins and by June she expects to start selling pigs, The more the pig weighs, the more money it commands at sale. She says the papa pig is huge and she expects to sell him in a few months and will keep rotating and eventually buy or trade one or more of her pigs for different breeds to keep her stock diverse. Pigs sell for anywhere from $2500 all the way up to $10,000 Kenyan Schillings if a pig is very heavy. ( $28 Canadian, $22 US to $110 Canadian, $87 US). So Sister Agnes has launched her “Plan B” to support children’s education. We will keep you posted.
The Hatchery: From the beginning, Sister Agnes and Patrice Lumumba, her consultant who has raised chickens already, have said the vehicle needs to be purchased and available before everything else gets started. Because of the delay due to the death of a family member in Mr Lumumba’s family, they have still not traveled to Mombasa to find the right vehicle. Used vehicles are imported from Japan and they need to find one that is mechanically sound as well as the right size for their needs. So, the purchased incubator is still waiting to be installed until everything else is installed and all can be made secure.
Mama Charity never stops her creative thinking. After discharge from the hospital from Covid, she was staying at a friends home for a period of time and then with her daughter Manuela Wisdom’s unexpected death her stay in the apartment was extended. That came to an end in February and Mama Charity had to move back to the orphanage where she shares a room with several of the children. Of course she was grieving the loss of her only biological child and this was very difficult not to have any quiet and reflective time. She decided to build a room for her to stay in the evenings and overnight at the nearby school she built and opened in September 2021.There was not enough money to put on a roof, floor and plumbing for water and toilet so she stayed at the orphanage. A very generous donor in Canada heard the story and offered to pay to complete the room and the finishing touches are being completed now. Meanwhile the number of children at the orphanage has grown to 115. Boris the 11 month old who came because his mother was taken to jail is now taking milk from the bottle and is adjusting well.
Mama Charity had a surprise visit from AEA Foundation (Agir Ensemble pour l’Afrique) . Acting Together for Africa ) in mid March. A car pulled up to the orphanage with signage on the car that said “Miss Togo” Miss Togo stepped out and visited with Mama Charity and the children. Mama Charity had no idea they were coming or why they were there. The children were visited by Miss Togo and the AEA Foundation donated 1 million FCFA ($2,130 (CAD) and a stove to the orphanage. Quite a surprise! Mama Charity tells us for the number of mouths to feed they will continue to use multiple fire pits each day to cook their food and the stove is a wonderful gift for being able to heat up leftovers and for smaller feedings.
Mama Dinah reported to us last week that two of the cows that returned home have regained strength enough with a good food supply of fresh pasture that they are each producing one cup of milk a day now. They can avail themselves of a special treat by having milk in their tea. And of course the children are a priority for receiving the milk. We mentioned previously that she had received 3 bids for the drilling of her borehole and she is in the process of talking with the company she prefers t drill the well to be sure all things needed will be put in a contract. She is also waiting for a new proposal from the company that installs the solar pump into the new borehole. They are capturing rain water so life is a bit easier than when there was no rain and at all and locl water sources wee drying up. She continues to talk with the community about diversifying and considering planting fruit trees if the soil will be good for that. Fruit tree orchards will use much less water than the cattle do and the orchards can be irrigated whereas the pastureland cannot. Mama Dinah sent us a photo of a borehole drilled in the nearest city to her (about 80km away) with water flowing beautifully. Please put her in your dreams/prayers that once her new borehole is begun, water will flow abundantly.
March 8 was International Women’s Day and all monies collected are being put towards Mama Dinah’s project. The three African project leaders are drawing from one another’s expertise. Mama Charity knows about agriculture and apparently about pigs as well, as she reminded Sr Agnes that the pigs need to be wormed with medicine. And Mama Dinah is collecting information from Mama Charity about the growing habits of fruit and coconut trees. Donations are still being directed to Mama Dinah’s water project While we think we have enough to give the go ahead on the drilling of the borehole, we are still raising funds for the solar pump to bring the water out of the ground The hydrologist who surveyed the land believes the bore hole may need to go to a depth of 300 meters.
As part of International Women’s Day, One of our team Ivana Petrisková from Northern Macedonia did video interviews with each of the African Project leaders. Watching them is a wonderful way to feel the strength and spirit of each of them so we are including the links to each interview here:
If you are relatively new to our newsletters, and want to follow the stories from the beginning, the previous ones can be found on our website under the Newsletter tab at the top
Next month we expect more on the Hatch the Hatchery project as well as updates on our other two projects. We so appreciate sharing our stories with you and invite you to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, the links are below along with the link to our partner Bridges of Hope for donations to support having clean water solutions for Mama Dinah.