Project News
June 2010: We had a great function opening the water tank with about 300 people turning up. Blog post with pictures here. We have now repaired 2 government tanks and built the large tank at Emmys. Now that the rains have stopped, people are using the 3 water tanks every day. We collect some money to help build more tanks. We have also built a new storehouse with the help of a national potatoe seed organisation.
Progress: All fields were harvested in March and over £500 of school fees paid. We have replanted 6 fields of potatoes and around 25 fields of cabbages. We have started to harvest cabbages and last week sent 2 pickups (2000kg) of cabbages to schools for fees.
All students are still studying and we now have 25 active members.
JAN 2010: We are now in the second year of the project. 15 students are in school/university and we have been considering the way forward. We have learnt lots from this year - about being very careful who to trust and work with and keeping a tight rein on costs. We have again, even this year, been let down by one of the early members of the project, which was very sad. We have been discussing with Emmy (who continues to be fantastic) and yesterday we had a big meeting with all the members and new prospective members. We are changing the direction of the project a little. It has become evident that the degree of need in the villages is enormous - even from those who have parents. Rather than just focussing on Orphans, we have decided it is more important to focus on hardworking and trustworthy young people, whether they be Orphans or not. To that end we have allowed a group of young people who had already organised themselves to work together to join the main project. That now takes our number to 30!
The young people in the village have very few role models - with many of the older men spending their entire day in the bar. One or both parents may have died or fathers just not around. Yesterday was very telling when we had over 20 of our youthful members working in fields as we watched a local older leader stagger back drunk from the bar at noon! We feel this role model function and ability to get the youth to work together is a very important part of the project's function.
Emmy continues as the project manager, assisted by Jorem. We have also appointed Elias, who is a trained Agriculture teacher, to advise the project and teach the members. He is also good at helping ensure everyone turns up to work! He has been a great help. Saulo, the main village leader has also joined, and again has been a great support and encouragement of the project. It has all been about finding quality people to work with and this has taken time, but we feel the shape of the project is now evolving well after a year of ups and downs. We have found it is no longer possible to pay for labour, which means hard work for all the members. Earning school fees from the land is certainly not easy, but we look forward to 2010 as the year the project really takes off.
We are now starting the new planting season (Oct 2009). We managed to purchase seeds from the government run research institute. Even though they are quite expensive, they are good quality and should produce a good yeild.
We are having lots of discussions with various leaders including the local MP about getting government support. They are all very supportive of what we are doing and have promised support, but turning that into concrete donations is proving tricky! A local leader up in Bukoora has been great and is has come with us to meet many people and argue our case. We keep at it! In particular we want the government to assist us to buy a pick up. We are currently using our RAV4, but since we now have nearly 20 fields in the project it is becoming too much!
Lots of people are seeking to join the project, but we are expanding slowly to ensure it remains viable. Emmy continues to do a great job organising everyone as well as balance his studies now that he has started University.
This start of the academic term sees nearly 15 orphans attending school/college/university through the project that otherwise had no possiblity of continuing their eduction.
NOV 2009 : We are also now trying to construct a large water tank in Bukoora. It will be 20,000L and be large enough to last through most of the dry season. We will sell the water at half the cost the villagers currently buy water at - thus assisting them and providing an income for the project.
