Preview! SIA Spring Newsletter
A Report by Joshua Machinga, Common Ground Program – Poultry Project In Kenya, some of the world’s most breathtaking sights intersect. Mount Kenya looms over Kenya’s plains with its snowy caps glistening under a veil of cloud near the equator. Along the stretching Mara National Reserve, lions, cheetahs, rhinos, hippos, elephants, zebras, gazelles and wildebeests kick up plumes of dust in the world’s largest migration. In Mombasa Archipelago, the labyrinth-like streets are lined with colorful flowers dotting the streets and the air is heavy with the scent of a variety of coastal trees. Yet, in the midst of such astonishing beauty, life in Kenya is often filled with staggering hardship. Although many families, especially in Rift Valley, rely on subsistence farming, food yields are unpredictable due to poor soil. Often, in northern and western Kenya, local crops like maize, beans, cassava and sweat potatoes only produce a seven-month supply of food each year. Also, few families can afford cattle or goats, and many households manage only a few chickens – due to limited poultry husbandry skills. Reading from one of the leaflets from Del in 1991, I realized that I was the one to bring the change I wanted to see around me. I worked on small projects in my community with funding from Del. As a routine, he enclosed a $20 bill in every letter he wrote to me until his death in 2008. For the first time Common Ground Program (CGP), a local Kenyan community based organization secured a grant from Spirit in Action in 2010 to develop a poultry project in hopes of building a better tomorrow. This poultry project is serving as a “model poultry co-op” in the community where local farmers meet, discuss, and learn about successful poultry production… To read the rest of this amazing success story and get other updates, download the latest newsletter ! #Chickens #Kenya