Grandmother Circles

Posted on April 18, 2012 by

These grandmothers are working to create a better future for the children they are nurturing. They form circles to give each other support and to do projects that generate income and help sustain them. 

grandmotherWe are committed to support grandmother circles by providing financial grants in response to plans and proposals they write. We keep in close contact with them to learn more and celebrate their progress.

 Some of the grandmothers have lost their husbands and have refused to follow the tribal custom of being inherited by their husband’s brother.  They are shunned by the tribe and forced to live outside the villages. Others are grandmothers raising their grandchildren and other orphans who have lost their parents primarily to the AIDS epidemic.
Mary O is the volunteer director of a Community Based Organization (Similar to US Nonprofit) that we work with in Homa Bay, Kenya.

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Chicken Coop Report

Posted on May 15, 2012 by

Hello Grandmother Circles US,

ksh= Keyan Schilling

Chicken coop project report.

Grand Total Cost of Chicken coop       ksh143,896   US $1,713.07
Cash received from Grandmother Circles US

Ksh  144,000  US$1714.31

Members of the St. Monica Grandmother Circle are very grateful for the completion of the two chicken houses. One house is at Teresa Aduda’s home. They made this choice of a central place near the Raruowa Mission because it is easily accessible to them and any visitor who wishes to see it and also because taking care of poultry is a difficult task and they thought Teresa is well suited for this task.
The other house is at Mary Lieta’s home. This home also is easy to access and Mary Lieta can manage to take care of the poultry well.
The women now have a total of 42 birds in the two houses.
Challenges
·         The chicken in both houses were eating their own eggs. An  Agricultural officer advised that they get food supplements with calcium and that problem was reduced
·         When the young ones were hatched, some chicks were being eaten by the older chicken. We had to remove the young ones from the house until they were one month old
·         Sourcing for chicken feed was quite difficult as some members were unable to contribute. Permission was given by the members for some of the eggs to be sold so that food can be bought.
·         Not more than one cock can be housed in each coop. The cocks were sold off and this was a source of income for the group.
Benefits
This project is still small and the benefits are not very large as yet.   We can proudly record the following:
·          Poultry multiply out of danger of any epidemics.
·         Birds can be sold for cash
·         Eggs are sold for cash
·         Anyone with visitors can request for a bird to slaughter
·         Members are given a sense of togetherness through joint ownership of the project
·         The selling of eggs and extra cocks gives income which at the moment goes towards the feeding of the birds.

We shall make reports of our progress as frequently as possible.
Mary Lieta

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If only we had a tractor

Posted on May 5, 2012 by
Dear Lois,
Greetings from Homalime once again. We have heavy rains now and its good to feel dirty as we toil on our farms. After digging, re-digging and planting and planting again, we still look up to the good Lord to give us plenty of this rain.
In Africa, life is hard. Hard enough for those who are able to plough using their own animals ( I have four bulls), and impossibly hard for those who have no means of tilling their land. But the African farmer is resilient!!
Many of our bulls for ploughing are are now too weak to go on farming. I sometimes wonder whether our major priority is water or a tractor for the poor farmers. Food sufficiency will only be achieved if more people could plough as big farms as they plan to. That can not be done by animals.
These are he thoughts that I carry on my shoulders and I am glad that I can share this with you.
Mary O
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