An early morning in Wakitaka
Thu, 2009/03/12 - 17:19 —
“Hi, I’m Emma, welcome to Wakitaka.” [Wa-tchi-taka] He tells about the youth group that he and his friends started three years ago, seeing that most of the youth from the village remained without work, even after completing advanced studies. 17 youth joined right away, they are 60 now, working on different projects.
The poultry farming hasn’t been too successful until now, although a two-story chicken house was rented from one of the parents and still a few hundred chickens are there. Diseases and problems with getting the right fodder keep causing headaches.
The piggery is more successful. Started with 3 pigs, there are 17 now. And there’s good market. The big pigs are housed in a pen on the ground; the younger ones are in raised housing. “We want to build a raised pen for the biggest ones too. That is more hygienic and saves a lot of work cleaning. In case we want to expand we can use this land, which belongs to one of the parents. We could use some advice on building a good pig pen.”
Another project the group has been discussing is goat rearing. “Some of the youth are Muslim, so they won’t get involved in the piggery. And as you can see there is access to borehole water, the surroundings are green.” Paul confirms that the village would be a good place to rear goats: “Everything they need is there.”
Other members, led by Richard, have started a handicraft workshop. The room where the workshop is housed was provided by the same parents they rent the chicken house from. Woodcutting, tie & dye, necklaces and artwork using local materials such as banana fibers. Paper postcards with a crane bird (Uganda’s trademark) design made of banana fibers. “Those, we hardly sell at the local market. Ugandans only buy the computer prints we make of them. Would there be a market in Europe for the products we make?”
“NABUUR neighbours are giving all kinds of advice on our projects, even though we just started. I think we would move even faster if we had a facilitator.”
When we move on, Paul is very happy with the artwork displaying a disabled person. "This will get a nice place in our centre."
(2 votes)
Wow! according to Pelle's visit, it sounds like things are still going well in the village! I thought all the chickens had been lost to the disease - 200 left sounds really good. What price do you get for eggs? and have the ones left been vaccinated?
As for putting the larger pigs Up in stalls for cleaning purposes - I can't imagine how strong that would have to be!! And Ken said they are Fine on the ground - if they have enough space, they 'do their business' in one corner and eat and sleep in another. With all those boys,raking the pen daily shouldn't be a problem!!, and of course, it is great fertilizer for the vegetable garden, but it needs to be dried out and/or 'treated' first - Ken will reply to this I hope. Also Ken, what grain do they have to grow for the pigs? and what for the goats? And, can they make some really tightly woven baskets to use for tomato pots? And might that even become a business - you know, selling a pot with a baby tomato plant??
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Ginger :)
When they clean the pens, just take the manure to the garden and scatter it around. I would just bury it a little. Hopefully, the garden is mulched and just put it under the mulch.
Feed whatever grains are grown there. Traditionally, corn, milo/sorghum, millet, etc. It makes no different. They need more protein than forages will supply.
One can make tomatoe starter plant containers out of newspaper by folding it. There are directions somewhere for that. I do not have them.