Ken - I redirected Emma to your drip system - I think he got confused and looked at pricely professional ones which would have cost $160 USD for 5 - 20 litre buckets and PVC pipes and couplings - I told him again it has to be the flexible black tubing that should be very cheap. Would you suggest a 1/4 acre just for the vegetables - I really don't know sizes - and an additional 1/4 acre for the passion fruit - I think you could be very helpful - do passion fruit need drainage so should be planted on top of the hills and veggies in the furrows? or just the opposite? And don't you think they should plant the clover first to protect from insects? I keep sending material, but I think your steps 1,2,3 approach would be extremely helpful. Thanks Ken!

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Ginger :)

Please, please, Emma, stop thinking high technology. The black, flexible, plastic tubing is very cheap. 33 meters US$3??. I have been in many countries but it was not available in Nigeria [only Lagos 500 miles away] and Haiti. If it is not available there, then find another tubing to use but that is not easy.

A 1/4 acre is fine to get started. Mark off the beds 1½ to 2 meters wide and whatever length. Leave 1/2 meter walkway/path between them. Walk in the beds as little as possible as it compacts the soil.

Passion fruit I know nothing about so they will need to research the internet. In the area of the farm when they plant Passion fruit, they can grow vegetables for now. I went online to http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/passionfruit.html and it is a vine that has to be supported. I would plant a legume/cover crop between the rows of fruit to improve the soil. A permanent crop crop might be best and cut it down at time to increase the organic matter in the soil. They must remember if they mine all the plant food out of the soil, yields will go down after a few years and keep going down. Improve the soil and yields will go up to a max. I wish I had the funds to go to these countries and teach workshops. I am a substitute teacher in a large high school during the school year.

Maria,

The youth must make all the decisions as this is part of the training. They will make mistakes and that is part of the training. We can give advice. They cannot afford mistakes when married and have children. That is one reason many farmers will not try something new because if it fails, the family starves. That is why in my workshops, I tell farmers to make a little bed and try this to prove to yourself that it works and then convert your whole farm.

Dear all,

To all those who celebrate it, I wish you a very happy Eastern. Hope you got many Easter eggs :)

Emmanuel informed me yesterday of the meeting he attended with the youths. Unfortunately we had some technical and time problems. Hopefully next time other neighbours could join.

Here is what the youths have decided and done so far:

Poultry:
As said before, everything is ready for poultry. The youths have sprayed the house and have reserved 250 chicks and feeds ready to buy them. One of the youths promised to take care to recharge a rechargeable lamp.

Goats:
Same for goats. All is ready. The youths decided to buy 6 female goats and to mate them with neighbouring goats. They want to sell later the male goats and keep the females. Each member of the group (6) will get one to take care for.

Pigs:
The youths decided to buy one adult female pig ready to be mated. Although a small pig only would cost around 35US$, an adult good mother pig would cost around125US$. The pig would live on the piece of land (1/2 acre) the youths got offered, and where they also want to grow feeds for the animals. As for the goats they want to keep the female piglets and sell the male ones. Each youth would get one, the remaining would be for the group. A small piglet of two months can be sold for around 15$. But if possible and if not too expansive to feed they would like to keep some longer to get a better price for them. But some would have to be sold to cover running costs of feeds etc. The youths decided to get now the material to build a shelter for the pig on the piece of land (nails, feed trough, roofing material, they can get iron sheets in the village for low cost)
Some of the youths in the group have good knowledge in piggery and teached the others.

Veggies:
The youths will try this week to find out about prizes for the vegetable seeds. Apparently they are quite high at the moment. They would like to grow tomatoes, cabbage and eggplant. They also would like to start-off this week preparing the land (1/2 acre) they will rent. They only will have to get the material, 4 hoes and gamboots.
I also ask for the compost project and Emmanuel told me that he had printed out the documents and that he will talk about this to the youths.
Emmanuel is a bit worried for the costs of the drip-irrigation system. He went to the market and was told that for irrigation, “1/2" pipe costs 2000USHS or about 1USD per meter. Do we have any creative ideas about what to use instead?

Accountancy:
Emmanuel printed the profit-calculating document out and gave it to Richard. He will go through it with Richard and the new executive of the group today before leaving to Kampala.
The group is now organised and has a committee governing the group with an executive. They got a constitution and CBO status last week as Richard informed Emmanuel.

Emmanuel will go through the costs with them and see how all this fits into the budget of 1000US$. He will provide us with more information about this shortly, once prizes for seeds and the drip-irrigation are established.

I hope I have not forgotten anything. I was really amazed how well the youths are doing their job and how organised they are. Now that they are a CBO, they also have an official status, which is great. Bravo! Thanks a lot Emmanuel for taking so much time with them.

Have a nice Sunday everybody,

Maria

Hi Maria

Am impressed to see such good progress!

What's the name of their CBO?

They have been given $1000 as a start point, meaning they can buy pigs, chicks etc, which will eventually begin to make money for the initial group involved. As well as making money for that group, do they plan to run these projects in a way that can be expanded to help other young people too?

So, for example, the people who receive a goat are expected to pass the first (or second, whatever is agreed) female offspring on to another youung person. This can then continue indefinitely, slowly building up the number of people involved.

Mary

Greetings Mary - you must have missed the discussions about passing the offspring along - absolutely YES! - ie: if they get a big white pig, which Emmanuel wanted instead of the little runty native ones - those females produce 8-10 piglets. they are on their mother's teats for 2 months - then sell 2 to pay for the feed to get the other 4-6 larger, for a much better price. I used to be a 'part owner' of a pig farm in Indonesia. :) Males are definitely to be sold off. Also the goats will be given off - unfortunately they do not produce as many as pigs, so goats will take much longer. I did read a project which is giving a lamb to a child entering school - one lamb, backpack and pens and pencils. - about a $50 investment. Each year the parents are required to sell a lamb to pay for their child's education - $35 per year would definitely offset the costs, and we could do goats. That means every girl/boy entering school - their costs will be paid by the family for 10 years. What do you think?
Sure would cut down our expenses in Kyomya

Happy Easter!

--
Ginger :)

Thanks Ginger, sorry I missed that bit of the discussion. There has been so much going on here!

Mary

No kidding! this is definitely the most active village on Nabuur - and we are back on track now implementing the programs the boys had decided on. I can't wait to see photos as they progress. If they pull this off, they will become the example we can share with the other villages nearby. I wasn't able to do this in Kyomya because the farmers weren't willing to try new techniques. These boys are really anxious to succeed and show their parents! And, of course, with an income, they will be able to marry and support a family. This is very exciting.

--
Ginger :)

Hi Ginger and Mary,

yes as you said Ginger, the mother animals will remain with the group and allow other youths to come in. I do not know the name of the CBO, this was a very recent information Emmanuel got. Could you tell us the name, Emmanuel?

I really like your idea, Ginger, about allowing a kid going to school with a lamb. I just got in mind the founding principle of a scholarship organisation I know in Germany - they started after the second world war with a small group of youths coming together. They all worked for half a year and then split the group - half worked to finance the common costs and and the other half went to university, then they changed. I don´t know if similar systems work in Africa, but in the long run it would be a thought worth. Especially since Emmanuel told us that school drop outs were mainly due to the inability to pay the fees.

warm regards,
Maria

Hi Neighbors,

I am sorry for taking quite long to respond but was in the village for the easter weekend. Greetings from the youths. They do appreciate all your in put. I am also glad to inform you that the youths have gone a step to be registered as a Community Based Organization with the names of Wakitaka Youth Development Group (WYDG).In future we will need a logo for the CBO. What do you think?

It's being quite hard to post photos because of the camera. My digital camera has a complicated problem which I have failed to get a genuine technician to fix. Nevertheless, I am trying hard to see that someone acquainted with the technology fixes it.

As for the goats, we are expecting to buy the good quality goats this week! I have tasked Richard to buy the good quality goats. He has already established where to buy them in Kamuli district about 35km away from the village.

Regards,
Emmanuel

As for

Hi Emmanuel and everyone,

Great to hear about all the progress made in the village! They are now much better organized and that increases thier prospects for success.
I'd like to know who's your new accountant - could you tell us something about him/her?

I would just like to point out that, if they have 1000$ (plus some 60$ they themselves had if I'm right?) they should carefully think of how to divide that money. They decided to invest 500$ in chickens, but I don't remember I've seen anticipated budgets/cash flows or any other plans for other activities - farming, pigs or goats? Did they decide how much exactly they will need for each activity?
Are you sure they will have enough for all of it? What income do they expect and in what time from each of the activities?
Are there any figures that we can see and discuss?
What is the last budget you posted for goats? You mentioned costs of goats, transport, vaccination... what else do you need to start with goats and for running that?

Did they decide how to divide expected income so that they could start rapaying the money, and when?
Did they make sure they have where to sell their chickens, pigs etc and at what price?
Did they think about risks - what could go wrong, at which phase?

I think it would also be wise to leave aside some 100$ or so to have in cash, for any unexpected costs. We don't want to put the project in danger just because there's no some money to solve an unpredicted problem if/when it occurs.

Like I told you in our last chat, I am amazed how much the guys are hard working and motivated, but I am also worried that they don't consider some important things before investing money in something. I believe they need to learn to think in busines terms before starting any activity. You helped them prepare the budget for chickens, let them now prepare the same for goats, pigs and other, let them think about problems that might occur and how they could cope with that... Of course they don't need anything too complicated and detailed, but some basic things that they have to consider. To me it seems that you won't have enough money to start with all what you want with 1060$

Don't risk such a good opportunity now that you got such a nice money. Again, I strongly believe that money is not the most important that they need - the most important is getting skills. Only that way they will become independent and take their destiny in thier own hands.

I would also like to chat some time soon if that suits to everyone.

Please say hello from me to everyone in the community!!

Take care,
Sonja

Hi Sonia and everybody,

Emmanuel sent me a mail saying that he had some technical problems to post his response and documents. So here is, what he has sent me:

Hi Sonja,

The Treasurer of the group is a lady. She is called Mebo. She has skills in book keeping since she had done it before. She has a ledger book that she uses to make records of any expenses incurred by the group.

Attached is the estimated budget for the goats that the youths came up with. Also below is an expenditure template that I printed out for the group. Before making entries into the ledger book, the expenditure template is made use of.

Also find attached the constitution of WYDG

As for the black hose pipe for bucket drip irrigation, I am still trying to look around town to see if I can get the exact type that Ken proposed.

Regards,

Emmanuel

Goat rearing.xls

WAKITAKA YOUTH DEV EXPENDITURE Template.doc

WYDG CONSTITUTION- UGANDA.doc

Thanks Maria,

I'll have a look as soon as I can.

As for the chat, I'm not at home this Saturday. After that any evening should be good for me.

Sonja

Hey Emma! Just saw the goat budget - $215 for the 6 goats - remember, you are not supposed to breed them until they are a little older - at least 6 months I believe - please check that out. Also - goats need leaves to digest their food, salt and a good bit of water. Between chickens and goats, you have spent about $715 out of your 1,060, leaving only $345. As Sonja said you really must put $100 aside for emergencies, so you only have about $245. That won't pay for both the vegetables and the pigs! And, Ken has assured us that with the drip system, you can profit from the veggies in as little as 2 months (and of course, have seeds to grow and sell for the next 2 months) Maybe it's best to do that and from those profits buy the - is it one big white pig, or did you change your mind to the smaller local pigs? Anyway - and I do believe that the boys have to continue to sell to the tourists - try new hotels - and either just go at a certain time - just after breakfast, and not leave the art work there because their work is quite magnificent!
ciao for now - Ginger

--
Ginger :)

Dear all,

for your information; I tagged the general discussion from the beginning as finished to make the tasks clearer. All information can be found if you click on project room and then on Wakitaka Village. I also copied all resources and useful information in the resource section.

Hope to see many of you at the chat at 7:30pm Ugandan time.

best,
Maria

Has any body heard of this organization in Jinja? They seem VERY active - building a gorgeous school, training women from nearby villages to sew, learn computers, budgeting, etc. They also have a traveling ambulance to send out to the 'suburbs'. I sent them an email - if anyone can visit, they co-execs are Sam and Nancy Tushabe, Wayanma Road East, Jinja. there email is stushab@aoete.org
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Ginger :)