Today we visited the women's co-operative, they started off with 30 widows. EFOD gave each widow a cow and provided funding for the construction of a grinding mill. The second phase was the construction of a borehole and Latrines. The Latrines are constructed so that the liquid runs out and leaves the solids in a container, which can be accesses through panels at the back of the Latrine (Ecosan). The solids are left for 6-8 months which they can then use for fertilizer for the gardens.
Each of the original 30 widows were given grain as well as a cow, and when the next 30 arrived, they have to give their first born calf and seeds to the next 30 widows....so far 6 calves have been born. They now have 60 widows with plans for another 30 next year.
The widows are milling maize and cassava into flour, the mill runs daily to generate cash for repair and support the widows. The mill is currently generating 25,000Ugandan Shillings per week (approx £7).
In total its cost less than £20k and now the community is totally sustainable, its an example to us all. The ideas all come from the Ugandan people and Ian Flower and EFOD make the ideas happen. I hope this will help you realise how much a small amount of sponsorship can help a community and the beauty is they learn and get on with it.
Our visit was amazing, Sally, Gillian and I were up dancing with the widows and they loved it! They are really friendly and loved having us there......
No comments:
Post a Comment