THIS PROJECT FUNDS THE PURCHASE OF 5 PREGNANT PIGS AND THE FEED PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT REQUIRED TO RUN A SELF-SUSTAINING PIG FARM FOR UMOJA INVESTMENT SELF-HELP GROUP IN NYERI, KENYA. THE COST OF THIS PROJECT IS $7,740. PLEASE DONATE TODAY.
Umoja Investment Self Help Group comprises 20 adults who combine their savings and start sustainable projects through loans. This savings and loans model allows the group a sustainable livelihood and access to food, shelter, and education for their extended families and community. The group is based in Karatina town, Nyeri County, Kenya.
HISTORY OF SUCCESS
Their previous successful projects include loans to begin bull rearing, the purchase of dairy goats to produce milk for sale and the use by the community, multiple horticulture farms, boost a boutique business, and begin a chicken farm. Each of their projects has allowed the beneficiary to repay the loan while concurrently supporting themselves (including, in some cases, paying school fees for their children and grandchildren).
THE PROBLEM
The individuals in this community have minimal opportunity to generate income, especially at levels sufficient to contribute to savings or investments after covering their basic expenses. While they have been able to help some community members with small loans, the size of the projects they can finance is restricted by their limited capital.
Larger projects require a more significant initial investment, but can also employ members of the community with ongoing wages and produce greater amounts of income which can be invested into other projects for the group. Without the funds to begin a larger project, such as a pig farm, the community is continuously trapped in a cycle of poverty.
OUR SOLUTION
The Giving Exchange has pledged $7,740 USD to begin a self-sustaining pig farm and feed production. This amount will cover the costs of 5 pregnant pigs, the construction of the pig pen, and also machines enabling them to make their own pig feed. This not only helps bring the running costs of the project down, saving approximately $3 USD/feed bag, but will also generate more income, as they will be selling their home-made feed to other farmers in the community. Six months after the pigs are purchased, the farm will be able to start selling piglets to increase their revenue.
The profit made will be used to expand the farm with more mother pigs to continue increasing wealth and help finance loans to the community for other sustainable projects.
Umoja Self Help Group’s pig farm will operate in cycles. Each mother pig can farrow every 6 months and will give birth to 8-10 piglets at a time. Piglets nurse for the first 2 months and only begin requiring additional feed at 3 months old. Since the piglets will only eat 1-2 kg/day/pig of feed during their growing months, the price to grow a piglet into an adult is a smart investment for the higher selling price. Since they can sell the pigs at any age, there is flexibility to provide income when they need it.
Umoja Self Help Group plans to expand the project over time by using some female piglets born as new mothers. The pen they will initially build can account for 5 mothers and 40 piglets at a time. When they accumulate enough profit to build a bigger pen, they will be able to keep some female piglets from each farrow and inseminate them, to add to the number of piglets born therefore increasing income. Someday, they hope to expand the project to 500 pigs.