The chickens are growing and students from Bright Futures Secondary School are learning skills by helping to care for them.
Sarah’s blog 1/11/24
How is it the 1st of November already? So much happening, so much to do, but some great results are starting to show.
Levison sent this video yesterday of Martha and Asante helping to care for the chickens (chooks). This is the great thing about having projects like the chickens, pigs, goats and all the crops. They can be used for education as well as becoming income generating projects.
Agriculture is a core subject in the Malawian curriculum and students are very much hands on with projects during their practical lessons. They are learning skills for life. Many people in Malawi, grow crops or keep a few animals (if they can afford to) to supplement whatever other income they have. So students at Bright Futures Secondary School will have the skills they need to be able to be growing their own crops and keeping chickens, pigs or goats and they and their families will hopefully have a brighter future!
The incubator is working well now that it has it’s own solar power supply. However, the hen house needs an extension. If eggs were put in the incubator every day each small batch of chicks, hatching after 21 days, will need a separate area from the other chicks. This will enable them to grow safely and allow their progress to be monitored closely, including knowing which chicks have been vaccinated and when. So it is proposed that an additional room, like the one seen in the video, is built to accommodate more chicks and allow the incubator to have regular batches of eggs.
Good news for the chicken project with lots of new chicks being hatched…. but the bad news is that the truck has broken down.
Sarah’s blog 13/9/24
Please will you help Levison? Life is hard and unfair for those living in extreme poverty in Malawi. Sometimes it seems like progress is being made only for something else to happen.
First – some good news.
There have been lots of eggs being laid and put in the incubator. There are over 50 healthy chicks now and more eggs are in the incubator keeping nice and warm. This is really good news for this project. Now that the incubator, which was bought with a generous donation from Lochlie Construction, has it’s own solar power supply, there is enough energy to keep it going 24/7 so the eggs stay at a constant temperature. We look forward to seeing more progress and will bring more news.
Thank you to everyone who has helped support this project
Now for the bad news.
The truck – which is absolutely vital and used every day has broken down. It was being used to transport supplies for the teachers’ accommodation project. Also, as water levels are low because it’s the dry season, water for making bricks and cement etc has to be brought by truck from the river to the site. In the borehole, there is only enough clean water for drinking so this water is very precious.
There is a local man with ox and cart and Levison has managed to hire him to help with moving water from the river to where the builders are working.
However, the truck is also vital for fetching maize and other supplies to feed hundreds of children every week as well as many other uses. Of course, every few months there are long overnight journeys to collect all the boxes we send from the container. Ekwendeni, which is the end destination for the container, is near Mzuzu. While this is in the north of Malawi, it is still a very long way south of where the community we help to support are. Bright Futures Campus is approximately 45km from Chitipa town and many of the roads are just dirt tracks. Especially when it is the rainy season, the rural roads are hazardous and often even the truck cannot climb muddy hilly tracks!
Levison and his team need our help and support to get the truck back on the road. It needs a new altenator and two new batteries. The batteries can be bought in Chitipa town but the alternator will need to be sent from Mzuzu. Nothing is straightforward! When the truck broke down, it was carrying supplies that had been bought for Bright Futures Secondary School (which opens again on Monday) as well as equipment for the building project. Eventually, they managed to get someone to come with a truck to transport everything safely back to campus. However, this cost money. So did towing the truck back. The mechanic came yesterday to look at the problem and he was paid for his time. However, nothing else could be done because of no money and no new parts for the truck.
Will you help us get the truck back on the road please? It is essential to the smooth running of all the projects and ensuring that hundreds of orphans are fed. We need approximately £650. Thank you, Sarah x You can donate via our page on DonorSee https://donorsee.com/project/24823?share=1 contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com or sending us an email for bank details. Or you can also make a donation via the button on the home page on our website. Any donation will be very much appreciated. Thank you once again for your support, Sarah x
On this map, Bright Futures Campus is in the far north near Chisenga.
All the children are excited to see the truck coming back from collecting the boxes we sent.just one of the many journeys that the truck has made to collect supplies
Happy, Moreen & Shalon were delighted to be allowed to hold the new chicks
Sarah’s blog
Further to my post about the 68 chicks that had hatched in the incubator, unfortunately 4 haven’t survived….but that is still leaving 64 chicks so we hope those are all strong enough to survive and grow.
We thought you’d like to see these photos…. three little birds….and also three children holding the three little birds. Happy Chanya (age 9, p2), Moreen Mbale (age 8, p2) and Shalon Ng’ambi (age 6, p1) all enjoyed being the first to hold the new chicks. Happy, Moreen and Shalon all need sponsors if anyone is able to help them please. It’s £25 p/m to sponsor a child which ensures they have clothes and a monthly food parcel in addition to the feeding programme and they also receive welfare checks. contact_us@changinglivesmalawi.com
Thanks for supporting us to help hundreds of children like these, Sarah x
A while ago, Lochlie Construction generously donated money for an incubator to be bought.
Electricity has been so sporadic that it meant the incubator wasn’t able to be kept at the proper temperature so eggs didn’t hatch.
The incubator was linked up to the solar power kit that we sent on the last container and we thought that there would soon be lots of chicks hatching. Nothing is ever straightforward though. A few batches of fertilized eggs were bought but Levison ended up asking for a refund as none of these hatched.
So last month a few eggs were gathered each day until 103 had been placed in the incubator. Thankfully, 68 of those have hatched. They need to be kept warm until they have grown a bit bigger and, hopefully, they will all survive.
This is such amazing news and far bigger than just 68 chicks successfully hatching. Here are some of the reasons we are all so excited about this good news story;
more eggs can be hatched each month in the incubator
some of the chicks can be sold as a regular income for the Foundation
some chicks will be kept to increase the amount of ‘chooks’ in the Foundation flock.
The Foundation flock will, when big enough, be able to provide eggs for sale bringing in extra income. Eggs and (occasionally) chicken will be able to supplement The Feeding Programme.
Hopefully, there will be employment opportunities created once the number of chooks increases.
There is a possibility that vulnerable families could be given a couple of chooks, meaning they would have their own eggs helping them to feed their families.
So this is just the start and we need to keep our fingers crossed that these chicks survive and the next batch are successfully hatched in the incubator too. This is one of the ways that The Foundation will start to become self-sufficient. They are proud and clever people. They don’t want handouts. They just need helping hands just now as things are so difficult and malnutrition is rife. Let’s hope this is the start of a brighter future.
This chicken project is going to take a long time before it starts making a difference. The feeding programme is providing 500+ hungry orphans with a substantial meal once a week. Some children are walking from up to 20km away. No one is feeding children in schools in this area. We need your help to help us continue the feeding programme as prices continue to rise. Can you commit to £5 or £10 per month please? Our bank details are Bank of Scotland, Changing Lives Malawi, A/C 21081462, S/C 80-22-60 and use the reference ‘feeding’ please. Your help WILL make a difference to hungry, malnourished children. Thank you for your continued support, Sarah x
