Bukavu – Chicken farm 

Location:             Democratic Republic of Congo – South Kivu – Bukavu
                            psychiatric centre Sosame

Project leadtime: 6 months

Requestor:          Jean-Jacques Chishibanji for ANUPF association

Description of the project:

This project is about growing meat- and laying chickens on a small scale as occupational therapy project for the benefit of the psychiatric patients and their families.
ANUPF association is formed by employees of the psychiatric centre Sosame who, after their working hours, voluntarily help to collect money to buy food and to re-socialise the psychiatric patients who are casted away by the society. By selling eggs and chicken meat they will have an income to buy food and medication for the patients and their families and will fight poverty this way. The chicken farm will be taken care off by and for the patients under the supervision of the occupational therapist of the centre.

Objectives:

The final objective is to prevent the stigmatizing of the psychiatric patient. This project will be started with the help of Vleugels van Hoop but has as target to become self-financed.

Beneficiaries:

Psychiatric patients, and their families, of the psychiatric hospital Sosame in Bukavu.

Budget:

The overall budget is 1.000 €

Risks:

- Inexperience to run bigger projects
- The project is depending on the volunteers of ANUPF
- Risk on diseases amongst the chickens
- Risk of theft
- Extreme poverty and famine in the region
- Inexperience to set-up a self-financing project

Attached documents:

Detailed budget

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Follow-up of the project

Date: May 3rd 2017
 
Name project: Project 71 – DR Congo, Bukavu – Chicken farm

General status:

The project is evolving well; we received the funds on March 27th and immediately started with equipping the chicken farm. I received the approval and signed cooperation agreement from Vleugels van Hoop in February and we waited for the arrival of Mrs. Veronique Coppin who brought the funds with her, together with the purchased breeding machine bought in Belgium. In general all goes well: the chicken farm is equipped, the purchase of chickens done, chickens are vaccinated and the breeding machine is operational. We fear though that the first breeding will not be a success because of a wrong action as today we are the 23rd day of the breeding period.
 
Progress since last status report:

The egg production has started but we are afraid on not having sufficient means to support the patients with the purchase of medication and food.

All funds were spend as planned. The overview of activities and the details on the spending of the funds you can find attached. We have a balance of 0 € now.

Problems/concerns:

• The food for the chickens was underestimated: We fear a shortage of food at the end of the 2nd month as well as an increase of prices as there is a shortage of corn which serves as basic food for the chickens.
• Shortage of space and fence to allow the chickens to run freely around within the fence or on the courtyard.
• The lack of a site where we can install the chicken farm
• Fear on not being able to fulfil the demand of ailing patients because of a production shortage
• Problems to pay the veterinarian

Attached documents (pictures, reçu’s,…):

Financial report

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Follow-up june 2017

General status:

The project is evolving well. Unfortunately we missed the first hatching. The machine functions well; the solar energy is stable and available where the incubator is located. The failure is caused by selecting the wrong eggs. We noticed on 51 eggs:
- that out of 8 eggs we got 8 chicks = 15,6%
- there were 12 dead chicks in the shell – 23,5%
- there was 1 broken egg in the incubator (cause?) = 1,9%
- 30 eggs got rotten in the incubator = 58,8%

A setback: on day 11 all chicks were destroyed by wild rats. We look into a way to protect the chicks place before the 2nd crucial period to offer needed protection.
 
Progress since last status report:

The chickens start to produce eggs slowly and are getting in good shape. They get medicines to improve the egg production. 90 pieces were sold and 51 eggs were put in the incubator (who soon will give chicks).

Financial status

The funds were all used as foreseen cfr activities and expenses in attachment. This month there was a contribution from the members to guarantee continuity and further investigation of the chickens place (see pieces of justification in attachment).

Problems/concerns:

• Food for the chickens: we fear a shortage
• Increase of prices because of a shortage of corn flour (basic food for chickens)
• Shortage of space and lack of a fence to allow the chickens to be in open air safely
• Shortage of an own piece of land
• Fear of not being able to fulfil the big demands of the manu sick people
• Problems to pay the veterinarian

Attached documents (pictures, reçu’s,…):

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Follow-up August 2017

General status:

The project is evolving well and the chicken start to, slowly, produce more eggs. They are producing 1 egg a day now and getting food and thereby help 3 psychiatric patients, who are very poor, to pay their medication. A part of the eggs is used as supplement to the food for hospitalised patients who do not have close relatives. An egg meal is prepared for them, every weekend, in the kitchen of the psychiatric centre ‘sosame’.
 
Progress since last status report:

The chickens are producing well (1 egg a day). This month we had 720 eggs. We have 9 chicks of about 6 weeks, 6 of 1 day and we are waiting for the rest to be hatched. The chicks we have are from the eggs from the chicken farm.

Financial status

All funds are consumed as foreseen. The activity planning and invoices are attached. For this month we do have enough food, medication and vaccinations for the chickens. However, there is nothing left over.

Problems/concerns:

• As always the food for the chickens: Because of increasing the hatching, the need for food is increasing. The chicks are still too small to give them to the family of the patients, as we are afraid they will die too soon of will be eaten before they produce eggs.
• We have not sufficient space and lack a fence to allow the chickens to run in open air. The security at the current place and in the cages is not enough, as we will have more chicks every month.
• The lack of a plot on which we can build our chicken farm.
• We are afraid not to be able to fulfil the need of the patients because of the limited capacity of the chicken farm. With 35 chickens the yield if too small to cover the need of the poorest people and to other activities of the association.
• Problems to pay the veterinarian for his consultations.

Attached documents (pictures, reçu’s,…):

Invoices, overview of income

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Follow-up august 2019

Date: August 21st 2019
 
Name project: Project 76 - Chicken farm

General status:

The chicken project evolves well. We keep on buying medicines and food for the chickens as well as medicines for the poor, sick patients. The incubator works fine. We have in total 37 laying hens, 17 pre-laying hens, 32 chicks of 2 weeks and 8 chicks of 1 month. For the field in Kabamba we keep in mind the rainy season will start (September crop-season A). We will cultivate corn and beans and expect to harvest in December.

Progress since last status report:

The project is self-sustainable; the chickens are producing 29 plates of eggs monthly which means a yield of 116 $ per month. This allows us to buy food, medicines and vaccinations as well as to help the poor patients (food and medicines).

Financial status:

This quarter the yield of the chicken project was 348 US$.
By these means we paid 150 $ for food for the chickens, a contribution of 70 $ for the duck barn, 12 $ for the purchase of a duck and 5 $ on vaccinations.

A balance of $110 remains for medicines for the patients (cfr invoice)

Problems/concerns:

- The new incubator (experimental) gave poor results = 100% failure!
- The families of the patients inform us they do not have space to bread chickens and are not able to buy chicken food. They only want chickens to eat.
- Too many requests for assistance while the chickens sometimes do not produce eggs in 30 days. Therefore our wish to extend the number of laying hens.

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Images

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