Dropping out from school is becoming one of the most serious problems in Makima, a Catholic mission located on the southern slopes of mount Kenya, Africa.
Children attend elementary school, as it is free of charge, but when they get to secondary, the wind changes direction. Many families do not have enough money to pay for the fees, and their sons and daughters are prevented from pursuing their education.
The teenagers end up being idle with all the consequences we can imagine. Drugs and worse things are just around the corner!
Fr. Josaphat, a Consolata Missionary, wants to do something to come to the aid of his young parishioners and has come up with an interesting idea: To engage about four hundred dropped-out youths (girls and boys) in a long term chicken rearing plan. He will start with fifteen youths with whom he will build the facilities for the chicks and grow them until they lay eggs; then other young boys and girls will be engaged in the selling of the product; the income will be used to pay for their labor and to buy more chicks. And so on…
After a year or so, the first group of youths will have enough training and so they will be sent off to start their own smaller project, with some egg laying hens and some of the money gained shared among them.
In order to purchase the materials to build the first hen shed, which includes buying 400 chicks, animal food, the necessary chicken medications and to pay the youth labor until the activity is self-generating, Fr. Josaphat needs US$9,000. He has managed to raise US$3,000 and asks us to assist him with the remaining UD$6,000.
Your help to Father Josaphat in Kenya would be of high value: many young girls and boys will benefit from this long term project.