CHICKEN PROJECT
Project Name: Single Mother Poultry Power
https://pearlsrwanda.com/2021/09/08/food-security-and-sustainability/
BACKGROUND
CHICKEN PROJECT for female financial empowerment was initiated by PEARLS RWANDA with the financial support of Brandon Swann with 56 chickens breeding to improve the welfare of vulnerable women and families in the village of Nyange/Musanze District-RWANDA.
More than 70% of Rwandan women are engaged in farming activities since their childhood. Yet, they don’t have the same access to land, production inputs, and finance as men. As a result, women farmers are mostly relegated to subsistence farming. While their families rely on their harvests as the main source of food and nutrition. If they aren’t doing well, then Rwanda isn’t doing well. This in return impacts the food and nutrition security of their families. More than 35% of the world’s hungry are in Africa. Clearly, we must ensure that everyone has access to the food they need, on an equitable and affordable basis.
Their needs and the drive to improve their livelihood are at the heart of PEARLS RWANDA-Single Mother Poultry Power Project, “Accelerating Progress towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural women”.
Several factors make it difficult for women in Rwanda to achieve their full potential. Limited schooling is one factor, along with a high rate of pregnancy among women entering child-bearing age. In fact, the percentage of pregnancy among adolescents and young women is one of the highest in Sub-Saharan. These factors contribute to the deterioration of health, housing, and economic conditions of the household.
For women having to support their households, a reliable source of income is crucial. However, as highlighted by several studies, there is a lack of formal work opportunities for women living in slums that would allow them to obtain a stable income. This project will facilitate the integration into the labor market of 46 women heads of households, in order to improve the quality of life for their families.
The strategies poultry project include the following:
- PEARLS RWANDA is set up as a chicken breeding demonstration center where women will meet to train, to seek practical information and get chickens or eggs.
- Help women farmers to objectively focus on the needs of the family and the demands of the market and promote high value market-oriented crops and animals.
- Providing improved varieties of breeds of animals that are quick maturing
- Encouraging them to form a cooperative and working together
OBJECTIVES
- To identify 46 vulnerable women and provide them with the necessary skills to be involved in economic activity. A special emphasis will be put upon Single Mother Families.
- Providing psychological support to facilitate the integration of women into the project as well as to increase their self-esteem.
- Promoting organization and community participation among the group of women to encourage them to initiate collective planning for micro-business management.
- To rehabilitate the victims by creating employment, supporting them and helping to use their talents and to prevent future violence
- To help and support women economically, socially and morally.
- To promote Gender and to fight sexual abuse against single mothers.
OUR VISION
Vision of this project is to empower women/Single mother families.
OUR MISSION
To restore hope to single Mother families and to improve the quality of life by empowering them, reshape the society through its symbiotic programs targeting disadvantaged women and Children but also working hand in hand with other partners.
We are a human development organization that seeks to create a positive change in the Single Mother Families by building their capacities through leadership development, and community engagement to improve their standards of living.
TARGET GROUP
Single mothers are from various backgrounds such as from poor family, abandoned by their husbands, HIV/ AIDS Positive rejected by their families, victims of human trafficking. This project works to support the vulnerable affected single mothers from the Nyange sector. The number of single mothers is increasing as days go on.
The project is targeting the single mothers in the NYANGE sector of MUSANZE District. The Nyange sector is made up of 5 cells which are Kabeza, Cyivugiza, Kamwumba, Ninda and Muhabura. We are planning to start with a number of 46 single mothers and that means we will pick 4 most vulnerable and committed single mothers in each cell but the number will increase as days go on.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Many single mothers are victims of different forms of violence and then are rejected by their husband, families, societies and communities. They have nowhere to stay, nothing to eat and cannot access the basic needs. Single mothers are more and more vulnerable because of their status, some have been victims of rape, limited skills, and they have no one to support or help them. As consequence, they have been forced into labor, forced prostitution, sexual exploitation, accused of many crimes in the city, unwanted pregnancies, discrimination by the whole community, and sexually transmitted diseases. Their fate is determined in the community of Rwanda, including Musanze, day and night, where they are always called prostitutes, thieves at the end they are arrested, sentenced and sent to prison for many years. We have noticed the problem of the attitude of some people who have a negative perspective about single mothers that they are prostitutes. They do not encourage single mothers to access training skills, to go to school, to develop themselves. Many single mothers who are used in forced prostitution (sex slaves) and other sexual practices most of them are due to the lack of support and the poor social lives in order to meet their basic needs and to pay the house rent.
Currently, because of the problems of unemployment, poverty, limited skills about sexual and reproductive rights, the percentage of single mothers is increasing day by day. Surprisingly, among single mothers we also have adolescent girls who are the head of their families.
Methodology and Solutions
Rwanda has more than 7% single mothers from different provinces; and in the NYANGE sector, I have identified 46 single mothers. Having observed that these single mothers face the first hardship, lack of skills and other ways to cope with the realities of life, it was then requested that chicken breeding and skills training is the very first step to follow and the ability to freely help them get a job for some is part of the solutions to their problems.
After analyzing the problem affecting single mothers in Musanze, PEARLS RWANDA, with support of Brandon Swann, we have initiated 56 chickens breeding under full control of PEARLS RWANDA- Training center and caring programs for them. We have registered 46 vulnerable affected single mothers.
SELECTION PROCESS
Criteria of being selected:
- Honesty and commitment
- Diligent and Industrious
- Living in the sector of NYANGE
Step 1: Meeting single mothers and Assessment day.
To meet single mothers and explain to them the ethos, mission and the objectives of the project. This includes also the assessment of each mother in order to see how they are committed to self-development and hard-work.
Step 2:
To do an official launch of the Project where we will host all single mothers.
IMPLEMENTATION
Methodology
- Enrollment
There will be information sessions about the necessity for single mothers to be engaged in socio-economic development activities in the community.
We believe that affected single mothers need to be identified, counseled, and given a chance to achieve self-development. We will mobilize the community by carrying out community meetings, to sensitize the single mothers and the community, so as to make them aware of the importance of the project.
Who will train these single mothers?
Trainers are qualified facilitators who do that job as a daily job and who have high quality and skills in chicken breeding, and any other person who may be interested to offer services to them, such as volunteers and interns. Trainers are volunteers who are giving out their efforts for the better life of these women.
Where the Training will take place and duration of the training
The teaching will be taking place at NYANGE.
Training time table
We have two training sessions, one starts at 08:00am and ends 12:00pm and another starts at 2:00pm and ends at 5:00pm every Monday, and Friday. The Training takes a period of six months to complete then new single mothers can join.
- Organizational arrangements for chickens and/or eggs supply
The project coordinator will manage the process of supplying chickens and/or eggs to beneficiaries.
PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION.
Under the project manager’s supervision, project promoters will continuously evaluate and monitor the progress of this project while the donors are also allowed to make visits to the project site.
Expected outcomes.
- To create employment, to reduce the number of single mothers who are victims of sexual abuse, exploitation and violence, to fight poverty among single mothers, to restore their dignity and esteem in the society, to equip single mothers with skills to become self-supported, to destroy belief and myth which make women inferior to men and make women master of their lives.
- Self-sustainment of the beneficiaries who will be in a position to create ways of surviving and having a source of income in their lives by building upon their existing skills and talents. Many will discover different ways of earning a living and will learn a lot in career guidance, counseling and business management.
Challenges
- Lack of sufficient financial support in order to increase the number of chickens for the beneficiaries.
- Little facilities and training materials.
- Lack of fund for the training program.
- Lack of allowances given to 6 facilitators and transport and communication fees for project management.
END
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