Here at COCO, we believe that education is vitally important. This is what forms the core of our mission. As part of this, we aim to achieve sustainability in each of the Schools for Life that we help with, frequently helping to improve nutrition and food security across the four schools. This can most efficiently be done by developing farms at schools to allow for this to develop organically and in such a way that the schools can become fully self-sufficient and no longer require our help.
We have received some fantastic help from the Guernsey Overseas Aid and Development Commission, enabling us to move forward in leaps and bounds! Livestock in four schools now provide meat, milk and eggs for the school community. That means all the community can be well fed and any excess can be sold for income, allowing the school to develop further. Each school now has 2 cows, 6 rabbits, 200 chickens and 30 guinea pigs. Two schools also have a calf, Hoja Secondary has a watermelon garden and Kindimba Secondary has established a bean farm. This is fantastic progress!
The progress doesn’t stop here! About 1,007 people have been positively impacted through training in sustainable agriculture. The impact of this cannot be properly measured as our message will slowly move its’ way through the community. Official training still needs to happen, but it can only move upwards from here.
The future is bright with a second installment of funds meaning that further cultivation, planting and harvesting can take place. To date this has provided over 2,438,000TZS of income, a promising figure that will improve with time. One the food forests have been completed each school should profit about £10,000 per year which is just fantastic! Ultimately, this means that the schools will be able to invest in materials and human resources to enrich the quality of education in all four communities.
We’ll keep you posted as the farms develop!