I am happy, amazed and thankful to report that Olivet has successfully initiated three income generating projects with the East Gambella Bethel Synod (EGBS) that have reasonably good chances of being sustainable for the Anuak in the years to come. This entry will be about those projects and the thought and people behind them. Just check out the pictures if you don’t feel like reading about them; they tell their own story.
Each of these projects can be considered “pilot” i.e. a small start to test capability/capacity and to learn about how to proceed with other projects. Funding has been provided by Olivet (Presbyterian Church USA), EGBS and some very generous individuals. Of course there is ambition for much more, but we'll first see how these projects fare.
Solar Projects
Gambella definitely has a powerful sun! John Koontz and Dan Chayes have hitched two different solar arrays to it to power a solar pump (tests indicated 5+ gallons per minute!) to water an organic garden (bananas, papaya, mango, potatoes, peppers, okra, tomatoes, beans, watermelon, pumpkin etc). This garden is a precursor to a larger farming project in the future. Understanding what sells and for how much is the first step, and this irrigation system gives this community the ability to cultivate up to 8 acres of crops. Without the water they would be dependent on the yearly rains and that means only doing one growing season; and that would be only corn. It would also mean having to sell the corn when everyone else is: when the prices are the lowest.
They system they installed included a state of the art controller to manage the trade offs between the pump’s power consumption, the solar array’s powered production, and the volume of the 3000 litter cistern (also installed). Let’s just say McGuiver never faced the challenges that these two men did – with limited tools and supplies they did it! In 4 and one half days they put in more than 50 hours of non-stop work and hustle (105 degrees too). Even more amazing was the salvaging of 5 panels (circa 1992) from a store room and turning them into an additional solar system to power the EGBS office and the several million cell phones that instantly appear whenever someone sees a power strip with a light on.
With all his spare time, John scooted up to Pokewo to install some high intensity lights in the examination room, pharmacy and the delivery room in a remote clinic. Now the babies have a safely lit place to arrive and be cared for. Something I did not anticipate was how many people came out to watch John and Dan work. If you saw John and Dan working you saw at least a half dozen men crouched near them to understand/learn about solar. With every step or decision they made they explained what they were doing and way and it was translated for the audience. Two men, Okello and Obong, were trained for in “Solar for Africa” 101 and provided with the proper tools to maintain the system.
Thanks and gratitude are in order for the partners at HelioSage for lending us John and CnH Construction for sparing Dan for the work. The opportunity cost for such competence, ingenuity, and capability must be large.
Block Making Machine
You might have seen earlier that Olivet bought a block machine for EGBS but there is more to it than that. The machine itself was built in Addis Ababa by Selam Village, a vocational school run by orphans for orphans. They provided the training on how to use the machine then we shipped it to Gambella. On a good day it can make 200 block which can be sold for 2-3000 Ethiopian Birr, after you deduct the cost of the sand, cement, labor and the maintenance fund, you clear about 15% or 500 Birr or approximately $30. Meaningful money here.
Walk Behind Tractor
Food Security is a big issue here and the land farmed by Anuak is done with a cow and a sharpened wooden pole. This limits how much land can be cultivated before the rains come. EGBS will first cultivate the garden previously mentioned, and then rent the tractor to farmers in their presbyteries. The rental income will cover the costs of fuel and maintenance. Further Farmers will commit to sharing some of the proceeds of the excess capacity when the harvest comes (this still needs to be negotiated). If EGBS is successful in generating income with the tractor and improving the food security for its people, we will try to raise more money for another tractor. There are 66,000 Anuak in the area all doing subsistence farming!
I like the pictures!!!
ReplyDelete