The "One Chicken per Child" project was launched by our production manager Saidath Murorunkwere. Through this project, we are pursuing the goal of teaching the younger generation entrepreneurial skills and educating them to take responsibility from an early age. The idea for this project, Saidath told us, came to her during a leadership training program she participated in in Japan in 2020. It is derived from the Rwandan project of one cow per poor family ‘Girinka’. The project aims to create a multiplier effect of gratitude, compassion, and entrepreneurship.
We select children between the ages of 7 and 10 from our Village of Hope beneficiary families who take good care of their vegetable gardens, which we provided for them. The children are each given a laying hen and they take care of the chicken so that they have chicks. After 5 months, one of the new chickens is given to another child, and they get to keep all the other chickens they have raised.
As a condition of participation, parents must confirm that they are willing to help their children with this task. The children and parents are trained how to take care of the chickens, and they also learn how to sell the eggs and save money. Children who pass on the chicken to the next ones are encouraged to scale their project and those that raise up to 20 chickens, Dufatanye Organization builds for them a chicken pen in their backyard.
Of course, from time-to-time difficulties occur such as diseases of the animals which causes death or are stolen. It can also happen that the families cannot afford to feed the animals. In the cases that the families cannot afford a new chicken or chicken feeds, Dufatanye Organization offers part time jobs to parents in exchange for new chickens or feeds.
We asked some children what their experience was and how this program helped them. One of them told us, "The chicken was very helpful because it laid eggs and I could sell them. This helped me to earn money to buy pencils and books for school, which enable me to perform well in school."
The new children are also very excited and motivated to start this project. When we ask them what it is like to have received a chicken, they tell us that they are very happy and grateful to the child they got it from and that they hope they can give a chicken to the next child as well.
To make sure everything is going right, we do monthly checkups to see if the chickens are healthy, how the process is going, and if the children need any help.
As our name "join together" suggests, we believe that a collective movement can make a difference. Only together can we make a bigger impact in society. If you want to support our mission and vision and become a part of it. Feel free to contact us, we are grateful for any support.