Eat So They Can 2010 - One Year On

With Eat So They Can 2011 right around the corner, hopefully you're all very busy planning your events! Here at the Eat So They Can office, we are flat out planning for the weekend ahead.

But we thought that amidst all the chaos, you might like to hear about how one of our projects has come along in the past 12 months. The Real Uganda has been one of our key partner organisations over the last few years, and 2010 ESTC funds went towards building a goat farm, a sustainable initiative to support the children of Johnson Nkosi Memorial School and the surrounding community.

Here are a few words from Leslie Wieghill of The Real Uganda:

"This project created a sustainable environment for a goat farm to grow beyond pre-existing capacity. The farm will now generate income for the school. In its former (small) size it only created interest in goats and a bit of milk.

We built a 100’x70’ fenced goat grazing yard, constructed a raised permanent house for the goats, and purchased 7 pregnant goats (as they each gave birth to twins – we actually bought 21 goats!).

In 2010, when Johnson Nkosi Memorial School started keeping goats, they had 6 goats in a small enclosure made of tree branches. There was no house for the goats to sleep in or get out of the rain. There was no grazing area, food had to be brought to them everyday.

 Today the goat farm has expanded to 34 goats. They are healthier now with their private grazing area – eating fresh (growing) greens and getting some exercise. The raised house keeps them warm and clean at night and safe from thieves as well.

A goat keeper has been hired to keep their house clean and move them to and from the grazing yard. 

In terms of the future, we hope the project will become a learning aid for both Johnson Nkosi students and community members. Goats are in demand in Uganda right now. They are cheap and easy to keep and they multiply quickly. We want to show our process increases income as the goats are kept healthier than the traditional way.

324 children have benefited or will benefit from this program."

On behalf of everyone at ESTC, we just want to say a huge thank you to The Real Uganda for all the hard work they put in. To develop a project that will benefit over 300 children is an amazing result. We would also like to thank all the hosts who supported the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children cause in 2010, as this project would not have been able to go ahead without your support.

This is just an example of the kind of project that your ESTC 2011 funds will go towards. Hopefully, in one year from now, we can again tell you about all the amazing things that have been achieved with the funds that our hosts raise this year.

Finally, good luck with the weekend ahead! It feels like we have been building towards this weekend for quite some time, and now that it's finally here, we are so excited! As always, the ESTC team is here to answer any last minute questions you may have. Other than that, I guess all we can do is wish you all the best for this weekend! We are really looking forward to hearing about how everyone's events went!

Good luck everyone!

 - Luke and the ESTC Team.