Pass on a Pig

By: Steve Hill

Dear Friends

As most of you know our school project in Uganda has turned into a feeding project for the 90 aids orphans and their host family groupings since the government shut down all schools due to the Covid hysteria.  Edward says that this has not been so good for the orphans as they tend to not receive as much food as they would have if they had been in school and he trusts that they will be able to reopen the school in January to really care for the orphans.  The problem is not so much that the host family groupings are mean but that everybody is hungry due to the intensification of poverty due to the shut downs.  Yes, the cure is much worse than the disease!

In seeking to deal with the poverty around him, Edward and his team know that food handouts are not the answer and have started their POP (Pass on a Pig) project.  A family is given a sow, the association has a boar which will impregnate the sow.  The piglets stay with the sow for a month and then a female pig is given to another family and the rest of the piglests can be sold for income for the family or raised for food.

I had asked about chickens but in their area, free range chickens cause strife since they are so easily stolen.  Pigs not so much since they are in pens close to the home and make a noise if something happens to them!

I asked about the cost of feeding the pigs and was told that the poor could manage that since the pigs eat garbage and whatever is available.

So we have begun!  We have sent funds for 5 sows, one boar, some transportation and some vet care.   About $100 covers the cost of one sow, vet bills (the pigs get worms and mites),  the boar and transportation of the animal to the home.  And begins a poor family on the road to some sustainable income.

How about making a Christmas gift of a pig and a future to a family in Uganda?

Your brother
Steve

The picture below is of the latest round of food distribution and some of the kids.