kenya self help agriculture project

CESARD:

Center for Sustainable Agriculture

and

Rural Development

Bungoma

KENYA

Here is the latest information I have from Kenya sent by Fr James Mabele who is one of 8 members on the board of trustees. Vincent is on the left of the picture, Fr James on the right with one of the trustees.

"Some of the objectives of Cesard are:

Establish demonstration and teaching good Agriculturalhusbandry, live stock, bee keeping and fish rearing.

Establish and maintain Agricultural and other projectsand Developments of every kind and to undertake marketing agent research.

Establish and maintain Agricultural and Rural Development

Establish and encourage people to have saving and creditfacilities within membership.

CESARD is now an established trust registered and recognisedby the Kenya Government

It has its office established with Vincent as its Directorand with eight other members of the board of Trustees. The trustees aredrawn from different parts of western Kenya who have different experienceand expertise.

The Board of Trustees meet three times a year. The organizationhas so far leased some land of about 15 acres, where they have planted maizeand beans two years running serving as an income generating project. CESARDtoo has mobilized members who have used facilities of saving and creditand have bought shares to the tune of 200,000 Kenya shillings and we shallsoon open our doors for the members to take loans at low rates of interest.This is aimed at eradicating poverty.

We hope that once we have some funds to begin the Educationprogram of the people about Agriculture to enable people to have enoughfood for their families which is our major objective, we shall do so byteaching people how to make their own manure without using fertilizers ontheir land.

We trust that the future of the organization is very promisingbecause through saving and credit facilities we shall be able to runthe office, we shall be able to pay two secretaries and the Director. Weneed some help from our friends overseas, in Germany, UK and USA.

However, the Aim is to self-sustainability, of the projectand we have no doubt about its future."

They have a ongoing need for money to pay the office rent, we need to pay for the telephone and pay the secretary, we have no money to pay for these things and above all we need to pay the Director something to be able to maintain himself, to enable him to pay his rent for his house.

We have had a copy of the project plan which we have passedonto a friend who works for a large charitable organization to help honethe proposal so that the plan could form the basis of a grant. This mayor may not be possible because the project is very small and may not besignificant enough a project for the large charities to support.

Here are a few photos Vincent sent through recently so we can be in touch with progress.