Chickens!!!
Winter is officially here and I do not like it. It has been raining for the past 5 days and I
have been cold and miserable. The one
good thing that has happened is that Washington approved my grant and posted it
to their website! Back in February I
organized the beginning of a group known as, Kuna Kyre’y (hardworking
women). Since then we have received
formal recognition from the local government and are requesting it from the
departmental level. The group was formed
around the idea of a chicken coop project.
Typically in Paraguay chickens are free to roam and although this makes
most of us think free range and great lives for the chickens it is not
beneficial to the Paraguayans. Chickens
sleep in trees and are not protected from predators. They lay their eggs wherever they choose,
making it difficult for Paraguayans to collect the eggs. Their egg production
is also low due to their lack of nutrition. Paraguayans generally give their
chickens only a few handfuls of corn.
This lacks the nutrition that they need to remain healthy. As a component of this project the
Paraguayans will not only build and maintain a chicken coop but they will also
grow their own chicken feed. The members
of my group have already planted new bean and corn seed to be ready for their
chicks.
My community is very small. There are around 30
families. This has been something that I
have struggled with during my service but it is also something that causes the
community to suffer. They have been
denied funding to put in wells and pipes for running water since there are so
few families. The school has been denied
access to different organizations because there are not enough members of the
community to ‘justify’ their presence.
This project means a better life for these families. The members of the group are providing 25% of
total requested funds. They have been
making and selling bread, holding raffles, and organizing community events. They also plan on provided all of the wood
used in the project, and to offset the loss of trees in the area they are
requesting saplings to replace the lost trees.
This is where you all come in. My plan had been to request funding from
USAID but they are currently out of funding.
This means that the only other funding source (through Peace Corps)
available to my group is Peace Corp Partnership. This involves writing up a long and tedious
grant, with a meticulous budget and timeline.
These projects are all posted to the Peace Corp website and the
volunteer’s friends and family help to fund their project. I had hoped to never write a pleading blog
hitting all of you up for money but it has come to this. Here is what I am asking of you guys: I know
that a lot of you are fresh out of college and do not have a lot of money and I
understand that (seriously, I get being broke) so just pass the information
along. Email my blog or my project link
to someone you think might help. Like a
post on facebook, give me a retweet. The
sooner you guys help me reach this goal the sooner I stop harassing social
media sites.
Since I had to do such a detailed budget I can let you all
know where your money would be going; I am going to break down donations into
what they represent:
$5 – 4 one day old chicks
$10 – Antiparasite Medicine and Vitamins for 100 chicks
$25 – 2 bags of cement to build the chicken coop
$50 – 1,000 bricks to be used for the chicken coops$100 – This covers all of the donated materials to make a chicken coop (not including materials and
labor provided by the members)
$325 – Fodderer (because no one is going to grind that much chicken feed by hand)
Also any of these donations buy my love and affection. I understand you guys not being able to donate
much, or even at all. This project has
to get completely funded or the women will not receive any of the money. Side note: the money will go to fund other
projects if mine does not get 100% of the funding. Please help out! Give what you can!
Again, here is the link: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-526-012
If that link is not working
you can go to peacecorps.gov/donate and search my project using my last name
(Flinn), the state I am from (Georgia) or my project number (13-526-012).
Help out Ezekiel!
Help provide prettier chickens!
Seriously. Help.
