Turning One Pig Into An Enterprise

Patience is a single mother of 4 children living in Nyarurambi village. Before we met and began our partnership, her situation was very bleak. She was very proud of her children and how well they were doing in school, but often worried about being able to cover the costs of their education. The uncertainty and low income of the small-scale fish and matook sales business she was involved with meant that school fees were a heavy burden and the basic needs of her family were rarely met.

When Raising The Village started active project implementation in her community, Patience immediately began participating in program activities including agriculture training, animal care and management, and compost organic manure production. From these, she gained relevant knowledge and skills, and applied them to begin construction on a new shelter for pigs.

Patience was keen on focusing her efforts on the piggery project because of the quick returns it promised. Patience received a female pig that gave birth to 7 piglets, 4 of which she retained while 3 were given to secondary beneficiaries. She was able to sell one of the piglets and made enough money to pay all of her daughter’s outstanding school fees. We asked Patience to share how she feels about our partnership and more specifically the piggery project: “I love the piggery project, and since I am still healthy and energetic I am very much committed to continue expanding this enterprise.” She added that she would like Raising The Village to consider adding more animal species like sheep in order to introduce more diversity to the farming projects.

She was also excited about the other positive changes she has seen in Nyarurambi village since our partnership began. The level of hygiene and sanitation has greatly improved as every household now possesses a pit latrine and hand washing facility. There were also new and better crop varieties introduced to the farmers that have now been widely passed on to hundreds of other farmers in the area.

Patience’s vision for the future is to see her children receive quality education up to the highest level possible, and buy a plot of land where she can expand and diversify her agricultural work.