7 Maya Mam women have formed a small cooperative to raise hens to sell eggs. They will rent land that has two chicken houses that can hold 800 hens each. Each woman will invest $390 of her own capital. The project raises funds in three stages, after which the project will be self-sustaining. Stage 1 remodels one house and purchases an initial 500 hens. Stage 2 will remodel the second house and purchase 800 hens. Stage 3 will purchase the final 300 hens so each house has 800 hens.
The women live in Cajola, a community of about 20,000 with a staggering 90% poverty rate where 40% have already migrated to the U.S. Primarily a subsistence agricultural community, there are few opportunities particularly for women to earn enough money to provide for their family. Frequently a woman has to make the difficult decision to leave her children and go north to earn money to make sure they are fed, clothed, healthy, and educated. That migration has resulted in social disintegration.
When the three stages of the project are complete, the women will be managing 1600 hens in two separate chicken houses. They will be earning enough money to care for their families as well as save. After the initial purchase of the 1600 hens with their feed the project will be completely sustainable. Before paying themselves each month the women will set aside the funds they need to purchase feed for the following month and funds to replace the hens when they no longer lay eggs productively.
The long term impact of the project is the ability of the women to earn income to be able to provide food, medical care, education, and other necessities to their families without the need to migrate.
This project has provided additional documentation in a XLSX file (projdoc.xlsx).
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