Food and Income for 500 Sierra Leone Farmers

Introduction

It is about time again for an update of our agricultural project in Sierra Leone. After a flying start in the period from autumn 2016 to the beginning of 2018 and then a stabilization phase, in 2019 we will start again with a new impetus to further professionalize and expand this successful development project.

Since the december 2018 newsletter we have already received approximately EUR 2,000 in donations, thanks to the generous donors!

Challenges occur…

Due to illness of our program manager mr. Momodu Kamara, last January / February he only was able to provide limited support during harvest in january, and the preparations for the start of the spring cropping season.

Luckily the farmers were sufficiently prepared by the previously provided training program, their harvest produce was great and all 125 farmers have started the new, dry cropping season with a mix of, corn, onions, peppers and other vegetables.

GlobalGiving’ Field traveler to visit Project location!

Since spring 2017 Seeds for Growth manages a web-page on crowdfunding platform of GlobalGiving, so we are able to reach out to Sierra Leonean and other interested persons and parties in USA, England and other countries on the globe. Find more: goto.gg/28007  

Recently, we received an offer of GlobalGiving to visit our project in May 2019. Of course we are very excited with their initiative, and want to make this a fruitful and successful meeting.

And of course: we hope this will also give us additional exposure internationally. We 'll keep you informed!

After a year of rapid growth in 2017, this year we focused our available time, funds and energy to preserve and stabilize the size and success of the agricultural project for 125 farming families. 

A brief summary of the challenges we encountered this year:

• “army worms” have damaged a part of the cropping areas during spring season.
• Presidential elections march/april 2018). This led to some political instability during the election months, but fortunately the elections finished relatively peaceful. After the elections, a new president, Mr. Julius Maada Bio took office, which led to various changes in the country policies, indirectly also had an impact on the economy and the existing network of our program manager.
• Due to defects in Laptop and telecom equipment, the communication between the board-members in the Netherlands and the program manager in Sierra Leone has been very difficult for several months.
• Due to the limited time available for the 2-persons board, the original growth plans for 2018 have been delayed. The desired expansion of the board to more than 2 people has not yet succeeded.

Despite these practical challenges, our program manager mr. Momodu Sheku Kamara has succeeded in stabilizing the project for the 125 farming families, of which a few dozen participate already for the 5th consecutive time in a cropping cycle.

Seeds for Growth strategy

We work with a pragmatic approach in which we offer farmers maize seeds, fertilisers and agriculture expertise as a loan in kind. This approach leads to 60-80 % higher harvest yields, with which they acquire additional income and relieve the loans. So the loans recovery can be used for the next planting season.

Year end campaign

Today we start our end of year campaign, to expand the local project with an additional group of 75 farmer families. Therefore we need USD 9,000.- additional funds.We kindly request for your support and donation through

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/seeds-for-growth-feeding-500-farmers-sierra-leone/

Thank you for supporting our cause, we appreciate sharing this news letter in your network!

Ben Bolland, chairman
Kapri Turay, secretary
Momodu Sheku Kamara, program manager
and 125 farmer families