We celebrated our 2nd anniversary this past September.
In two short years we have over 1,500+ tagged sheep in the project, with more being born regularly and another 200+ females and 40 males to be purchased in the coming weeks.
We have directly affected the lives of close to 8000 men, women and children with cash in pocket (as we source sheep locally), improved crop yields (from 5 sacks of potatoes to 8 sacks), and access to funds (selling sheep) to pay for school fees, health concerns and home improvements.
139 of our first recipients have already completed the terms of their contract and, while we were there, each paid forward a female sheep. These little darlings are the first off-spring of the initiative!
It was incredible to watch as one of farmers from our first group of recipients addressed this group to tell them about his experience with our initiative. He was excited to point out how, in 2 short years he's gone from having no sheep to having 5, even after he paid forward a sheep! As long as he maintains 3 females, he can now eat or sell 2 sheep. That's a potential $100. in his pocket! And the 3 remaining females will produce up to 6 off-spring in the coming months!
 |
| Innocente (in the long, black coat) addresses members of the Amizero group. |
And for the first time, we were joined by 3 very generous sponsor, Roman & Wendy Jovey and Andrea Fine, who were eager to experience Rwanda and see our project.
A whirlwind visit, each day full of insight and adventure, including an Indiana Jones-style trek up and down dense, steep, muddy mountain jungle following elusive chimps, a chance meeting with baboons, and an incredibly up close and personal encounter with the world's only mountain gorillas!
All that in only 3 days!
Paul also arranged for the opportunity to visit a local school to deliver them various supplies purchased in town (to help the local economy) and to interact with the students while sheep were being tagged for our project nearby.
Another trek through farmland, back into the National Park to see Colobus Monkeys...
and finally a visit to our newly fenced, leased land, most immediately being used to temporarily hold sheep being paid forward until delivery can be arranged. The first 139 sheep all spent up to 4 days here before trucks arrived to deliver them. That's a lot of manure to turn into compost!
and then 6 more days on safari in Tanzania! But that's a whole other story...
