Sh*t's Hitting The Fan Again...

Sorry for the delay. 
In late September we finally revealed our secret.
After our very own little Summit In The Mountains in Musanze, Rwanda, bringing together Canadians, Rwandans and Congolese,
we were excited and proud to announce 
that we have partnered with Belay Global 
to 
take our shit into Eastern Congo!

Belay will be providing us with the funding to deliver 1,000+ goats to a coffee co-operative run by Gilbert Makelele, operating on the island of Idjwi, in Lake Kivu, near Goma.
The coffee cooperative stretches across 14 territories in the Eastern DRC and is purposely positioned to operative in the "red zones" where there is ongoing conflict among the many conflict groups. The cooperative was started to bring peace and prosperity to the region, providing a positive alternative to rebel fighters, poachers and the economically deprived. 

Essentially "trading conflict for coffee." 

Read more! at http://africanconfidential.com/?p=1238
The co-operative includes struggling farming families, war widows, women who are victims of rape and torture, and ex-rebel soldiers who have laid down their weapons, all hoping to make a better life growing coffee.

And so we have become a peace initiative as well.
Shit really IS changing the world.







watch this video
CPNCK Film 2
http://vimeo.com/73475618




Meanwhile, our heartfelt thanks go out to Elaine Schimer, from Florida, who heard about our initiative while visiting Rwanda earlier this year, and provided the funding to deliver 36 sheep to a small co-operative of Twa- traditionally forest dwelling hunters- who have agreed to leave Volcanoes National Park and take up farming instead.

And, three days ago, we participated in the tagging of over 280 goats for a co-operative near Nyungwe National Park, thanks to some generous donors back home.

jeff is the pied piper!

show me 10 fingers!

connecting name and number

receiving the tag for their sheep

signing the contract

And the next day we met with our next Nyungwe co-operative, an industrious and motivated group who requested pigs, as sheep and goats do not do as well in their location.

Spreading Awareness Of Our Sh*t...

We entered a contest this past summer, to garner some attention for TSSH. Out of more than 350 entries

we were one of 4 finalists!

While we didn't win, thousands of people around the world had a chance to read about us. The feedback was awesome.

MEET RITA RAYMAN—G PROJECT FINALIST
by DANIEL SENDECKI SEPTEMBER 10, 2013     

This week, the Looptail is coming to you live from outside the gates of Costa Rica’s Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio from our first-ever Summit in the Jungle.

Rita and other finalists with G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip

Each day, we’re profiling a different visionary whose world-changing ideas earned them one of four spots at the Summit — and a shot at winning $25,000 to fund their vision. Today, we’re proud to introduce Canada’s Rita Rayman.

Rita pitches her Shit

G Project Finalist Rita Rayman, Toronto
The Shit Starts Here

This program has already affected the lives of more than 30,000 people through providing sheep and goats to farmers in Africa. Theye provide sheep to co-operatives of subsistence farmers in order to compost the manure into fertilizer, which in turn increases crop yields. In addition, as the sheep reproduce, excess sheep can be sold for income and life advancement such as health care, educational needs and home improvement. 

Additionally, a stable community helps to guarantee the protection and conservation of nearby parks, forests and wildlife, including mountain gorillas, chimpanzees and other endangered primates. If there is enough food on the table and money to buy cooking fuel, there is no need to go poaching. Potential also exists for other income-generating activities such as milk, cheese, wool, and felt production.
Working with established cooperatives, they provide each farmer with a female sheep as well as males for studding. 
Once the farmer has his quota of females, he returns the next sheep to the project, which is then passed on to a farmer in another cooperative.


It’s like micro-finance, but the currency is sheep, and the loan is interest-free.


They carefully track the number of members we’re working with, as well as the number of sheep being delivered and the subsequent births.
As they gave the initial farmers the benefit of opportunity, so those farmers are now turning around and giving that same opportunity to other members of their community, in other cooperatives, lifting as they rise. 
The cycle perpetuates itself as Rita and Jeff continue to provide new sheep to new cooperatives in addition to those being passed on by previous cooperatives.
"Ours is a love story that’s full of shit"
a simple, transparent, scalable, sustainable community-building, income-generating, conservation initiative that fosters dignity and independence. 

Having already established themselves in Rwanda, Northern Uganda and Bhutan, and knowing that the concept works, they are focusing on moving into Eastern Congo, as well as hoping to establish initiatives in India, Southeast Asia and South America.

Behind the idea: Rita Rayman
Born and living in Toronto, Canada, Rita Rayman has more than 20 years of travel under her belt, “exploring most of this awesome, precious planet and the wondrous variety of people who call it home”. Along with her husband Jeff, she’s also taken notice of the suffering of both the people and the planet, and was moved moved to do something about it on a grassroots level.

Writes Rita:
We wanted to avoid the political and social corruption, as well as the administrative corruption and overhead that we had seen cripple the best efforts of so many seemingly worthy projects in so many different countries. We also wanted to avoid the inflated egos and saviour complexes that arise in so many NGO groups we had encountered. In an age of chaos and change, we recognize that there is no ‘other’. There is only ‘us’—a global family.

Having been long-time fundraisers, volunteers and activists, comfortable on ‘the road less traveled’, and semi-retired empty-nesters, Rita and Jeff founded The Guardian Project foundation, with a mission to facilitate opportunity through direct, grassroots interaction with indigenous peoples, working with them in their journey to self-sustaining independence, and encouraging them to be pro-active participants in community and country. They place special emphasis on the importance of women, as they are the backbone of a healthy functioning social structure. In their work, they “utilize local wisdom and resources rather than relying on western notions and should-isms”.

More Pictoral Sh*t...

100 subsistence farmers, representing the first third of the Kamdini Cooperative, received their goats recently.

As we previously stated, Kamdini is a particularly neglected area near Gulu, on the edge of Murchison Falls National Park and Budongo Forest (home to incredible families of chimpanzees that we had the privilege of experiencing on our last trip in February, 2013).

Facilitating this community's efforts to better their circumstances will help to ensure the conservation of the wildlife inside this forest and park, especially significant as Kony and the LRA decimated the animal population for food and target practice during their terror campaign.

Here are some photos to mark the occasion.

We look forward to seeing many pregnant females when we visit in October.

 

tags ready to be applied to goats' ears

 

Solomon conducts  project sensitization...one last review of project outline

 signing the contract with thumb print

 

 members of the Kamdini Cooperative receiving locally sourced goats

 

 the shit starts here...

High Altitude Sh*t...

We've spread the sh*t to the Himalayas- Bhutan to be exact.

While it's on a much smaller scale, and involving using already present horse manure, we have enlightened the members of Phajoding monastery, it's Lama and a large group of young monks to the possibilities of high altitude farming enhanced by manure as fertilizer.

Thanks to the internet, we were able to send information and links to sites about composting, fertilizer, high altitude farming etc and wire the money necessary to buy initial seeds and rudimentary tools.

Lama Namgay, has introduced regular organic gardening sessions, teaching the monks "the art of composting and an appreciation of nature"

turnips, sprouts and other assorted greens and simple vegetables need a shorter growing season and seem to be able to survive the harsher conditions.

The local government has since visited the project and, impressed with the monks' initiative, gave more equipment and seeds from the list we supplied them.

They have since expanded their vegetable garden.

 We are excited to return, hopefully one day soon.

 

Shit Happens...Even When We're Not There...

Thanks to Paul, Solomon and Esther, the past few weeks have seen a flurry of activity for The Shit Starts Here, both in Rwanda and Uganda.

 In northern Rwanda we have completed our work with the 740+ members of the Amizero Cooperative with the delivery of 187 female sheep and 35 males.

Paul, as always, must be commended on his commitment and patience, as the reality of tagging and distributing such a large number of sheep takes HOURS, even with the help of the reps from the Rwandan Development Board.

And we continue to work with the 1,000+ members of the Women's Cooperative, recently delivering 207 female sheep and 42 males. 

In southern Rwanda we are officially up and running in the Nyungwe area, home to the largest concentration of primates in all of Africa.

The first Cooperative we are working with is the 241 member Nyungwe Nziza Project. 

We met the leaders of the groups that make up the cooperative back in February, 2013.

 

They are, like every cooperative we've worked with, ready and eager, to have the opportunity to work hard to improve their circumstances and create the same opportunity for other members of their community.

And we welcome Zebulon, a young Rwandan veterinarian, who will be overseeing operations there, under Paul's guidance.

 Zebulon

 

As I write, roughly 120 sheep and goats are being sourced locally to provide the first half of the cooperative with animals.

Stay tuned for photos.

 Meanwhile, in northern Uganda, we have begun working with the Barlonyo Cooperative, made up mostly of survivors of the Joseph Kony lead massacre of over 300 men, women and children.

The scarcity of sheep and goats in the area meant that we had to bring them in by truck, sourcing from nearby markets, which still produces a trickle-down effect in the larger community.

Distribution of the first 100 animals was assisted by the Rotary Club of nearby Lira and coordinated to coincide with their AIDS/HIV testing so that the farmers only had to make the long walk once.

Next up, we begin sourcing sheep and goats for the community in Kamdini, living on the edge of Murchison Falls National Park and near Budongo Forest, so once again we are aware that anything that helps stabilize the communities outside these parks helps to ensure the welfare of the animals inside.

People Really Give A Sh*t...

We made some very big promises when we were in Rwanda and Uganda back in February, guaranteeing that they would not be false and that we would not disappoint. 

Then we did the math.

Roughly 2000 sheep and goats promised.
More than we had delivered in our two and a half years!

Plus tags, meds and vets.

Holy sh*t! 

But thanks to some 

INCREDIBLY GENEROUS FRIENDS AND BUSINESS ASSOCIATES, 

...and slews of phone calls, emails and meetings...

Jeff did it!
Our most heartfelt thanks go out, on behalf of the countless men, women and children, to all these mensches for their bountiful kindness!
We look forward to seeing you in Rwanda and/or Uganda when the wanderlust calls!

And So The Sh*t Begins In Uganda...

 

Solomon and Esther, are our new general managers of Uganda Operations for The Shit Starts Here.

Being new to the project and having to understand, interpret and refine our existing model to Ugandan dynamics was a challenge they embraced with gusto.

The opportunity to start small as we ironed out any kinks was most welcomed by all of us.

Jeff and I were sad to not be there with them.

They recently sent reports and pictures of this first foray into Uganda. 

The 20 members of The Elders Of Ober Barr cooperative received 19 goats and 5 sheep the week before last.

As the women are older and weak, their orphaned grandchildren agreed to dig the compost pits and and do all manual labour associated with creation/spreading of fertilizer.

Animals were, once again, sourced locally, benefiting members of the extended community.

Next up, 100 members of the cooperative of a former Internally Displaced People's Camp (IDP) in Barlonyo and 100 members of Kamdini cooperative, perhaps the most troubled and neglected place, abandoned by the community due to its strategic location as an LRA hideout.