Dear Friends,
May passed by without a newsletter and we are in July and enjoying the welcome return of visitors and volunteers. One reason for this delay is that so much has been keeping us busy here as you will see from the reports below but let’s start with cheering photos of the possible future Tiko crew.
HEALTHY, ALERT CHILDREN OF THE EARLY EDUCATION GROUP
Warm jumpers and cardigans are just what is needed here when everyone shivers through the cold season. Our thanks to Peter Keeling and the busy knitters in Guernsey. The effects of the early learning programme show in their healthy smiling faces.
AFFORABLE CHICKEN FEED – NOT EASY TO COME BY
Inspired by what we had learned in Uganda we returned to Tiko determined to put it into practice. As the report of Tiko Open Day in the last newsletter showed, we were well on the way to success with our maggot breeding and azolla growing programmes, but both have a rest period during the present cold season. Guernsey Great Hall has been adapted to provide rooms for the machines to produce chicken feed, but an extra storeroom must still be attached to it. There is still room for a sizable conference hall in the remaining space.
Guernsey Great Hall ─ work in progress left to right ─ a new doorway, machine room and store room.
Our chickens are doing well but to ensure maximum production more feed must be produced, and this relies on temperatures of 27°-33° C for the black soldier flies to produce maggots and AZOLLA don’t like the bad cold either – climate change everywhere.
Hydroponic maize growing is going well but limited as we have not yet got the greenhouse – fodder does not like temperatures over 23 degrees, then fungus may develop, so we are waiting for the construction.
CROWDFUNDING TO THE RESCUE? ONGING CAMPAIGN
Farmers in Katete District Zambia rely on their crops to feed their families and livestock, but climate change has changed the only rainy season in Zambia into a guessing game. This season again a lot of seedlings were lost, because after a promising start the rains stopped then resumed for a longer period. This was detrimental for many farmers. Keeping chickens can provide a source of high protein food, but the factors mentioned above make keeping healthy chickens a real challenge. Tiko wants to change this as our crowdfunding text shows.
Challenge: To date we have raised €2,043 of our €5,255 goal. To donate visit the GlobalGiving site on Internet: With chickenfeed against climate change & poverty.
Summary: Many subsistence farmers keep a few chickens which lay few eggs and have a high death rate. This situation could be improved if they kept improved breeds of Village Chickens, but it is impossible for subsistence farmers provide them with quality food, plus the additional factor of inflation driving up the price of crops and thus of chickenfeed. The challenge is to produce a sufficient volume of affordable chickenfeed for Tiko’s chickens and cheap feed for sale to the many surrounding farmers and those further afield.
Solution: Our chickenfeed will save land, water, labour and energy and our proincludes the water plant Azolla and the maggots of the black soldier fly that thrive on chicken manure and maize bran or decaying food waste. Chickens thrive on these and hydroponically produced fodder derived from sprouted grain crops also provide excellent feed for various other farm animals. We have some 500 hens to feed and there are many potential buyers of feed. For chopping, mixing and pellets making we need 3 machines.
Long-Term Impact
The machines with the new methods will help Tiko to produce chickenfeed that is much cheaper than the commercial feeds and Tiko, with its 75 volunteer workers, will survive the loss of income from its lodge due to covid and get closer to sustainability. Tiko will also be able to teach interested farmers. Both activities will lead to better nutrition especially for children and provide a relief from poverty and malnutrition in the country and further away from climate change. Please help us!
VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers have been helping Tiko enormously. Rey, who came in January stayed for 3 months and in our previous newsletter explained why he had introduced Tiko DONORSEE, an NGO in the USA. Using videos from needy people, Donor See appeals for individual help for specific needs. Until Rey came Tiko had never made a video, but now there is a crew of writers and producers. Genevieve came in March and did various jobs, but the most valuable of these was successfully teaching our accountant Vera to make efficient use of Excel.
Next came Alejandra Bolaños from Columbia/Costa Rica and Thibault from France, who met in Columbia and want to start their own NGO soon. They were also fantastic helpers, with two grant applications and all the paperwork for our exhibition at the Katete Agricultural Show. A really useful collection of illustrations.
Our wonderful couple Alejandra and Thibault are leaving. We are sorry to lose them. The nightwatchmen Boniface and Charles are with u waiting for the bus which was only 15 minutes late.
BRR !
Joyce, holding two puppies. Kittie, the all brown one, is mine but she is so small that she can squeeze out of all our kennels, I am not taking her inside my house as there are too many attractions. She is going back where she came from until she is fatter and can’t wriggle out so, I have to wait another 4 weeks for her. Joyce it dressed for the temperatures and once it gets dark.
Tizione and many more Tiko members are happy with the bale of blankets we bought. Here climate change seems to mean that the cold season is growing even colder especially during the longer darker nights.
All I can say is that we can’t complain, since with the whole world the problems of climate change damage and inflation. So, we just keep smiling and with you and all your support we believe that WE SHALL OVERCOME.
Yours ever
Elke and the Crew
– For donation information please have a look on ‘Support Tiko‘, Global Giving or our fundraising page at DonorSee –