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Sukulwenkosi Dube, Plumtree Correspondent
IN a rare show of enterprise at a young age, pupils from Empandeni Primary in Mangwe district have started a Young Farmers’ Club, which has ventured into poultry production in a bid to assist their less privileged peers.
Thabisile Nyathi, a Grade 7 pupil who is also the club chairperson said they had 270 birds (layers), which produced about 210 eggs a day and 1,470 eggs per week.
The eggs were being sold at $3,50 per tray, she said.
“We’ve a Young Farmers Club comprising 41 pupils from Grade 1 to Grade 4 classes who’re involved in egg production. When we started last year in July we had 330 birds and now we’ve 270,” said Thabisile.
“We started the project last year and formed the club officially in February after our project started taking shape.’’
Thabisile said her team had so far managed to buy stationery for orphaned and vulnerable children using proceeds from the lucrative project.
She said the club was in the process of raising more money to help in paying school fees for their disadvantaged peers.
Raymond Khumalo, the club’s secretary, said they sold their produce to villagers in the surrounding community.
He said all members of the club had received training on how to nurture the chickens to ensure their sustenance.
“We’re allocated time after our lessons to feed the chickens, clean the fowl run and collect the eggs. We do this on a daily basis. During school holidays we’ve a schedule where we visit the school to perform these duties,’’ he said with a smile.
Raymond said when they started the project most of the members were not properly trained on nurturing the birds, which resulted in the death of some chickens.
The project is being funded by a non- governmental organisation, Caritas Archdiocese of Bulawayo.
Caritas development coordinator, Welcome Sibanda, said his organisation launched the project in a bid to empower orphaned and vulnerable children who ended up dropping out of school because of unpaid fees.
He said the project also sought to equip pupils with various agriculture skills.
Sibanda said the egg project was running concurrently with another farming project at the school.
“We purchased cages for the pupils and we gave them 303 chickens to moot the project at the school. We’ve also introduced drip irrigation farming project at the school,” he said.
“We also supplied 200 less privileged children from the school with two goats each. The beneficiaries were tasked with the duty of rearing the goats from their homes to ensure that they reproduce. While we’re assisting less privileged children we’re also equipping primary pupils with farming skills in a bid to nurture entrepreneurs.”
Sibanda said in the long run the egg production project would generate money to pay school fees for orphaned children at the school.
He said his organisation had also launched piggery, broiler production and egg production projects in five other schools in Bulilima District.
Online Reporter