PROJECT FUNDING PROPOSAL
FOR A COMMUNITY (WIDOWS) PROJECT. ESTIMATED AT= GRAND TOTAL=2,000 USD
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Barut Division is situated to the Southern side of Nakuru town and borders Lake Nakuru National park to the west about 12 kilometers from Nakuru town.
The project will involve buying chicken for widows. The women will take care of the poultry and then later when they have reproduced to a good number (one year's time) the beneficiaries of the project will be expected to donate one chick each to another widowed household. This will ensure the project is self sustaining and make the community feel they own the project.
The inhabitants of Barut Division and surrounding areas mainly consist of low to medium income earners since it is a peri-urban area. Most of the residents engage in subsistence farming, keeping livestock and crop farming. The area has good soil for farming/agriculture but the rainfall is seasonal and erratic. Widowed households in the area have in the past years relied on children and well wishers to sustain their livelihoods. This has lead to high dependency ratios that has negated development and lead to children dropping out of schools in order to support their families. Well wishers have also been discouraged since the high dependency ratios have exhausted their funds and most of the projects they have established are not self sustaining.
The area has been experiencing low and erratic rainfall. Being a peri-urban area, it is also experiencing a population explosion coupled with land fragmentation that has also amplified the current problems of widowed households since they are unable to engage in any productive farming activity. The small fragmented pieces of land and the meager harvest from the farms does not sustain the increasing population leading to food insecurity and worsening the poverty echelon.
The current partnership with the community is to try to provide a means of livelihood to the widows that they can easily manage on their own and that is self sustaining. Chicken production is likely to be more viable than other forms of farming since it consumes less space, requires less capital, little/no operational costs and easy to mange since it doesn't require technical skills.
High dependency ratios of widows on children, relatives and well wishers pose a great challenge. This poses a challenge on food security and nutrition of households as well as incomes which they have relied for generations
One of the solutions to the problem that is facing widows of Barut Division is ensuring households have a means of generating their own income. The project will also ensure that the widows can also practice small scale poultry farming which will enable the widows improve food security of their households and also enable households to earn income through sale of surplus produce.
IMPLEMENTATION
The Rotary club of Nakuru will oversee the project, club members will implement the project from inception and follow-up to the completion of the project and come up with a completion report.
The project will target 100 widows in Barut Division with each widow expected to get 20 USD for purchasing four chicken
The management committee will identify the most vulnerable widows in the community so that they can roll out the program based on needs assessment basis.
Follow up will be done by the management committee and the project is expected to be self sustaining since beneficiaries will be expected to donate a chick to another widow after a year or so.
Once a substantial number of widows have been helped, they shall also be trained on some more income generating activities such as kitchen gardening and table banking hence improve on household food security and also be able to earn income through sale of surplus produce from their home gardens.
CONCLUSION
We are requesting for the support towards funding of the chicken project to enable us improve the livelihoods of widows of the community living in Barut Division hence make this world a better place to be in future. Any donation we receive, we shall receipt and scan to the person, group, institution or organization that made the donation.
Thank you and May God bless you.
|