Kidan Feleke had kept indigenous chickens for a while, but they did not produce many eggs. In the first part of our St Mathews Childrens Fund (SMCF) success series, Kidan tells her story of  how SMCF helped her change this.

When she became pregnant with her son Shawel, her family needed to find extra income to ensure her son grew up healthy and well. It was then that members of the community recommended her for training in poultry management, which is provided by JeCCDO thanks to funding from SMCF. After her training she was given a chicken and cockerel of an improved breed which lays more and bigger eggs, and help in building hen houses to keep her chickens safe from predators.

“Now I am trained I know better how to keep poultry and how to protect them.” By using a local chicken as a brood mother, she was able to hatch 18 chickens, which have then gone on the produce further chickens. “Every day I collect about 4 or 5 eggs, and when a hen stops laying; then we have a fowl for the pot.” Thanks to the eggs, Shawel has grown into a delightful and healthy two-year old who loves chasing the chickens round the family’s enclosed yard. Kidan also uses the eggs to sell, or to pass on to other neighbours who also want to keep chickens. “Five people now breed the improved poultry because I have been able to pass on my eggs and my knowledge too. Now the community has plenty of eggs for food or for income.”

Andrew one of the FMNA team will be running in the upcoming “Run To The Beat” half marathon in London (27th Sep. 2009 ) in aid of SMCF Ethiopia and also The Dublin Marathon on the 26th October 2009.

We would appreciate your kind support for this great cause, just click on the link below.

Their work assists the poorest urban slum communities, enabling them to improve the welfare of their most vulnerable children, many of whom have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDs. This is achieved through social and economic projects which include; payments to carers (usually the orphan’s relatives), business skills training and start up loans, urban agriculture, health and sanitation and educational support.

Andrew one of the FMNA team will be running in the upcoming “Run To The Beat” half marathon in London (27th Sep. 2009 ) in aid of SMCF Ethiopia and also The Dublin Marathon on the 26th October 2009.

We would appreciate your kind support for this great cause, just click on the link below.

Thanks
FMNA Team and SMCF Ethiopia

ForgetMeNot Africa aims to try and help their great work in Ethiopia, but first here is a taste of what it is all about an how it all started…..

The partnership was established in direct response to the large number of children abandoned in the wake of the terrible famine and civil war in the mid 1980s. Given the huge numbers of orphans separated from their families the best means of saving lives at the time was to care for them in children’s homes.

By the 1990s the children were growing up and the economic and political situation in Ethiopia was becoming stable. So in 1996 JeCCDO launched a programme to reunify children with their extended families and to reintegrate the older children

in the community through training them and providing the initial resources with which to start their chosen business or career.

JeCCDO was the first organisation in Ethiopia to implement integrated child centered community development. It continues to do this today by working with the poorest urban slum communities, enabling them to improve the welfare of their most vulnerable children, many of whom have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDs. This is achieved through social and economic projects which include; payments to carers (usually the orphan’s relatives), business skills training and start up loans, urban agriculture, health and sanitation and educational support. Carers are supported for a two year period during which time they are supported to generate income to ensure they do not become dependent on assistance. The vast majority of carers go on to achieve this, allowing JeCCDO to help more orphans.

It has been a great success story – read more about how our work is changing lives at www.smcfethiopia.org

ForgetMeNot Africa will be adding updates about SMCF Ethiopia and telling you how you can assist in this the 25 anniversary of the Ethiopian Famine.