Lisa Hardel and I had an amazing trip to the 4 village’s (Lusanje, Kandete, Masebe, Ndala,) that One Small Drop is working with. It was exciting to see the progress of the 4 women’s groups in the Livingstone Mountains. “ Lukamanda” (the first 2 letters of the community names) is the name of the group formed by the women as an organization. Lukamanda has been overseeing the orphan uniform project and the pig project. To date 226 orphan uniforms have been sewn by a local tailor. That means 226 children are now going to school that were previously unable to. We had the privilege of hand delivering the uniforms in Lusanje and Kandete (picture).
Another incredible milestone was seeing the completion of the pig centers. Each of the 4 centers has one male and 5 female pigs. Most of the females have been bred and are expecting piglets in the next couple months. At Lukamanda’s meeting they decided that piglets will be given away to prioritized widows that apply for the pigs. The center will breed the piglet. All the babies from that pig will be returned to the center. The widow then has discretion over any future litters. She may choose to raise them for food or sell them at the market. The center then has a supply of piglets to pass out to other widow applicants. It is a gift that keeps on giving. It is anticipated that over 200 piglets will be distributed over the first year!
There are also 2 new ideas for One Small Drop to expand into…I will explain next week.
PS. One Small Drop has a new web site address http://onesmalldrop.net. The site is still being worked on, but accessible.
