Indigenous Chicken Rearing

Focus on Poverty Reduction and Development (FOPRAD)

Director General

other: Social Enterprise

food security, poverty reduction , sustainable trade, empowerment of women, youth, other: Development Motivation

2011

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Our goal is to eradicate absolute poverty in Zambian communities by creating decent employment and helping people to implement sustainable income generating projects using simple, cheap, but effective methods before 2055. To achieve this goal we have set the following objectives: 1. To empower the communities with resources and skills in sustainable agro production and marketing; 2. To create employment; 3. To seek favorable markets within and outside Zambia; 4. To carry out research works to generate more knowledge; 5.  and to provide consultancy services. Guided by the set of objectives above, we approach our goal by targeting the most deprived communities first. Currently we are operating in Sinazongwe district which is 90% rural with more than 70% of its population living below the poverty line.  Our project is designed to train and empower the targets as individuals to prevent individual selfish motives from impeding progress. we believe that it is a human right that all humans should live above the poverty line, therefore our approach empowers the targets with skills in agro production and marketing after which we provide them with seed stock. In the case of indigenous chickens we provide four hens and a cock. We monitor our beneficiaries to ensure success. When the chickens reproduce we demand back our seed stock together with five more chickens to enable us train and empower other beneficiaries until every household in the community benefits. Instead of providing handout as some organisations do, we train our beneficiaries how to make their own income. In other words, we teach them how to fish, and then show them the road to the river with the worm and a hook. In the future we intend to introduce other developmental projects such as fish farming, organic agriculture, piggery, turkey and duck rearing.

Our projects are designed to benefit the target communities, without tempering with the environment. In fact the indigenous chicken rearing project introduces the use of organic fertilisers in that chicken manure improves soil structure and enable crops to grow at no cost compared to artificial fertilizers. We work to improve the quality of life in target communities Without depriving the future Generation of their access to a health environment. we empower the targets in such a way that leaves no room for them to continue in poverty, we realise that the provision of handouts alone Causes the beneficiaries to develop a dependence syndrome, also the provision of Skill straining alone without providing seed capital does not inspire the target groups to take steps of improving their lives. from this analysis we have designed a holistic approach to Community development in which the target groups are provided with both skills training and seed capital as well as monitoring and evaluation services to ensure that they start their own personal projects with little or no chance of failure. In the light of this,Our Social Enterprise is greatly contributing towards sustainable development.

Our project generates it's own income while empowering the communities. This means that our projects will keep running even without external financial support. Unlike other NGOs which entirely depend on donor support, we depend on our own abilities to generate sustainable income to meet our ruining costs. in addition to this our method of community empowerment is that which enhances the target's ability to initiate, develop and sustain their own projects. We intend to scale up and reach every poverty community in Zambia before 2055, we shall eliminate absolute poverty in Zambia by creating employment through our strategic production, processing and marketing. Also through sustainable community development. In the next two years as we raise the sufficient capital needed, we intend to introduce other developmental projects such as fish farming, market gardening without the use of artificial fertilisers ( bio intensive agriculture ), piggery, turkey and duck rearing among others. These will ensure that we generate sufficient funds to run our activities towards the attainment of our objects. In the future as Our beneficiaries scale up their production of indigenous chickens we know there will be less demand of chickens in local markets because almost every household will have them. At that time we will start buying their chickens at a good price and process them before marketing them as dressed village chicken in our own sales outlet called the FOPRAD Green Foundation,a chain store which we intend to open as soon as we scale up our production. we shall have sales outlets through out Zambia and even expand to other parts of Africa, creating a large number of decent Jobs in the process.

Am aged 28 and am the Founder & Director of Focus on Poverty Reduction and Development(FOPRAD). I Studied theology at Mapepe Bible College(Certificate) and Social work at the University of Zambia(Bachelor degree).   Inspired by my experience while working with the poor communities, I dreamed of a better Zambia where no one lives in absolute poverty, It was then that the idea of FOPRAD was born. It was formed using funds generated from the contribution of membership fees among the founding members($150 each). Our goal is to eliminate absolute poverty in Zambian communities before 2055 through the implementation of sustainable low capital but high income projects using simple yet highly effective and locally accessible methods while also teaching our beneficiaries to do so. Currently we are running an indigenous Chicken multiplication project in which we train the local communities skills in indigenous chicken breeding and marketing after which we provide them with seed stock together with mentorship, monitoring and evaluation services to ensure that they start their own projects in their homes with minimal chances of failure. presently we have managed to train and empower 40 households since 2012. In the future we intend to expand our community service program by introducing several other developmental projects such as fish farming, market gardening without the use of artificial fertilisers ( bio intensive agriculture ), piggery, ducks as well as turkey rearing among others.   Having accomplish the above, we have been awarded the 2014 Social Entrepreneurs Transforming Africa ( SET AFRICA ) innovation award by Makerere University Business School in Uganda in conjunction with USAID, International Youth Foundation, Youth Action Net and the Mastercard foundation.