Letter from Mama

The October Newsletter is the month we start thinking about providing schooling for the very poor children in Muhanga. In the past, beginning in 2009, we were blessed to be able to provide school supplies for 369 children seeing them through Primary school. Those children have all finished Primary School and now there is a new group needing our help.

In order to know where the help is most needed we have connected with the Village leaders (Mudugudu). They can identify the children from very poor families who will not go to school without help. With Urukundo Learning Center and your help we are able to reach out and offer education to children who would not go to school and offer them a good educational foundation and environment.  $15 is still the amount to provide for a needy child. Help make a difference. A check to Hope Made Real PO Box 3222, Williamsport, Pa 17701 will make a difference in the life of a child. Mark the check: Education in the memo.  Or you can donate online through the 'Donate Now' link on this page.  Mark 'education' in the notes field.  Thank you.

THE FARM

October 19 saw the birth of a new baby girl calf. We are always pleased when the baby is a girl.  We now have 3 milking cows and two girl calves.

This new baby means more milk for the kids and to sell.

Greetings from Urukundo Village - April 2014

April is a very happy month for Urukundo and for me. My kids are home from boarding school and Urukundo village is alive with activity of a different sort. Teenagers do make a distinctive noise!

THE CHILDRENS FARM

Meet Charlie goat and his companion Matilda.

Matilda

Charlie and Matilda are milk producing goats. Well, maybe Charlie doesn’t produce milk but he and Matilda together produce babies and if they are girls they will produce milk. We are moving away from goats for meat only toward goats for milk and milk products. This is new and rather interseting. I did not know there was a difference. I learn something new every day.

Enjoy our newsletter this month, and the updates on our all our education initiatives.  It is my hope that many will come on board and help build our school, keep the dental program going and encourage education for needy children in Rwanda. Gifts can be any size. There is no such thing as a small gift. Funds are needed and much appreciated.

You can donate online, or by check to the address below:

HMR

Po Box 3222

Williamsport Pa. 17701

USA

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Mama Arlene

Gardening Adventures

Gardening in Urukundo Village is a bit different, but our volunteers were very interested in agriculture and one of our teachers was game. It is back breaking work but well worth the pain.  Well that is my thought but I only watch! Building kitchen gardens requires a certain amount of skill and a lot of back breaking labor.

Tools are make-do using what we have available.

Nothing stopped our volunteers from completing the task!

Nina, and the two Carols hard at work.

Cloth animal feed sacks, 2 foot sticks whittled to a point by Carol Baney, a hammer, a machete or large knife and a desire to play in the dirt are the requirements most needed to build a Kitchen Garden.

The Farm

The need for more manure for the biogas for cooking and more milk for the children was a challenge.  Thanks to you out there enough money came so we could find a good breed and bring her home.

Flossie has come to take care of both problems.

THANK YOU, to all who contributed to covering the cost for obtaining this necessary addition to our farm. She is ½ paid for. God in charge. The rest will come.

She is beautiful.  I do mean the cow.

The Farm

Our gardens and the animals are helping feed our children and provide nutrition for our school children.  We also have produce to sell to the community - vegetables, milk & eggs.

Here's our January 2014 farmyard inventory:

2 milk cows & 2 calves.

1 male pig.

1 pregnant sow.

1 new mother with 9 piglets.

1 young sow.

We have 64 rabbits producing. These are used for food and are sold to buyers.

The chicken project is awesome!

The last big chicken house is completed. A septic system is in place, a chicken tiller and our incubator are successful.

We have:

Layers- 200 for eggs production.

Broilers- 300  2 1/2 month old.

Chicks- 300 month old and 300 baby chicks.

It is our goal to purchase 200 day old chicks and to sell 200 full grown Broilers each month. 

Our broilers are sold to hotels and restaurants. After 3 ½ months.

Another source of Revenue.  We are trying to help ourselves. It is all a learning process.

The Farm

Planting & Harvesting

December is when our gardens grow. This year the rains have been perfect. A beautiful lush green picture which has been hard work but worth every second.

Kitchen Garden cabbage this year. We rotate crops. Most of our seeds for this planting came from friends in New Ringgold PA and we are very grateful!

Corn & beans

Flowers make the gardens even more lovely.

The Animals

Our papa pig did a fine job.  Mama gave birth to 9 babies.

From the Farm

Christmas dinner for the Urukundo Family. These turkeys are a gift from Bruce and Margie Krogh and family. I really like buying them at the supermarket already dressed or undressed how ever you look at it. I don't like getting to know the birds on a first name basis. Oh the life of a farmer.

Bruce and Margie Krogh and some of their family from the US  are going to spend Christmas with the children at Urukundo. The Krogh family have taken Urukundo on as their Christmas project and are making Christmas special for our kids. We are so excited!

Urukundo's kids are preparing a program to present to our guests.

There will be a time of worship, the children will present songs of the seasons and a play about the arrival of the Christ Child.

They are practicing "AWAY IN A MANGER", "JINGLE BELLS", "HAVE A JOLLY HOLLY CHRISTMAS" and a few others. Such fun.

Jenny will play the baby in the presentation as Jacob at 10 months old would object, much like Johnny did several years ago. Johnny is five now.

Pictures will be in the December Newsletter and some on Facebook.

News from the Farm

June brought a wonderful team from State College to the children's farm - Joanne, Paul, Kira and Dave.

They worked wonders at the farm. The silage project included farmers from the community.

What a team!

The Agriculture Team enjoyed the children and worked very hard making improvements on the farm.

Paul with double trouble - Agide and Kenny.

Two Davids - best buddies.

Project Chicken Tiller

This tiller house for chickens is on wheels and can be easily moved. it is my understanding that it is not only good for the chickens but fertilizes the land for future planting.

The chickens are happy. They like scratching in the dirt.

The kids think the new house for chickens is great.

Claude and Becca inspecting the new project. They approve.

Project Pigs

The children at Saint Pauls UMC State College Sunday School class made buying our kids a new male pig their project.

With the money they collected we were able to purchase a male and also a female pig. Our kids at Urukundo send their thanks!

(Date on the camera is acting up again).

Kids inspect the new papa pigs.

The boys walked with me on my morning inspection - Soso and Claude peer in at the fence opening.

The Farm

Rework was done on the protective fences this month which you can see in the pictures.

 

When does one cow equal two cows?

Well, I found out it is better to feed one cow giving 22 liters of milk a day, than to feed two cows, one giving 8 liters a day and the other giving none since insemination did not seem to work for her.  Not even a visit from a male friend worked. Yes, the manure is more for Bio-gas production but the food is also much more costly.

The new farm manager Eugene is very aware, and wants our animal farm to become a successful source of revenue. And so it was decided to sell the 2 unproductive cows and with the money buy a single productive cow.  We now have two cows instead of three.

Making sure you are getting what you are paying for is interesting. Our manager visited the prospective cow when least expected and sat through the milking in order to verify that she did give 22 liters of good milk every day. Only after several weeks of checking did he OK the purchase. She is a much bigger cow and provides the milk needed for our kids with 5 liters of milk available for sale.   

Our milk provider. No name. I find it better not to name the anmals so I greet her in the morning with a pat on the white spot and a "Hello Cow". She doessn't seem to mind one bit.

Mama cow # 1 gave birth in February to a female calf.

So even though two cows are gone we still have two cows and a calf.

News to come: report on the chicken part of our farm next month.