Poultry Project Adds to Dietary Diversity
In addition to all her other farming achievements, Angela is raising chickens! She and her community have come a long way since the program began in their area. A baseline survey found that nearly half of the households were food insecure; most children were fed only rice porridge; and families overall lacked dietary diversity and did not get enough calories per day.
Since then, farming families have received a great deal of training, in:
• production, processing, and storage of maize
• vegetable production
• manual irrigation systems for vegetable farming
• making organic pesticides and fertilizer
• home gardening
And raising chickens. Because they don’t take a long time to reproduce and can provide protein from both the meat and the eggs, Angela opted to participate in the training sessions on poultry.
She says, “Added to all the other training, monitoring and support we’ve received from Church World Service, having this source of protein and potential income is a huge motivation. Our children are healthier now that they have a more varied diet. We all feel confident in our skill and knowledge. Not only do we know how to raise chicks, we know how to prepare their feed. That’s a huge savings.”
She adds, “Since one of the aims of the poultry project is to sell chickens and eggs, I look after my chickens carefully so I can reach the goal I set for improving my family’s circumstances.”
Angela wants supporters to know she feels very lucky to be a part of this program in her community.
Timor-Leste Liquica Program
Led by Church World Service