Wings of Hope Chicken Project

Wings of Hope is what we named our project to bring hope to the poor by giving them a way out of poverty through helping them start a micro-enterprise. Micro-enterprise is one of the best ways to bring people out of poverty especially when it is combined with training. We are toying with the idea of a cooperative to train its members and to acquire better prices for the buying of grain and selling of chickens. We could just give them the money to start up, but chances are that after a few weeks the money would be gone, leaving them with no source of income. So we must take care how we give, so that they learn to help themselves after we are gone, and not just to be fed for a day.

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."
Chinese Proverb

I have come up with and just about finished the prototype for the chicken coop. The idea of the coop is to protect the chickens from the things that can harm them in this area. Dogs will kill the chickens. Many families own a dog. Also, dogs roam the streets, and could come into the often unfenced yards and make off with chickens. Neighbors can also be a problem as they steal the fat juicy chickens that wander into their sight. The birds also need protection from the elements, mostly the sun and the rain. But, on the other hand, they need lots of fresh air so the coop design, in this hot climate, must be as open as possible.

This coop should last ten years; and if a family wants to quit the project, the coop will go to another family.

I am going to give you some of the details so that you can maybe build a similar one of your own. It is about 2 meters (7 feet) wide and 3.25 meters long (11 feet long).

 This is what holds the 3/4 inch pipe (actually the pipe is 3/4 inch on the inside and 1 inch outside). A bolt goes through the black pipe to hold it from coming out and the wood on either side keeps it straight. Bolts on both sides hold the two boards firmly together. The bolt shaft is only a 1/4 inch wide and does not weaken the pipe.

 The volunteers left to right: Me, Norb, and Timmy who just had his fourth birthday!

From above

 Using wire to tie the pipe on the the holder. The corner is good and strong.

I took three pieces of chicken mesh and used a length of wire to sew them together weaving back and forth through them making essentially one out of three. This way I had one piece to cover the whole thing.

 

 

 The three pieces cover it just perfectly, as if they were one, avoiding the need for numerous ties to hold the three together.

The next stage is to make a door on one end and to make a roof out of a tarp. The finished product is coming soon.

Next week we will get a group of people made up of the families that are interested in taking part in the project and have a meeting. Then we will plan what directions we will take. The first set of chickens that we will buy will be a pilot program to see how it goes, and we will go on from there.

If you would like to support similar projects, check out the M.V Gift Catalog. This present project already has funding but may in the future need more funding to expand.  However, there are many worthy projects like this going on around the world.

As it is written:
    “ He has dispersed abroad,
      He has given to the poor;
      His righteousness endures forever.”
 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. 2 Corinthians 9:9-11 (NKJV)

Shalom in Yeshua,