Electricaid Project of the Month

Kasasa goes to work – on an egg

The kasasa Community Youth Project is an agricultural self-help community project in rural Uganda, where people have come together to progress their own development and to pull their community out of grinding poverty. The group came very well recommended to ElectricAid by different referees.

This particular project is aimed at getting poultry and egg production started, in order to spread agricultural know-how and to generate both income and employment for the community. A grant of €6,376 in January 2007 enabled the construction of two poultry houses and the purchase of 1,000 day-old chicks, some start-up poultry feed and veterinary medicines. More importantly, the modest grant allowed for the training of local women and unemployed youths in the techniques of poultry husbandry and egg production.

The project has been a fine success. The poultry houses are complete and their occupants are in full production. The training has allowed the young people to work on the units – and three full-time jobs have been created. The community's diet has improved through the ready availability of fresh, reasonably-priced chicken and eggs. The profits of the enterprise are retained in a common fund for further community development projects.

Grass-roots development is not rocket science. This simple project is an excellent example of real and continuing rural development, improving the lives of real people with a very modest starter grant from ElectricAid.