Sustainable School Farms & Agriculture Education Program
What are sustainable school farms?
We’ve been building agriculture and livestock farms to help the children learn how to farm; to provide the students with food to eat; to teach the children how to make a business out of farming; to generate funds for the schools to buy much needed supplies for the students, by selling crop yields, livestock, and meat to the surrounding communities.
How do we create and maintain our school farms?
We build greenhouses and install livestock farms (goat & cow corrals, chicken coops); help to maintain a constant supply of water for the school farms, through drilling of wells, installing solar pumps, and installing pipes, hoses, and spigots; and provide seed, fertilizer, tools, and agriculture education.
How do we ensure successful outcomes?
We provide weekly agriculture education classes at the schools; provide needed supplies and maintain water supplies; and also have competitions between schools to see who can have the most successful crop yields over the course of individual school terms, and entire school years.
Why are school farms so important?
Nutrition: Most children in the rural areas walk many miles to and from school and are not provided food to eat while there. Trying to learn when fatigued and malnourished makes for poor learning conditions. Our sustainable school farms provide a constant source of food for the children and staff.
Life Skills: Only a rare few children in rural Africa are able to pursue a higher education (lack of money, supplies, literacy). For this reason, it is imperative that the children learn life skills that will help them to be successful in life. Our Agriculture Education Program teaches the children how to farm and how to make a business out of farming
School Supplies: Most children in rural African schools do not have access to basic school supplies (pens, pencils, rulers, notebooks). Textbooks are often non-existent, or there are so few that several students have to share just one. A portion of the crop yields, milk, eggs, and meat, from our sustainable school farms are sold to the surrounding community and the proceeds are then used to purchase much needed supplies for the schools.