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Happy Chicken

 

The Happy Chickens project was brought to us by PC volunteer Carissa Wills-DeMello and RPCV Fiji John Reeder. 

Learn more about the project here:

Happy Chickens Facebook page

GlobalGiving
Aug 22, 2016

Dear Barbara,

Happy Chickens for Fiji Cyclone Disaster Hit Areas has just posted a report about the impact of your donation. You gave $1,000 to this project earlier this month. Here's the unedited update from the field:

Successful First Women's Happy Chicken Workshop!
By Austin Bowden-Kerby - Project Director

 


The 9th of August, six women from devastated Koro island traveled by carrier, ferryboat, and bus to come to the Sustainable Livelihoods farm for a four day "Happy Chicken" workshop, where they were joined by six other women and three men from Moturiki Island and Tailevu, which were also horribly devastated. 

The workshop was lively and covered the production of local feeds, village appropriate housing, improved breeding, and chick raising. The Koro women returned home with ten dozen three-week old village adapted chickens, ten ducklings, and enough chicken feed for two months, plus materials for the production of two mobile rearing pens and a larger roosting and laying house.    

Due to the severe damage on the island of Koro, and the fact that there are no coconuts yet on the surviving trees, we are committed to sending chicken feed for the first year, although the chickens will be free-range and will obtain an estimated 50% of their daily needs by foraging alone.  We will need to continue to raise funds in support of the project, and for expanding to neighboring villages. 

The Moturiki trainees, from four villages, received materials for building five mobile rearing pens, and we are presently raising up twenty dozen chicks to the three-week stage, before transporting them to the communities.  The adult chicken houses on both Koro and Moturiki will be built from the abundant damaged materials that were formerly homes, with C4C providing strong posts, nails, and undamaged iron for a leak-proof roof, using recycled materials for the walls.  

We will be traveling to Koro and Moturiki in the coming weeks to follow up and to bring whatever materials are missing.  Photos will be posted on the Happy Chicken Project Facebook page.  

This was the first time that the women had left their communities since the terrifying storm in February, and it appears to have been a healing and very encouraging experience for them.

Thank you again for helping make this possible.

With gratitude,