The Diel Project (diel is the Luo word for goat) is a simple, sustainable feeding project designed to address critical needs of nutrition, employment, skills training, and agricultural productivity for Rabuor. After extensive discussion and preliminary research, the Rabuor Village Women's Group identified two innovative ways to boost the production of nutritious food and income for the orphans: the cultivation of a cash crop of sunflowers and raising hybrid goats for milk, and eventually meat. Crucial to the plan is the holistic notion of using the sunflowers to supplement the goat diet and composting goat manure for use as supplemental fertilizer. Profits from the sale of sunflower oil can be used to increase the herd; sales of goats can be used to increase sunflower cultivation.
This project will be a source of both income and nutrition for the local women, many of whom have lost their husbands to HIV/AIDS. The orphans at the Rabuor Village Nursery will be the primary beneficiaries of the milk and eventually the meat from the goats. Addtionally, milk and meat will be available to orphaned heads of households and expectant mothers. Also important will be the involvement of the Rabuor Village Youth Group, many of whom have lost their parents, aunts, and uncles and as a result have no one to teach them farming and husbandry skills.
To learn more about Pangea visit: www.pangeagiving.org
Watch our site for pictures of the sunflower garden as the spouts begin to grow!