Eat, Pray, Peace Corps: Chickens chickens chickens!

Some few months back, 3 of my youth, my counterpart Sam and myself started a poultry rearing project, thanks to the help from some of you in the US!! Thank you again, we really appreciated it! My community counterpart, Mr. Kanhiriri first spoke to all of my youth about rearing chickens and the different types of chickens out there (broilers, layers, kroilers). They decided they wanted to try rearing broiler chickens, which are a type of chicken reared solely for their meat. If done well, rearing this type of chicken can be extremely profitable. So, once I knew they were serious, I had them create their goals and objectives for this project and had my mom work to help find us funding. We started out with 122 chickens (which in hindsight was WAAAAYYY too many to start out with). Unfortunately, we experienced a significant number of challenges along the way and in the end did not make any profit. This business can be profitable as I said, however, it is a very high-risk business as the start up cost is expensive and this type of chicken is extremely fragile. Some of the challenges we faced were the chickens getting sick several times (and dying), not growing to their full potential weight due to sickness, trouble finding a ready market at the time to sell and therefore being forced to sell at a reduced cost and just all around a lot of stress! Although we faced a lot of challenges and were not as successful as we hoped, this project definitely taught ALL of us a lot of lessons and was a great learning/ growing experience.

Some of the thing we were able to take away from this were:

1) Rearing chickens is NOT easy. Plain and simple (remember this next time you are enjoying eating your chicken breast)

2) It takes a significant amount of time, care and responsibility

3) Don’t involve family members in your business (in an extremely collectivistic culture, this can bring about unnecessary problems)

4) Starting up a business is not as easy as it may seem, whether on a large or small scale

5) Teamwork and involvement of every person in the group is key

6) And lastly, start small and grow!

After selling off all the chickens, Sam and I sat down with them and discussed the challenges and learning points from this experience as well as how to move forward with the remaining money. That last point is where we are right now. As much as we wanted to continue with chickens (a different type- free range), we are facing the problem of having a safe location to house the chickens. The original home we started with has decided they want to use that room for something else, which means we can no longer use it. We are trying to think creatively and come up with a more manageable project. I hope after reading this you don’t feel disappointed or give up on us! Starting a business is not easy in the US and it’s surely not easy in a village in Uganda where resources and money are the ultimate barrier. Although the original project idea wasn’t as successful as we had hoped, it taught my youth the important skill of how to rear broiler chickens, which they themselves have said they want to use once they finish school. They (even myself) learned so many valuable life lessons that no one could have taught them; they could only experience for themselves firsthand. You gave them an opportunity no one has ever given them – experiencing responsibility on a level I don’t think they have ever experienced and understanding the immense challenges of starting a business. The greatest lesson I think we all learned and I continue to pound into their head is: you will have to work tirelessly and struggle now in order to reap great benefits for your future. I think this is best said by this quote - "Be willing to do whats hard now to enjoy whats beautiful later."