Food Security Congo, Democratic Republic of the Project #27960

Feed DR Congo's Orphans through climate-smart ag

by Farms for Orphans, Inc (FFO)

Project Report | Feb 5, 2018
Upcoming trip to Kinshasa, DR Congo!

By Amy Franklin | Founder and CEO, Farms for Orphans, Inc.

Dear Donors,

Thank you for your continued support of Farms for Orphans! We couldn't accomplish this work without you.

A quick update for you as I am currently preparing to depart for Kinshasa, DR Congo!

First on the itinerary is to visit the orphanage palm weevil farms. I am so excited to see the progress they have made and am looking forward to sharing pictures with you! We will be distributing educational materials to the orphanages on basic hygiene practices as well as an insect farm bio-safety manual to help them keep their “micro-livestock” healthy and free of disease.

In the previous update, I mentioned an upcoming nutritional study we will begin this year to evaluate the health benefits the addition of the larvae in the children’s diet may afford. We will be meeting with health professionals in Kinshasa in preparation for the study. In the coming weeks, they will begin to gather baseline health data on the children.

We are also exploring a new partnership with Loyola University of Congo. Loyola is an agriculturally focused institution, housing one of two veterinary school in the DR Congo. Loyola maintains a working farm and agroforestry research center where they are particularly interested in adapting agricultural systems in the face of climate change. Insect farming systems is, of course, one their interests! We are looking forward to sharing our knowledge with them and learning more about their research and programs.

I have a packed schedule and am anticipating a productive trip. I look forward to providing updates and pictures upon my return.

Thank you again for all you have done to help this cause.

Sincerely,

Amy Franklin

Founder and CEO, Farms for Orphans, Inc.

PS- Consider telling your friends and family about our project – share our GlobalGiving link on your blogs or social networks, use the tell-a-friend feature on the project page to email your network, or just bring us up in conversation!

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Oct 19, 2017
Orphanage Farm Training September 2017

By Dr. Amy Franklin | Founder and CEO, Farms for Orphans, Inc.

Sweet faces

Dear Donors,

Thank you again for supporting Farms for Orphans! We couldn't accomplish this work without you.

The money we raised in the June fundraising drive was well utilized this last month, when I traveled to Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, where our current activities are taking place. I traveled with our US-based project partners, Global Orphan Foundation. Here are some highlights.

The first half of this trip was spent meeting with our Congolese collaborators and visiting with our orphanage partners. We met with the director of the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Kinshasa, whois conducting a market analysis on our behalf. We are looking at the availability of all edible insects sold in Kinshasa's markets throughout the year, an analysis that will help us determine which edible insects we will target next for farming. We also met with our colleagues at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Loyola University Lastly, we meet with the mission office for the US Agency for International Development in Kinshasa; Mbuji Mayi (central Congo), where we plan to expand operations, is one of their priority regions for development assistance. They were very interested in our work and the possibility of collaborating with us once we do start to work in Mbuji Mayi. These partnerships will help Farms for Orphans continue to expand our reach to the millions of orphaned children in DR Congo and beyond.

In between meetings, we visited with three of our orphanage partners. It is always nice to visit with the children! During one orphanage visit, the caregivers were preparing the second (and final) meal of the day. The meal consisted of fufu (a mixture of cornmeal and cassava root), greens and fish - SIX (6) small fish for more than 50 children! This was one of the few days/week that a protein would be provided to the children, and it was not nearly enough to adequately nourish their hungry and growing bodies. These orphanages will benefit greatly from our program and are very excited to get started.

Our second week was spent training representatives from five orphanages on starting their own palm weevil larvae farms. These five orphanages have a combined 1,000 children in their care who will benefit from these farms. Thanks to your support, we were also able to provide all of the tools the orphanages needed to get started ($250/farm kit). We are all so excited to watch their farms GROW!

Last but not least, we’re sure you’ll be curious to hear that during this trip and for the first time we tried the palm weevil larvae (mpose in Lingala) we’re currently farming in DR Congo. They were cooked in their own fat (they have a very high fat content) with spices. They tasted like little breakfast sausages. Delicious!

On behalf of the children, the orphanages, and all of us at Farms for Orphans, thank you again for your interest in our work. You, dear donors, made this happen!

Sincerely,

Amy Franklin

Founder and CEO, Farms for Orphans, Inc.

Orphanage visit

Training our orphanage partners

Farming graduates!

Small-scale palm weevil farm

Cooked palm weevil larvae- so good!

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