A Castlebar man is appealing for support in a fundraising charity walk to help set up a small dairy business in a rural part of Kenya.
Pat Quinn of Quinn’s fishing tackle shop on Main Street has been visiting the village of Ulaya, situated about 200km north of Mombasa, Kenya, on a twice yearly basis and with a team of workers has successfully provided a water supply to the impoverished people living there. Now the hope is to set locals up with a new lifeline through dairy farming.
“Zero grazing is the preferred option in a semi arid region such as this but being very labour intensive, requires locals to bring the food to the animals rather than bringing the animals to the food. Napier grass, which grows up to about 2.5 metres tall with a thick rushy stem, is a drought resistant grass with a very high yield and having planted a crop there, we now intend purchasing a few milking cows. The idea is to put all profit made from milk sales into a fund. This cash can then be used to finance other projects, one of the first of which will be to build an orphanage for the many children who are dependent on the goodwill and generosity of their neighbours and cousins for basic sustenance, their own parents having succumbed to the Aids virus. Also, tuition fees can be provided to further educate the particularly bright students. If it succeeds then the possibilities are endless and similar projects can be set up amongst neighbouring communities.”
Mr Quinn and his team have met with village elders and community representatives and received 100 per cent backing, with lands set aside for the project.
“A lot more needs to be done to get it off the ground and the animals are expensive and need a lot of care. The people there have virtually no knowledge or appreciation of sound animal husbandry so the whole project will require constant monitoring.”
A Tochar Padraig sponsored walk on Saturday August 14 next has now been organised as a fundraiser for the project.
“We would like to invite anybody who wishes to participate or help out in any way to get in touch. I would also like to thank all those who have helped out in any way with past projects,” Mr Quinn added.
Volunteers are invited to call in to Pat at Quinns shop on Main Street, Castlebar.
