How A Two-ounce Baby Chick is Changing the Lives of Filipino Farmers
Alfonso Vinson, a 52-year-old Filipino farmer, is a living example of ADRA's motto: Changing the World, One Life at a Time. ADRA has helped Vinson twice now, one time, literally saving his life.
Vinson's first encounter with ADRA was eight years ago when he was dying from tuberculosis. Vinson's tuberculosis was quite advanced and he would have died in a matter of months if he had not gotten treatment. Vinson received the medicine he needed to combat the disease through ADRA's HEAL program (Health, Education, Agriculture, and Livelihood). After the prescribed six months of treatment, Vinson was once again healthy and strong enough to provide for his family.
Just a few months ago, Vinson began participating in another ADRA program: The Bird-Flu-Free project of Alegria, Murcia, Negros Occidental, Philippines. He is grateful to ADRA for saving his life in the first place and now for helping him provide a better living for his family.
Vinson and his family, which includes his wife, Azuzena, and 10 children, live on a remote farm that is accessible only by foot. He raises various kinds of vegetables and sells them door-to-door and at a local market. Vinson and his wife make the trip twice a week to sell their vegetables at market. They have no motorized form of transportation, so they walk two-hours each way in the tropical sun and stifling humidity. For all of this effort, they earn about $20 each week.
Even though they are frugal and live modestly, this income is not enough. Besides not having enough food for his family to eat, Vinson still has four children at home to educate. School and the accompanying expenses costs $2 per week, which doesn't sound like much until one considers that this represents one-tenth of the family income.
The Vinson family is just one example of hundreds of families who live in this area and who experience the same problems. ADRA created two programs to address the twin needs of lack of food and lack of funds for education: a Bird-flu-free agricultural program to help farmers like Vinson increase their income and a scholarship program to help with school expenses.
Vinson and 35 other farmers recently participated in a day-long training program to learn about the dangers of bird flu, the proper care and feeding of chickens, and to obtain instructions and materials to build chicken coops that keep the chickens isolated from the migrating bird population. After the training, Vinson was the first farmer to receive a clutch of chickens to raise.
During the five weeks it will take to raise the chicks to adulthood, an animal specialist will visit the farms three times to ensure that the chickens are healthy and that the farmers are maintaining proper environmental conditions. Part of ADRA's program includes a distribution system with a local chicken wholesaler. The wholesaler is paying a premium for the chickens because they are certified to be bird-flu-free.
The result? After the cost of food, vitamins, and other expenses for the chickens, the Vinsons will realize about $10 profit every five weeks. For us, that is a drop in the bucket. For the Vinsons and other farmers like them, it is a way to turn a two-ounce ball of fluff into a much-needed supplement to their income. ADRA plans to expand this program to 500 families at a total cost of just over $5,000.
Another program ADRA implements in this area is a scholarship program for deserving children. Many families like the Vinsons do not have enough income to spare to educate their children. ADRA created a scholarship program that pays for all of the basic school needs of a child including: tuition, uniform, shoes and socks, a school bag, notebook, paper, and a pencil. It costs only about $28 per child to supply all of these items for a school year.
The students are selected for scholarship based on recommendations from the school principal and teachers as well as the child's scholastic standing and family situation in order to first help the students who come from the poorest families.
A small investment in these deserving children now will help ensure a better life for them in the future. With an education, these children are more likely to obtain jobs in adulthood that pay enough to help them break the cycle of poverty that has ensnared their families for generations.
ADRA is making a difference in the lives of people all over the world, and Alfonso Vinson is a living example of the kind of change that is attainable. None of this would be possible, though, without the support and encouragement of people like you.
