Below is the text of an e-mail from the young business man from Bukwo that John Courtney, Kim and I had the pleasure of meeting and working with while in Uganda. Antioch funded an entrepreneurial project of growing a lucrative cash crop of yellow beans in Bukwo that Martin was going to administer.
Martin is amazing. This excerpt is only half of the e-mail that he sent with detailed records, names and rules for the farmers in the project. A third of them live in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and a third of them are widows.
We’re pretty excited to see what Martin will be able to accomplish through the yellow bean project!!
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Praise God John!
How are you and your wife? Hope you are fine and doing well. I am fine and ok too. I came from Bukwo on 31st March 2008 and am now in Kampala for a week trying to prepare for my exams due next month.
I managed to purchase 450 kgs of yellow beans at a rate of $1 per kg, seeds preservative chemical 8kgs at $6.25 per kg totalling to $50, facilitation during training $ 31.3, transport to Bukwo plus loading and offloading expenses $78.1 and hired a fully prepared 1.5 acres of land for the church to grow some of the beans at a cost of $90.6.
We managed to identify majorly the needy people from the church, IDP camps and widows who had land ready for planting but had no access to any kind of seeds.
Total of 45 people were selected to pioneer the yellow beans project i.e. 15 in the church, 15 IDP camps and 15 widows.
I named the project “Torasis Church Farmers Project (TCFP) Bukwo“. I also drafted beneficiaries’ membership form, which aimed at capturing the necessary information ranging from personal, educational, religious, employment/occupational and farming information. Passport photographs was also taken and attached to the membership form.
The membership form contains 12 simple rules and regulations governing the project.
Approximate total of 18 acres of land contains yellow beans. We are expecting a maximum output of 10 tonnes and minimum of 7 tonnes in June 2008 upon the success of the pioneer project.
Otherwise I will be in touch with Pastor Fred and also give him this report and the receipts. Most of all everybody was excited about the yellow beans and they are really grateful and please receive their best regards and thanks be to God for your efforts and the Antioch Church at large.
We trust God and we are sure all will be well. Looking forward to hearing from you!
GOD BLESS!
Thank You!
Martin Muneria
Thank you for posting this letter. It’s hard to follow along sometimes with what is going on in Uganda and this kind of thing really helps me be able to know and get excited!
Antioch funded the bean project? That’s so awesome! It sounds like something that will really help out some needy people in a very practical way.
Please keep us posted on how things progress and any stories you hear of how the project has personally benefited the people there.
We will keep them in our prayers!