Question: How does taking care of some cute, furry
critters enrich the health of students?
Read on to
find out!
Public
Health Program Coordinator, Stacy Gray, shares the story
Most of HopeCore’s partner schools
simply do not have the funds to be able to offer any after-school,
extra-curricular activities to their students. In fact, the majority of the
students just wander aimlessly around town until their parents get off work.
But ever since HopeCore established health clubs at schools, children have been
given the opportunity to do something safer and more productive with their
time.
The vegetable gardening project has
been a huge success, and the health clubs have been requesting more seedlings
so that they may grow a variety of different vegetables in their gardens.
Unfortunately, HopeCore cannot guarantee ongoing funding to keep this up.
Although the health clubs have done
an excellent job creating their single-crop gardens, their gardens lack
sustainability. The health clubs needed a way to fund future activities on an
ongoing basis…. An income-generating activity that would empower each health club
to take ownership over their program, so that they would not have to rely on
funding from outside sources to continue.
HopeCore was able to supply eight health
clubs with pairs of rabbits to rear as an income-generating activity for their
health projects. Rabbit meat is very valuable, nutritious, and easy to
produce. More rabbit meat can be
produced in a shorter amount of time and smaller space than any other meat. It
is also worth more than chicken or beef, as it has a greater nutritional value.
In preparation for the rabbits’
arrival, each club worked together to build a platform for the rabbit cage to
stand on. (Elevating the cages helps protect the rabbits from predators and
allows their waste to exit out of the small openings on the floor.) When the
platforms were complete, HopeCore delivered rabbit hutches to each school with
security locks on them. And a few days later, the children were thrilled to
meet their new pets. 
The students listened attentively,
as HopeCore staff explained how to care for the animals. While rabbits love to
eat a wide variety of plants that already grow near the school as weeds, each
school was asked to supplement this diet with food pellets they could purchase
in town. There is one type of weed, however, that is poisonous for rabbits to
ingest; our team brought one to pass around as an example. The clubs were
instructed to keep the rabbits in the two separate compartments of the cage
until the rabbits would be old enough to mate (in 4 months time). Each school
was left with an instructional pamphlet, issued by Kenya’s Ministry of
Livestock, to refer to as questions arise.
Here are a few facts, provided by
Kenya’s Ministry of Livestock, on rabbit rearing:
· Big enough
for eating after just 3 months
· Reproduce
at least 4x per year
o
8-18 rabbits produced each time
o
This means a pair of rabbits could produce 72 rabbits
within the span of a single year!
· 10 rabbits
can be raised in a space as small as 5.6 meters squared
· Rabbit
manure is superior to cow manure for crops
· Rabbits
aren’t picky eaters
o
Wide variety in diet
o
Many plants rabbits like to eat grow around the
schools as weeds
Each health club will decide as a
group how the money they earn from rabbit rearing will be used to improve the
health of the school. Many of the clubs intend to purchase more seedlings for
their vegetable gardens or “shambas”, to continue and expand upon the first
Health Club project they did.
So, How does taking care of some
cute, furry critters enrich the health of students?...
Answer: It is a simple income-generating activity
that teaches students about responsibility and will help fund future projects,
which promotes better health at their schools. It also reduces donor
dependency, by empowering Health Clubs to be able to fund their own projects in
a sustainable way.
