April 2019 Update

 Piglet breeding project

Nyhinila village has been producing piglets on a regular basis but Chitemo has not been so productive.  It has been a challenging time but we have overcome the problems with our experienced vet/project  manager and the help of a piglet worker from Nyhinila being willing to oversee the project in both villages. 

We have only one boar, Trevor, who is in the Nyhinila pig unit.  He has certainly been most active servicing the sows of Nyhinila and Chitemo.  Chitemo is 7 kilometers from Nyhinila, so how does he do this?  Well he certainly does not walk from one village to another! No he rides a motorbike (pikipiki)!!!!

'Trevor' on the motorbike

'Yolande' sow at Nyhinila with piglets

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He is a very big boy!

Yohanna our vet and Mussa transport 'Trevor'  who the workers named after my husband, a bit embarrassing sometimes!  There is no other transport and as there do not seem to be the words 

'can't do' in Tanzania, the motor bike has been the answer.  You may be saying why not have a boar in both villages.  We did have one in Chitemo to start with but he did not seem very productive so he was sold and it was decided to use Trevor until  problems with the piglet breeding at Chitemo were resolved.  I hope we shall soon be able to give him a rest and purchase a second boar.

'Yolande' sow at Nyhinila recently gave birth to 18 piglets and 11 have survived.  Yohanna's dedication and experience not only saved piglets but also Yolande who was very unwell after producing so many piglets.  All is now well and the piglets will soon be available for sale.

The sows in Chitemo are now pregnant and we hope to hear the good news that healthy piglets have been produced.

SEEDS continues to support the project financially, pig feed for 2019, vet fees for 2019 and more,  so that the funds they receive during this time from selling piglets can be saved for maintaining the schools and teachers when they take over the responsibility January 2020. The piglet breeding will then continue to give the villages the funds they require for their schools.

SEEDS has funded the pig feed for the year 2019

Chitemo and Nyhinila Pre-schools

The schools continue to progress well with the teachers engaging the children aged 3 to 7 years in reading, writing, sums and English.  Once the children reach the required level in these subjects they move to government primary schools.  Our children always have a head start in all subjects and are able to help the primary school children.  There continues to be challenges with supplying books for the new curriculum set by the government.  The supplies are always slow in coming through for non government schools.  However, our  teachers are helped enormously as we supply them with all the teaching materials they require to enable them to progress with the subjects they teach.  In fact they have much more than would be supplied in a government school.   At the present time Chitemo school has 104 children registered and   Nyhinila the smaller village has 82.   SEEDS continues to pay the teachers allowances and supply teaching materials until the villages take over the responsibility in January 2020.

Bore-Hole

The bore-hole in Nyhinila continues to work well and used by the communities in Nyhinila and Chitemo. It will become even more essential as the year moves on when other water supplies have dried up. The villagers continue to use the water filters we have provided which has reduced water related sickness particularly in the children.