BACKGROUND:
In our effort to help individuals and families become self-reliance, we, Horizons of Light Inc. launched a pilot farming project. In this program we interviewed and chose struggling families with high motivations to fight poverty through hard work.
ISSUES:
- The majority of people in Madagascar make less than a dollar a day.
- The unceasing political unstablity of the country makes it difficult for job creation leading to a sky rocketing inflation and unemployement.
- “According to the World Bank, the national poverty rate remains high, at 75.2% in 2022. The unemployment rate was an estimated 6.6% in 2022, according to the country’s National Institute of Statistics, and youth ages 15–30 account for 70% of the unemployed according to the International Labour Organization.” (Madagascar Economic Outlook | African Development Bank Group – making a difference)
- One father lost his job as a middle school teacher because he contracted a rare disease that cannot be cured. The same family has 7 children. He and his wife are barely making enough to feed, clothe the kids and to send them to school.
- Another family has four orphaned kids in the home. All kids abandoned by parents (relative to the forter parent) a very young age.
- Two other families have jobs but they also barely make enough to meet ends monthly
- Because of lack of funds, parents are having to decide which child goes to school which one stays home this year.
SOLUTIONS:
- Start a self-reliance program / Financial literracy (loan payment, saving, montly budget, etc)
- Train families in meat chicken farming
- Fund the construction of the chicken coop
- Fund the purchasing of the first 212 batch of chicken
- Connect them with local byuers