Help a young rural entrepeneur start a small business to support his family and community during Covid-19, with a little start-up investment
by Elise Ramadan in Uganda
The extra funding will enable Barnabus to keep hold of and feed more of the piglets and grow his farm, developing employment in the local community as he builds new housing for the extra pigs and buys food from other local farmers to sustain them.
Meet Barnabus. He got in touch with me last week from a small village near Bwindi in Uganda to explain how difficult life has got in recent weeks, as people try to manage the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lockdown isn't an option for him because families need to eat, to farm and to survive. He used to have a good job in tourism but has now found himself unemployed and in need of finding other ways to make a living.
Whilst tourism organisations around the world work tirelessly to ensure sustainability for locals, nobody could have predicted the decimation of income for this part of the world. It's incredibly important that locals find other means of making a living because they exist so close to one of our last collections of Mountain Gorillas. Ugandan wildlife organisations have done amazing work over the last decade to educate locals about preserving habitats for the growth of the mountain gorilla population, and have even managed to recover farmland around the rainforest so that the gorillas have more space to grow their numbers (which are still only around 1000 worldwide but up from 800 a decade ago).
To that end, farmland is a premium and those who normally work in the booming tourist industry are now having to find ways to work without venturing into the dangerously populated towns.
Barnabus got in touch with a business plan for raising pigs. Pork is in high demand in the area and he's worked out his running costs to need just £350 start up money. That's only 70 people donating £5 each!! Or 140 sticking in £2.50!!!
He's found a place to raise the pigs which won't impact on existing farming and has a developed a plan for feeding, housing and breeding.
Crowdfunder is making it 100% free for community and charity crowdfunding projects during the coronavirus crisis. The Covid-19 epidemic could affect millions of people in the next few weeks and there are little things like this that we can do to help.
A small message from Crowdfunder:
These are unprecedented times but together, we are stronger, and the response is coming from communities across the country.
Volunteer groups are springing up to tackle the logistical problems faced in our communities – but they need urgent support. That's where we come in.