Our Chicken Farming Program (CF) aims to help families increase their financial income to support their children’s education and increase their quality of life. Our goal is to help families earn an additional CNY 3,000 – 6,000 (USD 420 – 840) annually through raising chickens.
We are dedicated to determining if our programs benefit our beneficiaries and to seeing if there is anything we could improve on in the future. Our team trekked lightly through a forest to reach Lailai’s home. When we found her, her youngest son was in her arms as she fed the chickens. She recognized our arrival and greeted us warmly.
Lailai welcomed us into her home—a house made of mud and brick walls. There was no sofa or any appliances—not even a proper kitchen. What’s inside the house is two beds placed in opposite corners, with a small stove in the middle for cooking. For their bathroom, we found a pit dug into the mud floor. Although quite humble, the home was well-maintained and orderly.
Lailai lives with her husband and three children. However, her husband is often away to work in a faraway city as a laborer. Most of the time, it’s just her and the kids. To survive, she farms from home and tends to the chickens that we gave her, with her kids helping her from time to time. It’s not only their living expenses that she and her husband are struggling with, but also debt. In their village, weddings are taken seriously and must be a festive celebration attended by their community. The bigger the event, the bigger the expenses, and until now, even after three kids, they are still CNY 20,000 (2,790) deep in debt. When we asked about her three sons, she smiled and said she still hopes of birthing a daughter someday. She said, “In Yi culture, having both sons and daughters is considered complete happiness.”
And then comes the subject of poultry farming. Her eyes lit up, and she shared with us how her family has always raised chickens for their consumption. Since she participated in the program, the idea of growing chickens as a source of income has changed the way she raises them. She shares, “Before, I fed them however I could and didn’t know what to do when they got sick,” she paused. “But now I know to feed them twice a day and give them medicine when needed—this helps them grow stronger.” When she successfully sells the chicks, she will use the money to buy rice, cooking oil, and nutritional supplements for her children. Although she spoke little Mandarin, she still understood what the trainer said. Seeing her confidence and dedication to growing them, we know our efforts to help families like hers are paying off.
Before we went back to where we came from that day, Lailai said to us, “These chicks have given me hope—and shown me a path where I can build a better life through my own efforts.”
And to us, that is all that matters in all the work we do.
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