Project Inspire Diary--Parts I And II

The UPLift Initiative, having recently been awarded the Best Financial Literacy Project grant by Project Inspire, has been participating in a separate blog to discuss progress thus far!

Part I, which explains the first month of the project, can be found here.

Part II, a description of our financial literacy modules in action, is here.

New Pigs, New Project Idea

The newest additions to  UPLift

On Wednesday Kaw Maw Taw (who works on the UPLift agriculture projects as a field officer) located and purchased five pigs, thus beginning the rearing phase of the Pig/Compost Project at Hway Ka Loke School in Mae Sot, Thailand.

The pigs are of mixed breed ("mix-sai-paan" in Thai), and are between 1 and 1.5 months old.  The initial weight estimate is at 10 kilograms (22 pounds) per pig.  After an initial week of low feed amounts, we will begin testing a high-protein diet that uses a mixture of store feed, fermented banana stalk and liquid microorganisms.  The amount of banana stalk used increases as the pigs age, reducing the cost input needed for food while giving the pigs added nutrients and improved health.

Meanwhile, Kaw Maw Taw has been learning about raising black soldier fly larvae, a very inexpensive and consistent source of protein for feeding fish and chickens.  Partners' Relief and Development, a collaborating organization, has built a larvae "house" and is successfully breeding the larvae by mixing their food waste and other organic materials every day.  The larvae consume this waste very rapidly, and upon reaching full maturation climb out of a pipe in the unit and are ready to be fed to fish at Partner's farm site in Mae Sot.

Larvae "house" at Partners farm site

Black soldier fly larvae

Since we have surveyed numerous Burmese migrant schools with fish projects, our new goal is to learn the process of building and maintaining these units, and then sharing this technology with interested schools.  During the upcoming week Kaw Maw Taw will be building our first unit.   

October Monthly Report

Rainy season is over! Here is a review of our activities in October--

Pig Project

With rainy season ending mid-month we were able to complete several stages of the project, including completion of the pig pen (filled the litter back to a level that eliminated flooding) and finishing the liquid indigenous microorganisms (IMOs).  The search for appropriate white pigs of Du Loc breed turned out to be quite difficult…the best source we found ended up to have a disease that, when combined with the deep-litter project, results in high rates of fatality for the pigs.  Because of this, we are now buying a small batch of black pigs to test the feed regimen on, since black pigs are less susceptible to disease and more popular among Burmese and Karen.  When another batch of white pigs become available (Nov/Dec) we will raise them side by side in the pen and make a comparative study using the same feeds.

School Garden Project

Mark and Kaw Maw Taw surveyed three schools: Shwe Tar Zin, Bwe Ka Lar and Heavenly Home.  Shwe Tar Zin is by far the best fit, and we have begun the planning phase of the project with principal and staff.  We are visiting Heavenly Home again this week to speak with the female manager.

Landfill Income Generation Projects

Very positive news from the vegetable project as Mya Thin has turned a month of growing into a great batch of produce (see photos here).  An initial 500 baht of seed funding has already yielded 400 baht of income, and there are still 3-4 months of production for the crop.

Project Inspire Landfill Project

Mark and staff from Room To Grow Foundation have been finalizing the Project Inspire Social Entrepreneurship program that we earned a $10,000 grant for in August.  The plan will involve training Burmese post-10 students @ Wide Horizons (WH) Project Management School on how to deliver financial literacy modules to women and girls living on the landfill.  We will then follow up with the ten most creative and motivated of these women to create small social entrepreneurships that improve household income as well as quality of life on the landfill.  The funding arrives first week of November, and the project will last until December 2012.

Khom Loy Foundation Video

Antony Reick, a filmmaker who is volunteering to make a promotional video for Khom Loy, visited Mae Sot with Bruce Kennedy (a KLDF board member) to take some footage about our projects here, including the landfill project, garden project, pig project and Montessori expansion project.  After editing and adding narration, the video is nearly finished.

Break The Silence (BTS) Child Trafficking Initiative Activities

• Met with Doug from Partners to discuss progress on the Shan Red Leaves Falling video (now finished voiceovers, currently editing)
• Met with Myo Min to discuss updates for BTS Mae Sot

Trips

·         Upland Holistic Development Project—spoke with staff and manager (Tui) about pig rearing, banana planting and low-cost feeds.

·         Partners Mae Sot Farm—discussed their experiences raising black pigs in a deep-litter, black soldier flies, and water systems for a pig pen.

·         Partners Chiang Mai (BTS checkup, mentioned in BTS section above)

·         Fang Valley Network Meeting--Mark attended the Fang Valley Network meeting on October 29, at which he shared ideas and project activities with other groups in attendance.

A container used for rearing Black Soldier Fly Larvae, a great source of inexpesnive protein for animal rearing.

Visitors

·         Antony Reick/Bruce Kennedy (2 days)

·         Montessori Staff (3 days)

·         Paul/Norm (2 days)

Achievements

·         Completed pig pen/IMOs

·         Helped complete KLDF video

·         Kaw Maw Taw starting to take Garden Project responsibility

Challenges

·         Finding appropriate pigs to purchase for project

·         Coordinating time commitments between multiple projects

·         Finding suitable land for use w/ landfill families and farming pilots

Next Month’s Activities

• Black Soldier Fly Workshop for Kaw Maw Taw @ Partners Farm
• Setting up Black Soldier Fly pilot @ Sky Blue School
• Supporting an additional 100 banana trees @ BHSOH School (using new planting method learned from UHDP)
• Purchasing black pigs, testing speed of growth on high-protein diet
• Researching and setting up “duck litter” project @ Hway Ka Loke school
• Surveying garden schools: Maw Thaw Lu, Nya Li Ha Ta, Heavenly Home (second visit), New Blood (second visit), Dominican
• Implementing garden project @ Shwe Tar Zin, 2 other schools pending survey
• Coordinating a BTS visit to Mae Sai for visiting local organizations there
• BTS meeting with Room to Grow and Burma Border Projects to discuss child protection activities in Mae Sot
• Beginning Project Inspire program by training Wide Horizons students 7Nov-16Nov
• Visiting Mae Jo University, Partners Farm Chiang Mai, ECHO organization, and frog-rearing project in Chiang Mai
• Visiting Global Neighbors to discuss use of land for banana farm/pilot projects
• Attending Social Entrepreneurship Training @ INSEAD Singapore campus 28Nov-2Dec

Flood Update

Flooding in Central Thailand (picture from CNNGo.com)

Thailand has been in the news recently as some of the strongest flooding in the past 40 years has been occurring.

While our work area in Mae Sot has not been hit directly, there are some concerning factors to consider for the near future, especially for migrant schools on the Thai/Burmese border:

• With such a large area of agricultural production marred by the flooding, food prices have begun to rise sharply.  This includes rice, vegetables, meat, and other staple foods.  Migrant schools already struggling to find funding for school meals will find it considerably more difficult over the next year.
• Agricultural inputs like animal feed and garden supplies will also increase in price.
• Migrants who work at factories in Central Thailand and Bangkok have been returning to Burma via Mae Sot over the past week.  Some of these workers have family in Mae Sot and decide to stay, which could increase the # of students and overall migrants in the area.

Thailand has been struck by large-scale flooding for two years straight now.  If this trend is to continue, UPLift's goal of assisting migrant schools to become more self-reliant for food and funding is becoming a priority.

We have plans to work with schools on eight new garden projects and additional animal rearing projects over the next year.  It is our hope that these students, teachers and schools benefit by having a more stable environment for food production; ultimately, children having sound educations and full bellies is well worth it.

Women's Entrepreneurship Program Set to Begin

We are very happy to announce that the UPLift Project is now beginning its program to set up small businesses with female entrepreneurs living in poverty.

As mentioned on previous posts, Khom Loy teamed up with Room To Grow Foundation to compete in "Project Inspire", a contest set up by UN Women (Singapore) and Mastercard to address women's empowerment and entrepreneurship.  As a result of our efforts we received a US$10,000 grant to begin a Financial Literacy program with impoverished women living in a landfill community on the Thai/Burmese border!

Since having planned for a project to cost US$25,000 and last two years did not match with our grant, we have spent the time after the contest to improve and adjust our project in order to provide maximum benefit to women in need at a lower cost, while still maintaining all of our original objectives.

The old project idea involved opening a Women's Resource Center near the landfill where women could generate daily income while receiving financial literacy and life skills trainings.  Through these trainings, UPLift would then  choose ten high motivated and inspiring women, and help each set up a small social enterprise that could provide them with increased income while simultaneously addressing social needs on the landfill.  In addition, we added the goal of having 15 young girls having the financial freedom to attend a nearby migrant school.

The new project idea, while not including land and a center, has much more flexibility, includes double the number of beneficiaries and leaves Mae Sot with a large number of young and capable trainers that can share financial literacy skills with impoverished women in their future communities and jobs.

We will begin by training 24 young adults at a nearby project management school named Wide Horizons on how to become financial literacy trainers themselves.  These individuals are already receiving the education and skills needed to successfully run programs with Burmese and ethnic minority communities, and their capacity to do so will improve after learning more about financial literacy.

Our new project plan spreads knowledge and capacity to a much wider audience!

Our 24 trainers will then work not only with the landfill community, but also a nearby migrant community that they are already working with.  This doubles the # of women receiving these financial literacy skills, and gives UPLift a larger pool of motivated and creative women to work with on small social entrepreneurships.  Finally, the 24 trainers, upon  finishing their work at Wide Horizons, then return to their respective development organizations in Thailand and Burma, where they will have the capacity to design similar programs intended to empower women and improve knowledge.

We are very motivated to begin, and will keep you updated as the project unfolds. Wait until you see the results!

Project Update--The Pigs Are Waiting

Dirty work underway at Hway Ka Loke school, Mae Sot

The past month has been full of learning curves for the UPLift Pig/Compost project--preparing for a pig rearing project that uses low-cost inputs like fermented banana stalk feed and powerful microorganisms harvested locally, we have been fighting through rainy season to get everything ready for the pigs to arrive in October.  See what we've been doing below, and for the full photo update click here!

Students lending a hand...well, their feet, by crushing eggshells for use in a calcium concentrate

Our completed work area, with pig pen sticking out amongst the banana trees

Harvesting bananas for students, and trimming down the cluster of stalks

One teacher has been doing a great job of keeping rosella and young banana trees healthy during the rains

Speaking of rain, it has been the heaviest season in the past few decades, which can be seen by looking at our original deep litter above.

...however, we have been refilling the deep litter with soil, sacrificing some volume for a dry and effective space for the pigs

Students and staff help to prep a fermented concentrate that provides large amounts of nitrogen for pigs and vegetables alike

Pig Project Update--IMO Workshop

Ingredients for Fermented Fruit Juice, or FPJ

The UPLift Pig/Compost project pilot is still going strong in Mae Sot, Thailand  The system of raising pigs on a mixture of banana stalk, dry feed and homemade microorganism concentrates is moving on to its second phase--teaching both teachers and students at Hway Ka Loke Migrant School how to make "IMOs", or indigenous microorganisms.

These microorganisms are to be used in several ways:

• to enhance the feed of the pigs by providing stronger and more appropriate bacteria to the stomachs of the pigs
• to break down the banana feed mix into simple nutrients, so that pigs can digest more nutrients than when eating store feed
• to break down existing deep-litter materials into organic matter and compost, so that the school can use or sell up to a ton of rich compost per year

Our staff began the workshop last week by introducing a few basic processes for making these IMOs, of which there are seven in total for use in the project.  Take a look!

Students and teachers prepared ingredients for an IMO that promotes stomach health (for pigs as well as humans!)

Morning glory and sugar will be fermented to create a liquid used to water pigs, as well as increase nitrogen and potassium levels in the school's vegetable patches

Finished IMOs in the fermentation process