Supporting village children into school in Benin

The Benin project is moving forward on all fronts, thanks to generous support from individuals and groups.

The first intake of children to the 'Chez Papa Geoff' orphanage is due next month and short-term support is in place.

The long-term financial support is now assured too, as a donor has provided for the purchase of 8 hectares (20 acres) of land. This will be farmed to produce an income for the orphanage.

The bottleneck, as far as farming is concerned, has proved to be the planting of maize which is very much their staple crop. Hand planting in temperatures of 36 degrees C is both exhausting and slow! A hand-pushed seeder worked better but was unable to cope with crop residues which, from a husbandry point of view it is desirable to leave in the soil.

I originally trained as an agricultural engineer, and now (almost 50 years later) have dusted off my early training and am building a powered two-row seeder which will cope with local conditions.

A local firm has donated some solar panels which are sufficient to run the whole orphanage “off grid”. This will give a big saving in running costs and also avoids the need for emergency lighting to cover the relatively frequent power cuts of 6 hours or more.

All this equipment will be crated up for shipment in late September. Nigel England and I hope to visit in November / December to help install the panels.

As far as the children are concerned, HATW is delighted with your support to be able to help ever increasing numbers of orphans to receive schooling. And we are currently investigating the possibility of corrective surgery for one young orphaned boy who has deformed legs. You can see him here: https://youtu.be/xuqT_sLxHno

Thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement!