Agriculture
Agriculture
With the sustainability of the school project in mind, ADH as undertaken an agricultural project. Income from the agriculture should contribute long-term to finance the school operations. Currently domestic agricultural products are grown on a total area of 10 hectares and are sold at local markets. This helps the food-poor region and creates new jobs. The agricultural project also provides opportunities to involve the local community with the school project and teaches them to take personal responsibility for the school in Mushapo. The professional cultivation can also serve in the future for practical training.
Sep
2012
We took on the land from SADR
The SADR farm closed and its owner gave us their good farmland to cultivate for free. We thankfully accept the offer as it saves us from having to cultivate our own land for farming. Our reasoning is as follows: 1) It’s good quality ground to cultivate 2) Our other land would have to be thoroughly cleared, which would mean investing important resources that we could use otherwise 3) But most importantly, we can make use of the already grown plants, which once ripened, can be sold and the proceeds invested in building the school. We inherit five hectares of manioc fields and 1.5 hectares of pineapple plants with approx. 3000 pineapples. To quickly implement the farming project, Wolfgang, Jos and Jean travel to Kinshasa to obtain seeds and seedlings for cultivation.
Oct
2011
We focus on building the school
Our land is still like a wilderness and has to be cleared of the two-meter high elephant grass, bushes and small trees. It’s laborious. We concentrate on building the first school building, so that we can commence with the classes as soon as possible. We clear a small part of our land for that purpose.
May
2011
ADH as property owners
Our project starts with planning: We look for a useable site to build the school and develop the agricultural project. The two chiefs of Mushapo (who traditionally own the land) donated us a nine-hectare piece of property. We get the title of the land transferred according to local custom and record the title in the land registry. The land has to be surveyed. We clear the land to get it ready for our agricultural project.
Mar
2011
Project Mushapo: The beginning
Mushapo is a little village 50 kilometres south of Tshikapa, direction Angola, and about 1000 km southeast of Kinshasa in West Kasai. When we first arrived there, the village had no school. The schools in neighbouring villages mostly consisted of little mud huts, with thatched roofs that had to be renewed every year because of heavy rainfalls. The children were sitting on bended tree branches. This situation gave us the desire to build a solid school, in order to enable the children having a better chance for the future. Thus, our project begins.
