Being back in Whitehorse has left me missing working with fish farmers in Kenya.  But luckily Hussein continues to spend a lot of time visiting and supporting farmers and keeping me informed with his great emails.  I feel like I am right there with him.  The following is his latest installments with both Kwhisero and Bukura farmers.   I went to visit Kwhisero fish farmers and introduced a new system of digging and expanding each others fish ponds the way Butere farmers are doing.  We kicked of well by identifying those people who need help most, so that each member in the group can have a standard fish pond.  The first person to receive help was mama Beldina Webuko where we helped her to clean up her two fish ponds which were coved with mud.  We cleaned them for her and thanks were received from her to the group for helping her do the job.  We agreed as a group that we will be doing the same to everyone in the group and hope to see some changes over the next 6 months.  While doing the work some farmers complained about the leeches biting their legs.  So they want gumboots for next time.  The next farmer to get assistance was mama Mary Mideva who wanted the group to help her dig a new fish pond.  She had tried to hire people to dig for her but they wanted a lot of money which she could not manage, so when we introduced the system of helping each other she was so happy.  The group went to her place and did the job for her, for free, so she thanked the group for what they have done in her life by helping her dig the pond. So she is now going to achieve her goals through fish farming now that she has two fish ponds.  The one the group helped her dig is so big which will produce a lot of fish for her and her family.  We then went to Mr. Geoffrey Atulo’s place to help him harvest his fish.  Because all members were present he did not have a hard time looking for people who will buy the fish as each member bought one fish on the spot.  Some members do not yet have fish so this was a good way to show how successful they can be.  I asked Geoffrey if he can see any difference concerning the size and the growing rate of fish Susan supplied 4 years ago.  He said there is a big difference, fish grow very fast compared to the ones which he once had in his pond.  He could go for a whole year without seeing any change, but these ones are bigger and he said tell Susan thanks for everything and always praise for her.  Showing me the biggest fish and smiling at it.  Next week we are going to the next farmer, who is a member. 

Tags: fish farming, kakamega, kenya

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 8:57 am and is filed under fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.