Newsletter 2012-11-05

Dear Friends Many of you will have enjoyed yet another sunny Choko Beer Festival and we thought you would be interested in some statistics: We had 757 paying visitors, with 550 tickets sold in advance We expect a total profit to Choko of over £11,000. This is an increase of over £1,300 on last year. The sub-committee are minded to run the Beer Festival again next year...! New volunteers to join them would be welcome. In addition to the Beer festival, Choko has received the following amounts: £2,025 raised by children, 6 of whom did a Triathlon in Benson and 1 who organised and ran a cake sale. Their fund-raising was matched by St. Mary’s Church, giving a total of £4,050. See more about these events at http://www.choko.org.uk/38.html £1,500 from Car Boot sales organised by a supporter in Waterlooville, which will go towards the visit in 2013 from 3 Kodumela staff. £134 merchandise sales at the Beer Festival We have a lovely 2013 calendar for sale, which will be available, along with cards and a cake raffle, from 9:30 to 11:30 on the following Saturdays: Nov 3rd Nov 10th Nov 17th Nov 24th Dec 1st Dec 8th Thanks to the above income, we have been able to complete the child immunisation awareness project and are nearly at the market gardening target. Our next 2 projects (described in the words of the project manager) are: Market Gardening (£18,990) Overall aim: Increased numbers of farmers trained in improved agrarian techniques and applying acquired skills on their farms. Community using water sparingly and practicing the modern farming technique • Training on various irrigation system • Ridges creation on the fields to encourage infiltration • Laying and purchase of drip system • Training on land care and conservative farming to avoid gullies • Connecting farmers to the land care directorate in the ministry of Agriculture Advocacy for the establishment and rehabilitation of water supplies to 380 field /gardens. • Renovation of the irrigation canal at Makgaung, Moshate and Sofaya • Construction of overnight storage dams in the above mentioned villages • Usage of gabions and walls to block the streams at Turkey 1, Enable and Worcester to harvest water. • Purchase of building materials • Recruitment of Labours • Mobilization of pipes to fetch water from the earth dam to the gardens • Organize the volunteer farmers to be engage in hydrological services Piggeries (£19,657) Overall aim: Increased income and assets for 35,000 people in Kodumela Area. Strengthening of the piggery projects both old and new. • Mobilization and planning meetings for the commercialization of the project with communities • Provision of 2 male pigs and 4 female pigs • Planting of cultivated pasture on fields. • Provide extra rooms (pig sties) for expansion • Training of members on pig maintenance • Network with ministry of agriculture for prevention of stock disease • Network with the local farmers who are doing well in piggery production • Monitoring project activities with Department of agriculture and municipality • Provide feed for the pigs We have now reached £106,348 sent to the field by Choko. This converts to 1,479,000 Rand. So we are just £1,512 short of the 1.5million Rand mark! If you have anything you would like to see included in future newsletters please email us at newsletter@choko.org.uk . If you do not wish to receive future editions of the Choko newsletter, please send an email to newsletter@choko.org.uk with the subject line Unsubscribe If you have friends who would like to receive the newsletter, they can subscribe by sending an email to newsletter@choko.org.uk with the subject line Subscribe