In order to develop self sustainability, our Center has embarked on projects aimed primarily at meeting the needs of the Center but also at income generation if the projects produce beyond the needs. Most of our projects are still at a developing stage, in which we learn from mistakes and improve, but some have started to provide the needs of our children. Currently we have the following projects running:

Canaan Vegetable and Fruits Garden

This was the first project to be established as the Center was built with the support of Partnership for Africa. So far, it has been the most successful project, meeting all the vegetable needs of our children and supplying some fruits, particularly guavas.

Free Range Chicken Project

This project utilizes the structure that was originally used by the sheep fattening project, which we abandoned after finding that sheep were not as friendly to our environment as we thought. The project has metamorphosed from mixed breed chicken to our current stock of 100% indigenous free range hens and roosters. We preferred these, because they are resistant to local diseases, less demanding in feeding and produce more nutritious eggs, which also have better market value. We have started with a small stock of 27 hens and 23 roosters because that is the ratio we found when the chicks grew up. We plan to breed and cull selectively in order to increase the number of hens to 600 and reduce the roosters to 10. Roosters will only be used for breeding to supplement our stock.

Mushroom Growing Project

We started this project at the beginning of this year with oyster mushrooms, but we have also experimented with button mushrooms. We grow our mushrooms on the wheat or rice grass substrate. So far we have faced the challenge of maintaining the adequate levels of low temperature and humidity, which we are trying to resolve by growing mushrooms in a charcoal-walled cool room. So far we have not produced enough to market, but a few of our children at Canaan have enjoyed this very healthy product, and a few local Canaan friends have tested and liked our product. Once we experiment enough to gain confidence and competence, we plan to go into larger scale production, especially of button mushrooms, to meet the demand of tourist hotels, which is very strong.

Bee Keeping Project

Up to the present time we have established 20 beehives within the compound of the Center. The project was started primarily to protect our children from bees, which were settling on our buildings and wherever they could find water. We thought if we could give them hives to settle, then they would be less of a nuisance to our children. The added benefit is that the children will also get good-quality honey to use. If this project is successful, we hope to produce more honey, which can then be sold in the local market to gain income for our Center.

Three New Potential Projects

Last year, we had a special visitor from Germany, Mr. Clemens Rieger. He visited the Center and fell in love with our children at first sight. On returning home, he used the opportunity of the silver jubilee of his marriage to organize a fundraiser for Canaan Children’s Center. With the money he raised, we are planning to strengthen our existing projects as well as start three new projects. We want to start small in each of the three projects in order to learn lessons and to see which area is best suited to our situation and objectives. We will then invest more in the best of the three.

Petroleum Jelly Production

This is a very low-cost project which we intend to use to meet all our demands for petroleum jelly and perhaps sell in the local market.

Rabbit Project

This project was born after a local friend of Canaan gave us a set of five rabbits: two bucks, three does and a cage to start with. Once these multiply, we will need to build more cages and a ban to keep them. When that time comes, which we hope will be soon, we will need money to develop proper housing for this project. Currently, we keep the rabbits in the chicken ban.

Pig Keeping Project

This is another project which is arising from local generosity. It started when a local friend of Canaan decided to donate two piglets; a gilt and a boar. We are not building a temporary structure to test this project, and if the project proves successful, we will need more money to build proper housing for pigs.