by HFAAC - MARCH 2020
Dear Friends
──
Dear Friends
──
We want to share the great news that Hands for an African Child has received funding to build three family homes and purchase an additional 18 adjacent acres. Each home is 3,000 square feet and will have 16 orphans with a mother and father in a long-term family environment. At full completion, we will have 14 homes and over 200 orphan children in the village, learning in our schools and their farm to becoming self-reliant adults.
We have cleared about one third of our 102 acre property and are currently in the process of clearing more land. Last year we hired someone with a tractor to plow 10 acres, so we could plant crops. We have been growing corn, beans, and cassava and are getting ready to plant our third crop and expand the amount of acres that we are planting. Uganda is located on the equator and has two wet seasons, so we are able to plant two crops per year.
In order to plow and cultivate more acreage efficiently for years to come, we are fundraising for a tractor with a front-end loader, a plow, a disc and box scraper. The long-term goal is for the families to be largely self- sufficient for food through agriculture. This tractor will be critical in reaching that goal. Over time, it will be cheaper to own a tractor than to hire someone to plow it twice per year. We are considering Kubota, New Holland, John Deere or Tafe tractors.
In addition to farming, the tractor/loader will be used in the construction of the homes, schools and health clinic.
We have cleared about one third of our 102 acre property and are currently in the process of clearing more land. Last year we hired someone with a tractor to plow 10 acres, so we could plant crops. We have been growing corn, beans, and cassava and are getting ready to plant our third crop and expand the amount of acres that we are planting. Uganda is located on the equator and has two wet seasons, so we are able to plant two crops per year.
In order to plow and cultivate more acreage efficiently for years to come, we are fundraising for a tractor with a front-end loader, a plow, a disc and box scraper. The long-term goal is for the families to be largely self- sufficient for food through agriculture. This tractor will be critical in reaching that goal. Over time, it will be cheaper to own a tractor than to hire someone to plow it twice per year. We are considering Kubota, New Holland, John Deere or Tafe tractors.
In addition to farming, the tractor/loader will be used in the construction of the homes, schools and health clinic.
The property has a gradual slope, so the ground for each building site will have to be cut on the high side and compacted on the low side. We need to buy a ground compactor to create a firm pad. We will also buy a cement mixer with a hopper and concrete laying tools. The tractor with a loader bucket is critical to transporting the wet concrete from the mixer to the building foundation and pad. Hiring a concrete truck to deliver concrete is not possible since we are 2.5 hours from Kampala, the capital. Below is the concrete mixer with side hopper, which we will purchase. We’ve raised $28,500 towards our goal of $75,000 to purchase the tractor and various equipment we need.
We purchased a used truck last December, which is already making a difference in our work on the property.
