Chicken Training

Last month, I held a  “chicken training” in the village …. four days -  two days of the same training in two different village sites.

Now, some people have joked around:

“What did you train the chickens to do? … cross the road?”

Honestly??!?

I think someone already has.  I mean, chickens run all over the roads here … well, kinda like "chickens with their heads cut off" …. and I’ve yet to run over a chicken.  Someone obviously beat me to the chicken training thing!  They are crossing … all the dirt roads!

Well, granted – “chicken training” sounds weird … it’s just the best I could come up with!   But the training was about chickens, not for them.  During the training, the villagers were taught on the subjects of health, care, and purchase of chickens.  

The survey that I completed in May showed that about 70% of the villagers make money by selling eggs and/or selling chickens.   As part of the development program in the village, the survey was to help me understand the roads on which the villagers make money.  Then, my goal is to both increase their knowledge on the roads they travel and to teach new roads of making money so that they can move the lives of their families forward.  

Anticipated Goal of "Roads of Income": So that in a year of famine when they have harvested insufficient millet to feed their families for the year, they have other options of income so they do not starve nor are not dependent upon an aid organization to feed them.

During the two days of chicken training, a local vet taught the villagers:

1.  How to buy a healthy chicken – what are the signs of illness and which chickens not to buy.

2.  Chicken care & chicken coops – what are the advantages and disadvantages to having a chicken coop and how to care and feed your chickens.

3.  Chicken diseases – how to recognize diseases that chickens carry.

4.  Disease treatment – various medications for disease and how to purchase medication and treat their chickens themselves.

5.  Disease prevention – the villagers learned about vaccinations for their chickens and were taught how to vaccinate their chickens themselves.

Even though the training was taught in Djarma (local trade language) – I still learned way more about chickens than I ever thought to know!!  And the villagers really appreciated the training and were grateful to learn about how to care for the chickens.  

Some of my favourite pics of the four days:

And ... the Multi-Tasker …. weaving a rope cord  with which to tie animals to a stick, or to draw a bucket of water from a well, out of a grain sack!

Since the training, I’ve already heard a report that one of the guys who previously did not have chickens, has started his own little chicken enterprise now!   I’m excited to follow-up on this in about half a year and see where the villagers have taken what they have learned!