A charity run by churchgoers from Gildersome to give poor and undernourished Kenyan children boiled eggs at school is celebrating its first year of the project – by buying another 1,500 chickens and asking people of Gildersome to get crafty and make chickens for the village scarecrow festival this summer.
The latest flock of chickens mean every child in kindergarten in the former mud hut village of Funzi will now have two eggs a week and the chickens will be sold for meat when they are ready.
Ashley and Sara Peatfield, who worship at St Peter’s Gildersome, visited the Funzi islands as tourists in 1993 and were shocked by the poverty of the local people and began to raise funds to provide fresh water, medical care and help the local people out of poverty
Today the Funzi and Bodo Trust operates two medical clinics, a birthing centre, pays for operations, runs road and water ambulances , teaches health e
ducation, supports mothers and babies , works with those who have a disability or are long term sick , has rebuilt two schools , has opened a computer training centre and has installed water pumps.
Last year it started a chicken farm and has just announced that its second flock of one thousand five hundred chickens have started laying eggs and they have launched an appeal for as many hand crafted chickens as possible to create a chicken farm in St Peter’s church this June as part of the Gildersome Scarecrow Festival to help raise funds for medical care.
Pictured right is the latest chicken made from wood! You can get the knitting pattern from Sarah or Ashley – go to the Bodo and Funzi facebook page for more.