“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime”.
How in the world do you provide food for over 130 people a day at ZOE? While the cost of food is a lot lower than it is in the United States, it still is a big line item on our monthly budget! The solution? Be self-staining. One of Les’ work objectives is to help the organization become more self-sufficent. Currently, he is working with our Thai staff to develop programs to increase resources such as growing our own crops and raising livestock. While our beginnings are small, we are excited to see the development of this area.
Picture of our first 2 pigs when we got them - now they are much bigger!
If you got our Ginoza Family Newsletter, you would know that we have officially started our pig farm at ZOE! We wanted to thank those of you who have been financially supporting our family – because of you, we were able to buy the first 2 pigs for ZOE. They are both getting huge! ZOE had bought 4 more baby pigs since then. One of those pigs ate something that got caught in his throat, preventing him from eating. They did everything they could to dislodge whatever was in his throat. ”Farmer Les” even tried the himlic maneuver on the pig…CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT?! I guess desperate times call for desperate measures! It didn’t produce anything except for a lot of squeals from the poor pig. We think all the commotion traumatized the other pigs as well – they were so nervous, they were all shaking and going pee-pee. Unfortunately, they were unable to save that pig. Realizing there is much to know about pigs, Les and 2 staff drove to a village pig farm to learn the trade. Its been quite a challenging experience! But once they can master raising pigs, they will move on to raising fish and chickens as well. In addition, they have started growing crops such as long beans, pumpkin and chilis.
