Our visit to Chaung Kaut village was incredibly inspiring. Most families have turned their pig farms into significant businesses and using their additional income for improving their houses (metal roofs, solar lighting, expanding rooms), paying for children’s education, buying motorbikes, and expanding their farms.
A family we met in Chaung Kaut village told us that in just one year their entire lives have changed because of our pig farms. Nang Boa is 36 years old, has three children and her annual family income was around $800 in 2015. She and her husband do not own land, so they leased land to farm and also worked as day laborers making about $1.50 a day. Now their new pig farm started through our village partnership has more than doubled their income in one year! They both stopped their back-breaking field work and together earned $1,700 in 2016 – she earned $800 profit at her pig farm and he bought a motorbike with some of their profits and works as a carpenter in other villages earning $900. They used some of their extra income to get electricity in their home – providing light for their children to study by. (The government has power lines in her village but you have to pay a lot to connect your home to them). Nang Boa told us that “Because of the pig farm that Shanta helped me start, my family has more opportunities, we feel better, and we now have hope for a better future for our children.”
We will be starting pig farms with 150 families in 2018!
