Dear friends,
I have just returned from the most productive trip to Congo I have ever had. I am extremely excited about the coming year, and am sure that 2010 will be the year that much of the planning and work that we have been doing since 2006 finally comes together. There is so much to tell – from the 11,000 trees WVI planted on my trip, to the huge harvests of corn and rice, to the food I ate, to the ox program, to the new corn processing center we built this month, to our guests, to our plans for the future, to the new closeness that I developed with many of the people I work with. While I have so much to say, I fear that, if you are like me, if I make this too long no one will read it, and there are some very important things that I am excited about and would like to share with you. So I will keep this particular update focused on the future, in particular the next 3 months. In the next 3 months we have the ability to build a foundation that will greatly support WVI for years to come.
As I see it, our farms in Congo are like an engine of development that we have been building. The engine has been working for the past 2 years, but working sub-optimally. The different aspects of our work have been like pistons, and we have slowly been adding pistons since we began. At this point we have only to add one more piston, and our engine will really begin to function. That piston is to solve WVI’s problem of crop storage. Once we can store what we grow ourselves, and the crop surpluses of the surrounding farmers, then the greatest problem that has hindered our development will finally be solved.
To do this Fiston and I would like to finish repairing an old barn on our land that has the capacity to store between 600-700 metric tons of crops at a time. For years we have seen tons of crops rotting because of weather damage from lack of storage, and have wanted to repair this barn, but there has always been a more pressing need to fulfill. Now those needs are being met, and if we want to progress any further in our work then we must finish this barn. Once we do this we will enter into a new era of our project.
We have done great deeds in Congo over the past 4 years. We have built something that is truly unique in war-torn South Kivu, and is a wonder to behold in a land which is otherwise so destroyed by violence. We have done so from scratch, starting with nothing, and the problems of storage that hinder us would seem absurd here in the United States. The morale of our workers plunges when they see crops rotting in piles in the rain for lack of adequate storage. These are crops that they worked hard to plant, weed, and harvest, and if only the crops were stored correctly then our work would move forward, and their sister or father or mother or brother could have a job too. So I have told Fiston that by June 1, we in the US will have raised him the $20,000 that is required to finish repairing the barn.
If we can fund this barn by June 1, then it will be repaired by July 1. And if it is ready by July 1, WVI will be in a position to not only store our own crops, but also to store the massive surpluses of corn in the region that will start to be harvested in July. The barn will be an integral part of WVI’s next phase, which is to buy local surpluses, process them into cornmeal, and then market them with our own crops of corn.
The economist in me is truly excited at the prospect of implementing this new program. Last year we did something similar with rice, but corn is a bigger part of the Congolese diet in South Kivu, and our potential impact on peoples’ lives is much greater.
Four things will be accomplished when we buy surplus corn from the farmers around us:
1. The farmers who sell to us will get a better price from WVI than they do from the war profiteers they currently sell to.
2. The people who buy the cornmeal will get a cheaper, more stable food supply. Right now, speculators purchase the corn and hold it until the price increases to 2 or sometimes 3 times its originally inflated price.
3. WVI will get a larger market base that will allow us to sell our future surpluses with more ease and surety of price.
4. WVI will get a stable source of non-US-fundraising-based revenue.
This last point is no small thing. Last year we did the same thing with rice. The profits from that program allowed us to invest $127,000 in capital improvements in Congo, such as buying a corn flour mill, two corn kernel removing machines, a 24kw generator, and welding equipment. We were also able to build – just this month – a new corn storage and milling facility, with capacity for 100 metric tons. And, most importantly, we more than doubled the size of our own farms from 100 acres to 250 acres, all cleared and irrigated. In all, the project provided an average of $10,000 per month that I didn’t have to raise in the US! With the corn program we hope to double that amount of money this year. Then we can put those profits into our farm project to make it more productive and efficient, so that it not only pays the wages of our workers, but also generates profits strong enough to help fund other aspects of our work, such as housing construction.
Finally, with the corn project, WVI will be able to do something we have wanted to do for quite some time: sell our surpluses directly to the end buyer, instead of middleman wholesalers in the city of Bukavu. To this end, this month WVI is setting up 3 retail stores for the sale of our surpluses, one in Luvungi and two in Bukavu. The two stores in Bukavu are to be managed by my translator and good friend Blaise, who has recently been convinced to close the store he runs in the city of Uvira and move to Bukavu (with his new wife) to manage the selling of our rice and corn. These stores will be something new for WVI and for the people in Bukavu, as they will provide stably priced, affordable crops throughout the year.
We have done a lot of work in mapping out and preparing for this final stage. Now the pieces are all in place, and we are ready to move.
Thank you all very much for your help and support over the past 4 years. May we have many more productive and bright years together to come!
Alex
