It's all about eggs! Thriving farm provides livelihood for rural women

Alessandro Boyd, Gleaner Writer

The Mile Gully Entrepreneurial Group (MGEG) from the hills of rural St Mary originally consisted of nine persons - seven women and two men. They were unemployed, underemployed and struggling to support their families.

The main issue was being unable to support their children adequately by providing lunch money on a daily basis and the proper utensils required for school.

"I used to be a cook at the Mile Gully Basic School; however, I was out of a job in June. It was depressing because I was accustomed to working; it can be hard at times as a single mother. I have three children, one attending high school, the others primary school and university," said Gridette Lyons, treasurer for the MGEG.

They came together in search of a sustainable way to generate income for themselves and decided to start an egg-producing project, but they could not do it alone.

"Velva Lawrence from LIFE saw the potential of the group and agreed to work with us, so we identified a project, the layer project. When we did a survey in the community there was no project like this around, there were no egg producers in the nearby communities. The wholesalers and supermarkets would travel as far St Ann to purchase their eggs," Hernetta Gordon, president of the MGEG said.

preparing the proposal

Miss Lawrence assisted them with a proposal and they sent it to the Inter American Foundation. "They decided to help and gave us $1.2 million. we were able to purchase 500 hens with this." "We started constructing the coop in May 2010, finished in June, and by July we got the hens," Gordon added.

These 500 hens were insufficient to support the nine members of the MGEG, however, and demand also exceeded supply drastically. Miss Lawrence helped them construct another proposal and they approached the Digicel Foundation.

"They approached us and we accepted because we really believed in this group. They are strong, stayed together for years and have put back into the project which is really working," Samantha Chantrelle, executive director of the Digicel Foundation, commented. There are currently 1,200 chickens in the coop.

Today, the members of the group have a steady stream of income that allows them to provide for their families, they are also giving back to the community. They give eggs to the elderly and supplement the school-feeding programme at the nearby Mount Angus Primary and Junior School.

"The opportunity came along and I am thankful for it; it is nice being independent. I'm also eating healthier and it saves me from things like high blood pressure; the socialisation is also nice every day. When we're here we just talk and laugh and that puts my mind at ease more time," Lyons added.

more demand than supply

There is currently more demand than supply for these eggs in the community of Mile Gully from the farmers market. Due to this, the foundation will provide funds for an additional 500 chickens to help bolster the project.

Currently, they provide eggs to supermarkets and wholesales ranging from Mile Gully in St Mary to St Ann. At least 450 dozen eggs are sold per week, but even this isn't enough and so they intend to expand into the broilers as chicken meat is more profitable. There is insufficient funding at the moment, however.

"Projects like these are about empowering people, about helping them to become self-sufficient. They are about uplifting communities. They are about us taking charge of our own development. We also need to empower the youth and adults in our communities who, at times, are trying to support children of their own," Chantrelle said.