In 2018, the two organisations launched the 1000 Days of Life programme. Now reaching 54 families in the Agalta Valley, pregnant mothers receive one egg a day per family member for 1000 days of life – around the time that the child reaches its third birthday.

Increasing egg production

A small-scale egg farmer called Claudio supplies the eggs. He currently has 400 eggs in a modest barn. Thanks to mentoring from Paul Pressley – the former Executive Vice President of US Poultry and Egg Association, Claudio is now ready and well positioned to scale up operations to help meet local demand for eggs.

We visited the site recently and realised that could help increase access to eggs and reach even more families.

What are we doing?

• Firstly, we are nearing completion of the construction of a brand-new commercial layer barn to grow the 1000 Days of Life programme to reach at least 100 families. it will also provide eggs to local mission groups and Hope School, with sufficient additional egg production to sell locally.
• We’re also building a small 200 layer barn and 200 broiler barns at Hope School to help provide further training to students in poultry production and animal husbandry. It will also supply chicken and eggs to the school, both valuable protein sources.
• Finally, we want to train and equip some of the backyard egg farmers in the area and support them to develop small-scale, commercial businesses. This will further help increase local supply and encourage entrepreneurship.

Our Partners

This project is only possible thanks to the support from partners.

• Keith Heeringa of Heeringa Construction is donating labour for the build of the layer barn.
• H&N is kindly donating the first flock.
• HATO Agricultural Lighting is providing professional lighting.
• Versova is providing Bruce Dooyema’s technical expertise
• Big Dutchman is providing housing equipment at a reduced cost with IEF funding the remainder.
• And the local mayor is hugely supportive and is contributing towards the construction costs.