Lesotho - Planting a New Crop

Planting Cabbages - the Farm is Transformed

The Art of Fundraising

As huge a contribution as the Peace Corps grant was it would still not be enough to provide for all the startup costs such as the purchase of seedlings for both commercial fields (over 4,000 square meters) & the completion of the irrigation in the 1,120 square meter Field 2. Rethabile & I began looking for other funding sources and sent our business plan & grant proposal to a variety of NGOs as well as the Lesotho Ministry of Agriculture.

Deanna Anderson, my dear friend in California, was a great support to the Centre & offered to start up an online GoFundMe campaign to raise additional money to purchase the infrastructure necessary to launch the new commercial farm using the Conservation Agriculture methodology. She collaborated with The Lesotho Connection to establish a process for donors to receive their donation tax credit from TLC for charitable contributions submitted online to the GFM fundraising campaign she set up. To support this effort she also completely overhauled the St. Camillus Lesotho website so that it could serve as point of reference to donors looking for more information about the Centre.

Rethabile & I contributed to the effort by creating a Facebook page for St. Camillus, inviting all our family & friends to follow the page to see the fundraising effort posted there &, in addition, searching all over Facebook for other organizations that would accept fundraising campaign notices from St. Camillus.  Coincidentally I happened on to the Facebook page for Water Charity, an organization that funds water security grants, and was able to submit a grant to them.  Averill Strasser, the CEO of Water Charity, was incredibly kind & helpful; over the course of a few weeks he guided me through the organizations grant writing process & ultimately contributed half of our target GFM goal of $6,000.

The cash we received now ensured that Sr. Juliana would be able to fully install the irrigation in both fields, purchase all the seedlings needed for the cabbage & green pepper crops, & purchase the necessary tools & supplies to plant & harvest the crops.  It was so exciting to accompany her & Ntate Komitse, one of the farm laborers, on the first shopping trip to purchase wheel barrows, spades, hoses, hand tools, & farm worker safety equipment (sturdy boots, gloves, etc) for working the fields. She was able to purchase supplies & equipment she had only dreamed of.

By month's end Field 1 irrigation from sprinklers was fully operational, the seedlings were planted, & the farm workers were learning the new techniques of Conservation Agriculture.

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