Derek Cladek on May 27th, 2010
Whatever you write about on your blog is who you will attract. Kind of like whoever you hang out with is who you will become like. My mom always told me that when I was growing up so hanging out with some kids was out of the question. It wasn’t like we were smoking pot or doing drugs back then, we were just being kids and possibly being a little mischievous. You will find a ton of blogs talking about making money online because that is the crowd they are trying to attract. These people are looking to make their living online and so selling to them is much easier than some random visitor.
I only bring up this point because I talked about going to Uganda Africa to build a pig farm and many of my visitors since those first post have been people begging me to give them money or to help them start a pig farm somewhere in Africa. I did go to Uganda in the summer of 2009 and had a 45 foot by 15 foot building built to raise pigs. The farm is about an hours drive outside of the capital city of Kampala Uganda. It always depends on the condition of the roads because any road off the main road to Kampala is dirt with rather large ruts. After a few rain showers and you will be fording small rivers in the roads making your travel time to the pig farm much longer.
The purpose of this pig farm is to help support orphanages that are being built by a non profit organization that has been in Uganda for the past 22 years. The idea was to build a pig farm to generate money to help start other businesses throughout Uganda. These businesses would then generate enough capital to support the overall cause of raising orphans and to better help these people’s lives. It was a project that made sense, so I asked a few friends who donated money and in 2009 I brought with me $3,500 to build the farm.
I visited the pig farm a few weeks ago, May 2010 and their biggest complaint was that they needed more room. With six large pigs, four girls and two boys, one had just given birth to 10 piglets and three others were about to give birth. One of the obstacles, and there are many, is to teach these Africans to take the money from selling piglets to buy food, medicine and to start building onto the current structure. Instead of relying upon or always asking for money, they need to start using the resources they have to get the job done. In the America if we need to expand our business we either take the profits we have and build, or we go to the bank and get a loan. In Africa its something that needs to be taught.
Feeding the pigs is one of the biggest headaches right now. Cost of feed keeps going up and for a bag of Bran, it cost around 30,000 shillings (the current exchange rate is 2,233 shillings to the US dollar, the highest I have seen it). This could make a bag of Bran cost $13.44 and the bags usually last one week. We had planted Matoke trees around the piggery to help feed the pigs when those trees started producing its fruit. Another resource we are looking to plant are sweet potatoes to help supplement the food the pigs eat. Eventually we want the pig farm to be completely supported by the land and not outside food sources. This is also something that needs to be taught to the Africans because they expect the white man to pay for everything, including food.
Matoke Field
I write all of these because I do get request for help, to send money to help someone start a piggery. I understand its difficult and I had to start a business with very little, but once you start something continue to grow it and expand and eventually you will have a successful and unstoppable business.
Derek Cladek on August 3rd, 2009
I leave for Uganda Africa in seven days! Time is ticking away and I still need to raise money to build that pig farm. I have raised $500 so far of the $3,000 needed to build a large farm in Uganda. The pig farm’s main purpose is to support the building efforts of the Orphanages and Baby house in Uganda. The baby house is near Kampala, the Capitol and the Orphanages will be hours away in areas that have nothing. The main orphanage village being built right not is in an area called Soroti, which I believe is north east of Kampala. I was there in August 2006 and they had completed the construction of 2 buildings and the out houses.
As of September 2008 they had completed a total of 12 buildings but had no money for furnishing each building or paying for the orphans to stay in the houses. The goal of the village is to supply 10 kids with parents who will teach them what they need to know to survive and to make a living for themselves. Basically they will grow up in a family environment with parents and brothers and sisters. They will be taught how to farm, take care of livestock and how to build things. Not only will there be a school, but also a hospital.
It takes years right now to complete one task, as this orphan village has been under construction for a few years now. They are reliant upon outside donations and people to give funds. My goal is to make these projects self funded by the pig farms that will be built. The funds from the farms will go to start other businesses that will help pay the cost of the orphan villages and to one day pay for each child to be raised in a family environment.
The first picture is from the first night we stayed in the house. These are the first two buildings with a gathering of kids from the local area. I cannot really say there is a village as I didn’t really see anything. This orphan village is really in the middle of no where. When it gets dark out there isn’t a single light anywhere besides from the stars. I have never seen so many stars in my life, its amazing!
The only place to get drinking water is from this water hole. Every day people line up to fill their buckets full of water. The water is clean and cold, but this shows that the only thing out in this area is a watering hole. There is no electricity, no stores, no gas stations, no Starbucks. Nothing but you, the people and nature.
I leave so soon and cannot wait!
Derek Cladek on July 21st, 2009
I leave for Uganda Africa on August 10th for 39 days! The plan is to build at least one pig farm. The last time I was in Africa my friend Jack and I looked at what kind of business we could start in Uganda that would actually make money.
Most businesses in Africa are copied and what I mean by that is when a person opens a shop to sell paper within a few month that shop will be surrounded by at least 10 of the same exact stores! Talk about killing a market! That would really tick me off if I started a business and then had a ton of copycats, but I guess that is how business is. Just look at the thousands of ‘make money’ blogs on the net today! Everyone thinks they can make money just by having a blog, its not true.
What I learned in Africa is that you MUST have a unique idea and plan to succeed. After looking at everything from paper and ink to iPods and iPhones, we ended up finding that a piggery would do really well in Africa. While I was there in September 2008 we bought 9 pigs (6 females and 3 males) for about $15/each pig. When a pig is fat and ready to be sold to the market, they can go from anywhere between 250,000 Shillings to 400,000 shillings. At today’s exchange rate of a Shilling to US dollar it would be $119-190 US dollars.
While I was there in 2008 I was emailing a guy named Clark Covington who has his own online business helping other businesses. I told him what I was doing in Africa and what the plan was with building a pig farm. He told me he would love to help and within a day he sent me $300 US dollars which looks like a ton of money in Uganda. ($300 in Uganda is what an average person will make in a month).
Most Africans cannot afford to raise more than one pig so the competition is fairly light in Uganda for raising pigs. A man named Jacob who lives with his wife and children about 1 hour outside of Kampala Uganda started with a few pigs two years ago and when I saw them last, they had 48 pigs. They have a large covered pig pen with about 15 different stalls. The only problem they have with their pigs is the lack of food. Since Jacob lives so far away from most of the population, they have to feed the pigs scraps, any left over food and plants that are growing around the house. To buy
food is a struggle for them, since they are already living off the land, but if you had the money you could go into town and buy bags of bran or pig food. Most of his pigs where way under weight, malnourished and needed to be fed more. Pigs not only are one of the most popular foods in Uganda but they are easy to raise and feed, if you have the money. Pigs also reproduce at outstanding rates as a large female pig can give birth to 8-12 pigs at a time.
The Plan for August 2009
The plan for this trip is to transplant the original 8 pigs (1 killed itself) and their babies to a much larger pig farm. Right now they are in little houses built two feet off the ground. We are renting land at $6 each house per month and now have access to land where we can build a farm at any size we wish.
The picture above is from September 2008, so these pigs are much bigger now and are all pregnant.
These are the houses we had built for the pigs so that by the time we came back this year they would have enough room with all of the piglets.
We need enough funds to build a pig farm that can support between 150 to 200 pigs at a time. I have a friend named Vincent who has been coming to the US for the past three years and has stayed with us each time he comes. His family owns 40 acres just outside the capital, Kampala and has said that we could use 10 acres to build whatever we want. This land will be our starting point for building the pig farm and the funds from this farm will help support more to come.
Where Will The Money Go?
The purpose of these pig farms is to help build and finish orphanage villages that are being constructed today throughout Uganda. World Out Reach Ministries is a Non Profit organization that has been in Uganda for over 20 years building schools, churches and taking care of orphaned children and widows throughout Uganda. Today there are many obstacles in finishing projects that have been started for years. When I was in Uganda in August 2006 one of the orphan villages was being constructed and three buildings were finished. Going back in September 2008 they had a total of 12 buildings finished but no one was living in the completed houses. Right now only 490 children are sponsored and have homes. Children who would otherwise have no place to live, no family, nowhere to go, no hope, no job, no homes and no family.
I felt called in September 2008 to start building businesses in Uganda that will support the cause over there without having to rely upon the support of outsiders. People in America and the UK are the biggest supporters of what is going on in Uganda today, but in the near future I would like to see that the majority of support is coming from their own nation and to one day make everything self reliant on the businesses that we build today.
By starting today we can help change a nation and help them become reliant on themselves and not other peoples and nations.
What we need and what we expect in the next 365 days.
- $3,000 – $6,000 to start 1 or 2 pig farms within 1 hour of Kampala
- After building the first pig farm we will buy up to 50 pigs. (Each farm will hold 150-200 pigs)
- Buy enough food to feed 50 pigs for 3 months (1 Bag of food cost about $20)
- Pay a doctor to vaccinate each pig to keep them healthy. (Medicine Cost about $2/pig)
- Pay 3 people 50,000 Shillings/month to tend to the pigs. (Cost About $75/month)
- Plant a crop next to the pig farm to help feed the pigs.
- After the first pigs are born, sell a few to start a cash flow to buy more supplies, feed the pigs, pay the workers and doctor.
- Once the pigs have reproduced twice we should have enough funds to build 1-2 more farms, buy land and keep the process going.
- The end goal is to support the Orphanage Villages and Baby House to take care of babies with no parents.
If you ever wish to support what I will be doing in Uganda, please contact me and I will get you details on how you can support us! All donations will be 100% tax deductible. Thanks!
More Updates To Come!
