The Best $27 I've Ever Spent

One of the major focuses of the KIHEFO clinic is sustainability. The staff works to find projects that will help the community in a sustainable, long-term way rather than just solving immediate problems. One of the sustainability projects that the clinics runs is called the KIHEFO Rabbit Project. The rabbit project works to give families with children suffering from malnutrition, a condition that is much more common in this region of Uganda than most others, a source of protein for their children and income for the family. When the foundation receives a donation, they are able to pick a family to receive a rabbit hutch and 3 rabbits.

As a group, the other students and I decided to all pitch in to build a family a rabbit hutch and to provide them with the rabbits. We each put in $27 and the project coordinators picked a family to receive the donation. The family that was picked came to their attention because the mother has brought her children to the clinic for malnutrition treatments and has stayed on top of bringing her children in for monthly checkups.

We were able to go and help construct the rabbit hutch and to meet the family that would be receiving it. The first thing that we had to do was hike all of the supplies up to the family’s house, which was located at the very top of the biggest, steepest hill I think I have ever had to hike. And we had to do it with long pieces of heavy wood on our shoulders, I honestly don’t think I have ever been so winded in my life. We made one trip with the wood before we started building, and some of the local community members helped to bring the rest up. I remember sitting in a patch of shade, drenched in sweat with the other students, and seeing a woman taking multiple trips up the hill with wood balanced on her head and a baby on her back and barely breaking a sweat.

We helped to construct the rabbit hutch one afternoon, and came back with the rabbits the next day. When we brought the rabbits, the whole family was there and we were able to hear their story. The mother, only 26 years old, has 5 children. She was married when she was only 16, and a few months back her husband came home drunk and beat her before taking off. Neighbors brought her to the hospital because she had been beaten so badly that she was nearly unresponsive. Her husband never came back and she was left to provide for her 5 children on her own. After being in the hospital for some time, she returned to her house and found that thieves had gone through and taken every single thing that she owned. The house is on a small plot of land on which the family is able to farm to feed themselves. The mother also sells crafts at a shop in town to make money from which she is only able to send two of her kids to school.

Now, because she has rabbits, she will always have a source of protein to prevent malnutrition in her children. She will also be able to sell the rabbit meat for a profit from which she can send the rest of her kids to school. The rabbits themselves are what make this project so sustainable because they can rapidly reproduce. The rabbits also can eat just about anything, so the family can just feed them leaves from the plants on their land. Rabbit urine can also be used or sold as a plant pesticide and the droppings can be used for manure. Rabbits may not seem like much, but they have the ability to change the life of this family forever. The mother no longer has to worry about how to provide for her family and the children will all have the opportunity to receive an education. That is why it was the best $27 I have ever spent, because, to quote the woman’s friend, “to them, the world no longer feels so small.”