Though the villagers are happy to have had outside help to build the two church/school buildings, they long to be able to support the operations themselves. A new 5.6 acre tea farm should do just that.
Developed with the help of with the non-governmental agency, The Transmara Tea Project, the cooperative farm will turn 27,000 tea seedlings into a steady source of income.
Parents of school children and church members will provide the labor for weeding and harvesting. The proceeds will pay teacher salaries and building expenses.
Workers will clear the land and prepare the soil from Fall 2006 through Spring 2008, when the first plating will take place. Then they will tend the plants through the first harvest, which is expected in Fall 2009.
In addition, the workers will see the side benefit of learning to grow tea for themselves. The development authority will use the tea farm as a training ground to introduce tea growing into the area. Villagers can tend small plots of tea on their own land, netting them three times the money they get for the maize they currently grow.
If successful, the tea farm will bless the schools and churches with an income and the villagers a getter livelihood.