Saffagboko Farm/Plantation Details

Location

Jojoima in the Malema Chiefdom in the Kailahun District, Eastern Sierra Leone is a completely rural community of about 3,000 people located within the Gola Forest regions 92 miles East of the country's second largest city of Bo.

• Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/3XsZKm4WN1tPKPay7
• Open Street Map: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2924526529

Rehabilitation 

• Remove overgrown weeds
• Prune clustered crops
• Replant dead crops: Cocoa, Coffee Citrus and Oil palm
• Establish independent crop nurseries for oil palm, bananas, plantains, oranges, yams, etc

Expansion

• Inter-cropping with pea trees, groundnuts, yams, bananas and plantains
• Value-added enterprises for the production of peanut butter, palm oil and fruit juice
• Use the Inland Valley Swamps (IVS) areas in the cocoa and coffee plots to create a new rice field
• Nurse all pea, citrus, cocoa and coffee seedlings on bonds created after digging the central and peripheral canals in the IVS

Team

Diane Babcock, Nanaimo, BC Canada

• project consultant, business owner, life coach, humanitarian, crowdfunding coordinator, contributor

Gaspard Ngevao, Bo, Sierra Leone, Africa

• project manager, human rights advocate, NGO correspondent, budget controller

Smart Lansana, Bo, Sierra Leone, Africa

• technical advisor on climate sensitive agricultural best practices for farmers on the farm and in the Jojoima community who provides monthly farm-based demonstrations on plots of land

On-site full-time labour: Amara Siyieh, Amara Ngevao,  Victoria Ngevao,  Hajah Mariama Ngevao

• land clearing, farm huts construction, security fence construction, prune oil palm trees, cut unwanted tree covers,  replant seedlings to replace dead crops, food preparation

Family members attending educational institutions will join the farm work during holidays

Community contributions

1. The Jojoima community authorities have been approached and agreed to provide an additional 5 acres for the cultivation of additional crops or to diversify the food crops on the farm.
2. The community youths are willing to volunteer on provision of voluntary labor when requested and food for work is provided.

Environmental stewardship

1. Green manures with no chemicals, no fertilizers, no pesticides, no tilling, no burning 
2. Climate-sensitive technologies to prune the farm crops, particularly the oil palm plants
3. Appropriate climate-sensitive local tools to construct a secured farm hut and storage facility

Expanding the model

From the proceeds of the farm activities, the family will support, on a revolving cash loan basis two other families per year in the Jojoima community to rehabilitate their own farms and economic situations.

Endorsements

• Wisteria Community Association, Nanaimo, BC Canada
  • On a mission for the relief of poverty by providing much needed food, friendship and necessities to the homeless in Nanaimo through their Stone Soup kitchen outreach.

Socioeconomics of the area

People

• Population of 3,136 people. Nearly 39.3% of the population are under the age of 15.
• While English is the official language Creole or Krio is the common language spoken by everyone in Sierra Leone.
• The majority (about 90%) of the population follows Islam with the rest follows mainly Christianity.
• A patriarchal society with high gender inequalities, resulting in women and girls having less power in regard to access to economic development resources, information, education, property, decision making and even their freedom. This results in domestic and sexual violence against women, the trafficking of women, early marriages and childbirth and pregnancies.

Industry

• Agriculture is the main occupation for the majority of the people and almost 95% are employed in this sector
• Malema chiefdom has the largest cultivable land areas in the Kailahun District with tremendous mineral and forest resources.
• Unfortunate is that unequal access and inefficient natural resources management leave thousands of the inhabitants, particularly women and girls, grossly poor and malnourished.

Country

• Sierra Leone is part of Sub Saharan Africa (below the Sahara Desert)
• According to the WFP, the people disproportionately suffered from poor food intake due to the food insecurity situation in Sierra Leone, which deteriorated in Jojoima and other communities of the Kailahun District in 2022.

PLANNED PHASES

This is the activity report for the first phase of this one-year project that is being covered in this campaign.

Measuring Progress

At the beginning of the action in May 2023 and at the end of the implementation of the project activities in June 2024, the following indicators of progress will be assessed by the Jojoima community leaders together with the members of the SaffaGbokoh household.The project activities will be reviewed on a monthly basis and reports shared with family members. This will be coordinated by Gaspard, the Head of the SaffaGbokoh family.

Starting from zero the rise in these scores will be the progress indicators:

Number of targeted household members having:

1. sustained access to Improved food intake
2. sustained access to improved accommodation facilities
3. a personal savings bank account
4. access to effective healthcare services and facilities, when sick.
5. access to required effective educational services and facilities.

Percentage of people in Jojoijma having:

1. access to locally-grown food products, at affordable costs.
2. access to value-added products sold at comparatively lower costs in the community market
3. access to and utilize the services at the demonstration site for education on climate-sensitive agricultural practices and technologies.
4. restored their economic as well as political independence and self-reliance.

Percentage of project households with:

1. multiple sources of family income

Planned Phases

Phase 1 (Quarter 1)

May 21, 2023 - August 31, 2023

Cultivate a rice crop in the Inland Valley Swamp as advised by the agriculturist in the community because of the timetable of agriculture

Preliminary

• gather tools on hand: rope, bush sticks
• organize team duties
• consult with community agriculturist

Activity

1. Gather and address the workers as to the approach and purpose of the first step
2. Submit expense report

Phase 1 (Quarter 2)

September 1, 2023 - November 30, 2023

Phase 1 (Quarter 3)

December 1, 2023 - February 29, 2024

Phase 1 (Quarter 4)

March 1, 2024 - May 31, 2024

Plantation Rehabilitation Balance Sheet