Coffee plantation, my mum's retirement plan.

What 1000 dollars could do for me?

My mom is not just my mom but my best friend, mentor in the school of life, my motivation, and a heroine. She was widowed at just 30 with 4 kids, me being the eldest, then aged 10, and the youngest aged 10 months old. My dad was the breadwinner, so after his demise in the year 2007, she had more start from scratch. My dad had been hospitalized for a while, and so she was left with nothing to help raise us.

She didn’t have any certificates for herself, so she had to do casual jobs to make ends meet, sometimes even up to 3 of them a day just to get that extra coin. She never neglected us, even for a day, and we never starved or stopped schooling. Life became tough by the day as she was used to my father’s help, and she decided to try life in the city. She was hardworking and determined to give us a better life, so she left my siblings in the care of my maternal grandmother since I was away on sponsorship then, and left. She got a job, though not well paid, and that is how her life took a turn for the better.

She got employed as a waitress, earning so little, but she never gave up. She has been in the alcohol field for almost 15 years, but never in her life has she gotten carried away by her problems. She has never taken alcohol. Her life has been on the term Do what your hand findeth to do, and God shall bless you in it. She mastered the game and set up a small business of her own, and that is what has seen my siblings and me through school. She saw me through university as a self-sponsored student, and it was my school and career of choice. And in 2022, I graduated. All my siblings are done with high school now, waiting to go to college and pursue their dreams.

Since the coronavirus pandemic, businesses have been affected, and she was not an exception, and with the strained economy, you can’t just gather enough. After my brother’s demise last year, he was buried in our parental land, and since then, my grandmother has been assuring her that the land where my father and brother are buried is hers. It is so sloppy, but that is where she wants to put up her small coffee plantation.

Over time, coffee, if well-tended, gives people good fortune. With the sloping nature, a lot of finances will come in handy to ensure that the plantation doesn’t get carried away and start with the creation of terraces to break the long, steep slope into a series of shorter and more level steps to proceed with planting the coffee. Also, a seedling of the Ruiru 11 coffee that thrives well in the area costs around 150 shillings per plant, meaning that more money is required to purchase them. Fertilizers and pesticides are also a requirement, and labor is used for up to 2 years for their maturation. In its maturation span, it will be more of a spending to ensure maximum production, a long-term investment.

Nature of the land Terraces visualization (courtesy of vecteezy)  

Thriving coffee sample from my grandmother's plantation

If I get the 1000-dollar funding, I could visualize my mom’s dream as being a blessing to us, who never neglected us even when she had no clue what to do and how to do it, believed in our future, and would do anything to make it happen. She saw me through university, and even though I haven’t gotten a job yet, she has never pressured me or mentioned that I wasted her money. She will read through my articles and comment because she believes in me. I want to see her smile, and that she is good at farming her plantation, will thrive, shortening her money strains.

845 dollars will go into coffee, while the remaining 155 dollars will go to poultry farming. Initially, we had started keeping broilers, and they did very well, but an infection came and affected them, and we counted a few losses, but over time, we have learned how to control them. I still have my customers intact, as I still receive calls and messages to make sales. It will gladden my heart to go back to poultry farming; it had gone a long way in contributing to the family's well-being.

Sample of our previous poultry farming progress (from chick to meat)