Your support and advice needed

[Eskender Mulugeta]

Dear, Friends and Family

Warm greetings from Addis Ababa. 

As you can read in the news the situation with Ukraine is heavily affecting East African countries. The situation in Addis Ababa is both worrying but also an opportunity. The prices for food have increased tremendously but in the same time the Ethiopian government started pushing truly hard on urban agriculture idea and has ordered all schools and public institutions to start gardens in their compounds. 

I work tirelessly to contribute with my skills and resources to this movement. On the small plot i work i have started producing high quality vegetable seedlings. 

The problem I encounter these days is that (1) generally the schools and health centers are not given budgets to actually implement the gardens. Everyone is trying to "fix" this and asking me to provide seedlings for free. 

(2) when there are budgets provided, the contracts are awarded following corruption ways. When the middle men or the authorities finally reach the point to do concrete work, they push me to sell the seedlings under the cost of production and the expertise is considered for free.        

I would very much like to continue to be able to provide seedlings and technical advice to as many schools. I very much want to upscale the work done so far by Food Secured Schools Africa. 

https://foodsecuredschoolsafrica.wordpress.com/

Over the years I have learned a lot from you and I turn once more to your kindness and wisdom on how to best continue on my mission path.

Please: 

- share your best advice on how to grow Food Secured Schools Africa in a sustainable and impactful way, while avoiding the pitfalls  

- please have a look at the Patreon page   https://www.patreon.com/FoodSecuredSchoolsAfrica 

and advise me how to make it better and also share it among people who you think are sensitive and have the means to contribute 

- if you know small foundations, impact investors or prizes that i can apply to, the information is highly appreciated!

  

Thank you so much for your time !

Yours gratefully, 

Eskender/Alex