Self-sufficiency, a program to reach autonomy
As soon as we opened our orphanage in Um-phang we tried to grow as much of our own food as possible. Pastor Gum San, the house-father at our orphanage, has a university education in agriculture and this has been an enormous help in our attempts to becoming self-sufficient.
General view of the vegetable garden of the orphanage.
In the beginning there was no farm land available and so our efforts were limited to keeping chickens and fish. But later when we moved to a larger property we were able to expand our production by growing cereals, vegetables and keeping pigs. Then things dramatically improved on 12 July 2009 when we were given farmland on the northern side of Um-phang. In 2019 the Um-phang Council provided a water supply pipe to our land and now we have more than 1000 fruit trees growing there.
Children taking care of the garden.
We also encourage all of our H2O kids to become involved in the food production process so that they can learn skills which will support them later in life.
Electricity - solar panels
The orphanage has now almost become self-sufficient in electricity thanks to the generosity of a Belgium charity called Energy Assistance. Volunteers from this group have visited Um-phang twice, firstly in January 2020 when they provided solar panels to our girl's House, and then again in November 2022 when they installed solar panels to our main orphanage house and to our farm.
Solar panels installed on the girl's house roof in January 2020.