Youths raise K12,000 from poultry project

By PHOEBE GWANGILO
YOUTHS from a notorious community in Port Moresby have raised more than K12,000 from a chicken project initiated by the Department of Justice and Attorney-General to prevent crime.
The 80 youths from the Morata settlement raised K12,664 from the sale of chicken. They ordered  six  more boxes of day-old chicks from Zenag Chicken at a discount, according to Janet Benabo, director of the coordinating agency, Urban Rural Development Foundation.
Benabo said they paid their labour costs and budgeted for chicken feed and the leftover money would be saved to assist youths in venturing  into other businesses or to pay school fees.
“On March 30, 20 youths started  with 150 day-old chicks (30 boxes). Today 140 youths are involved in the chicken project,” Benabo said.
“We have 14 projects sites (10 youths per site) now in different streets. 10 project sites already sold their chickens and four are yet to sell theirs.
“Out of those 10 project sites, eight did extremely well and two did not make it due to a lack of stock feed.
“These eight project sites made K12,646 from the chicken sold and ordered chicks from Zenag again.”
The cost of day-old chicks is K265 per box but the project paid a discounted price of K150 per box.
“We saw that the project was very good, it has empowered and changed the mindset of the youths,” Benabo said.