When the Blake family moved to northeastern Nigeria (Maiduguri) in July of 2005, we immediately felt the August vegetable scarcity. We had lived in central Nigeria (Jos) for 4 years enjoying an abundance of sweet corn, green beans, lettuce, green peas, and broccoli. God blessed Jason Williams to visit us in August of 2005 with my mother, Carolyn Blake. Immediately, Jason perceived that Maiduguri would be a ripe candidate for a drip irrigation project through Healing Hands International. Jason went back to the College Hills church and Healing Hands preaching the need for growing veggies in the desert.
I was eventually invited by Healing Hands along with two believers in Maiduguri to attend a drip irrigation conference at Dakar, Senegal in March 2006. When we got back home to Borno State, we started composting at a piece of abandoned property. We began to secure that forgotten propety in western Maiduguri throughout 2006 with a perimeter wall. God brought $10,000 into that project to "build the wall" around this 2 1/2 acre sandy soil plot in 2006. This set the stage for our 2007 project to turn at least half of the field from a desert into a beautiful garden.
Our 2006 compost heaps were well-preserved providing a foundation for us to begin envisioning plant growth. In 2007, we began raising plant beds to test the viability of composting and drip irrigation. Parcels containing various types of seeds began rolling into our post office box allowing us to experiment with the compost and drip method. This set the stage for a bumper harvest of zucchini, squash, sweet corn, cucumber, and sweet corn in July of 2007. As our first food security workshop was launched for the Borno State Agricultural Ministry, they were deeply impressed at what could be done.
The Nigerian NGO (non-governmental organization) under whom we serve is INTERCEP (International Centre for Peace, Charities, and Human Development). INTERCEP in Maiduguri is now known as the organization impacting people at the grassroots with sustainable farming. Farmers have depended on rainy season crops like sorghum, guinea corn, millet, peanuts, and watermelon for centuries. This always proved risky because the rains only fall in northeastern Nigeria for 3 months a year at best. Now that the word is out on the street that vegetables can be grown in the desert people are excited.
Arewa Aid is our USA-based 501c3 non-profit organization that provides INTERCEP in Maiduguri with the tools that it needs to progress. Phase 1 of our vision is to help promote a sustainable agricultural project for local poor farmers. Phase 2 of our dream is to initiate a skill acquisition center that will train local unemployed youth with marketable skills like sewing, auto mechanics, electrical work, plumbing, and masonry. Phase 3 of our long-range plan is to mobilize a rural clinic on wheels that will travel to the poorest villages in northeastern Nigeria with primary health care. In phase 4 we foresee that a primary school targeting the poorest children with options in arts and computer skills will bless children with no options.
Would you become part of the Arewa Aid family in providing humanitarian empowerment to those the people of northeastern Nigeria?
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