This Cricket farming project will enable 500 HIV positive women in informal settlements earn a living, by earnings made from the cricket rearing. It will also boost their immunity by using grounded cricket flour, which in return will increase their CD4 count and suppress the viral load. This will ensure healthy women resulting to healthy families as most women in informal settlements are the sole bread winners for their families.
More women than men in the slums of Nakuru are living with HIV from a study conducted recently by Nakuru AIDS indicator survey. In the recent past we have lost many people to opportunistic infections resulting from high viral load and suppressed immunity. Crickets contain 65% protein which is termed as a high immunity booster. We have grouped 500 women to benefit from this immune boosting project and at the same time it will serve as a source of income to the women.
The project seeks to develop 6 cricket rearing centers in 6 locations of the slums on Nakuru, Kenya. we have grouped 500 women in 3 cells. Each cell containing of 167 women. In their cells they will be trained on cricket rearing and benefits of using cricket products to boost their immunity. 60% of the products made from the crickets will be sold to help in project sustainability while 40% will be used by the members of the group in their meals to help in building their immunity.
We will educate 500 women of cricket farming and as a high protein meal. The long term the project will have helped in reducing the number of deaths resulting from opportunistic infections related to HIV in the slums of Nakuru. Some of these women are infected alongside their spouses and even children. With the consumption of the high protein content from crickets the families of the women will also have benefited from the project, from improved immunity and an alternative source of income.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
