Grinding Mill & Huller to Process Food For Feeding Orphans

The Need:

The primary staple food source for the orphan children of Siloam Mountain Junior School is a porridge known as "posho." It's made from corn (maize) flour. When available, they supplement posho with beans to add protein and with sauces to add flavor.

The boarding school of 618 students (currently) grows their own maize, but it takes considerable resources for corn kernel removal from the cobbs for drying. Since there are no milling services locally, the corn must then be transported a long distance to a mill, where they pay to process it into flour, bag it, and then must pay additional transport costs to have it returned to the orphanage/school. This has been a recurring seasonal expense necessary for feeding these precious children.

We determined it would be more prudent in the long run to create a way for Siloam Mtn. to take care of their need in-house by enabling them to establish their own mill to save on outsourcing costs.  We hope this would then allow them to transition into offering mill services to the surrounding community to create a new income stream as we progress towards self-sustainability.  Additionally, the processing creates a by-product called bran which can also be used or sold for livestock feed.

This fundraiser will make the FINAL payment owed on the grinding mill.

History of the Project:

We were advised that a three-phase mill would be required to: (1) be large and powerful enough to handle the volume output needed for this number of children, and (2) to also be adequate for light commercial use.

The single-phase power available at Siloam Mtn. was inadequate for this type of mill, so larger power lines had to be brought to the village along with installation of a larger transformer. The lines and transformer were granted through a government allocation program applied for, but it did not include installation labor costs. A power crew was secured, but to keep costs down the school had to make a commitment to house and feed the 25-man crew during the process. It ended up taking three weeks and 4 days to bring 3-phase closer to the site for an adequate power source. As you can imagine, available resources were greatly depleted - the school did not fully realize how long the job would end up taking.

A down payment was previously made on the needed mill equipment which is being stored on-site. However, the company has been holding back key operational parts for the huller and miller until it’s paid for in full. Due to other more pressing needs that have arisen, it has been a long time now, and the supplier is growing impatient.

To avoid repossession of the grinder and huller components, the FINAL payment owed of $2,000 must be paid to the supplier by mid-April. We must have this amount no later than April 10th in order to send the funds in time.

Please prayerfully consider helping us by making a tax-deductible donation to Hope of a Nation to accomplish this time sensitive goal.

Once the mill equipment is secured, then attention will turn to the additional project to construct and power a structure to house and efficiently run a milling service.