Launch a Dream
Giving a family a flock of chickens has the power to change their lives through:
🐤 Nutrition: eggs are a great source of protein
💰 Income: selling eggs & offspring provides the family with an ongoing source of revenue
📚 Education: extra income allows families to pay for things like their children’s schooling
👪 Giving Back: each recipient gives some of the offspring to another family in need, so the impact is exponential
Giving a family a flock of chickens has the power to change their lives through:
🐤 Nutrition
💰 Income
📚 Education
👪 Giving Back
Shafiq is a Christian in rural Uganda. His church is partnering with Bright Hope to give poor farmers a fighting chance to provide food and income for their families. When he was given chickens, he decided to call them “dream launchers”—and they’ve set life on a different course for him and his family.
Let us explain…
Shafiq was at his breaking point trying to support his family of 16. They grew crops, but their land wasn’t big enough to produce both food for their family to eat, as well as enough surplus to sell and support their needs. He rented more land so he could grow more, but he struggled to pay the landlord’s fees.
But then, boom—game changer: Shafiq received 10 chickens from his church.
Within a month, they were laying eggs and multiplying. He divided the eggs so that some were sold, some were eaten by the family, and some were left to hatch and increase the number of his flock.
Within about six months from when the chickens began laying, Shafiq was able to sell 20 chickens. Now he’s been able to earn enough money to easily pay for the land he’s renting, buy seeds for planting, feed his family, and pay for his children to go to school.
“We have named our chickens ‘dream launchers.’ They have helped us launch our dream of educating our children. We never lack seeds for our garden and we are able to...boost nutrition in our home,” Shafiq told us.
Dream launchers. This is awesome. We love how something as seemingly insignificant as an inexpensive chicken has the potential to change a life—not just for one person, but for an entire family.
You can help a church in rural villages struggling with extreme poverty. Bright Hope’s partner churches are giving 10 chickens to each family and training on how to raise them. Give a chicken, each one costs $6 or give 10 chickens to lift a poor family up.
***AND… Chickens really are a “gift that keeps on giving.” Why? Because when the chickens begin to reproduce, some offspring are given to another family. Then, when their chickens start to reproduce, some offspring are given to another family…and on and on the cycle continues! The impact is exponential!
Frequently Asked Questions
Uganda and Zambia—though we might be expanding to other countries soon!
10 chickens
Our partner churches choose families that are the most destitute, but who are also willing to invest time and effort into an income-generating venture like raising chickens.
The chickens are free-range chickens. That means they are free to roam during the day and just need a coop to keep them safe at night. Each family is free to construct the shelter however they want—sometimes it will be made of wood, while other times it may be made of mud.
Because these are free-range chickens, they roam and find their own food. However, some families grow corn and when it’s ground to flour, the husks are used as chicken feed to supplement what the chickens are finding on their own.
The chickens are usually between four and five months old, and they are a breed that can be used both for laying eggs and being raised for meat.
Yes. Our in-country partners give farmers training on how to take care of their chickens. Additionally, they are also encouraged to form groups to share their experiences so they can learn and gain more knowledge from each other.
Yes, they do, and each family is responsible for vaccinating their own chickens. Having the families invest in their flock instills a sense of pride, ownership and responsibility as they are growing their flock, pulling themselves out of poverty and starting to live a better life!
Yes. There are committees that are in charge of following up with the families. (And sometimes we even send our awesome reporter and photographer, Julius, to visit the families and capture the amazing transformation happening in their lives!)
The answers in this FAQ apply to how the program is run in Uganda, however there are some variances country to country.
A Partner You Can Trust
One of Bright Hope’s highest values is integrity. We understand the value of every dollar we receive and the difference every dollar can make in the life of someone in extreme poverty. We value the trust you have given us to effectively and efficiently deliver help to those in need.
A: Bright Hope is a Christian organization made up of allies (donors) who want to bless and help the poorest people in the world. We build relationships with Bible believing churches in remote villages and city slums that want to minister to their poor neighbors. Then we help those churches bring “Hope for Today, Tomorrow and Eternity” to their neighborhood. We’ve been doing this for 50 years, in 5 counties and have thousands of allies, but we need your help.
When we think about Shafiq, we smile with excitement at the way something as simple as chickens are changing the course of life for an entire family…and therefore probably future generations as well. We love playing a role in this story.
You can be a dream launcher too! Give a chicken today and change a life forever.