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Farmers Own owns a corporate history fifteen years long that embraces action in concert with an NGO sister organisation (NGO now closed because it was inappropriate to smallholder business development and the eradication of poverty). In those years the Farmers Own movement has been honoured and priviledged to disburse more than $5 million. The major donors were DFID (British Government), The Rockefeller Foundation, The Ford Foundation.
In all these disbursements leakage was very very low and two major due diligence studies, one by KPMG and one by Ernst and Young, reported that all numbers stacked up. Not only have we shown transparency and accountability the work has delivered good result at every stage, with numerous very positive external reviews on record.
The New Programme was made possible by a faith based agency, ICCO, with HQ in the Netherlands. ICCO made a seed grant of E15,000 and some months later approved a grant contract for E900,000, a substantial proportion of the estimated costs of the first main business development project of the Farmers Own programme. While more money is still needed for this project and a raft of others that associate with the innovative endeavour the sprit and purpose displayed is an example for many more to follow. Far sighted ICCO has moved quickly to its own programme of fair economic development and a leading agency in pro-poor business development.
The purpose of the grant contract is:
- To bring 40,000 people out of poverty in 5 years by growing and trading food crops selected by Farmers Own;
- Farmers will build their own group businesses with help in organisation, management, and marketing facilitated initially by Farmers Own;
- Farmers Own will be built as a pro-poor, not for profit, fair trade marketing organisation to provide the essential channel to market;
Thus far there has been no vigorous fund raising as it was felt prudent to initiate and gain a first result. Yet, the word is getting out spontaneously and the first direct donors are coming forward.
Some smaller agencies are getting involved and they can be very innovative in making their contributions as these examples show.
We salute these generous donors for the contributions that they have made towards improving the lives of farmers in Kenya.
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Liberty House - Hotel in Cornwall, United Kingdom
Glenalmond College - School in Scotland
Softorque - Software Development Company
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Liberty House |
| Liberty House was one of those elegant small hotels in a superb North Cornwall location. Its proprietors gifted money but went well beyond that. On their website they advertised our site and they increased their bed night charge slightly, so that a contribution to Farmers Own was made on behalf of every hotel guest.
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Glenalmond college |
| Glenalmond college is a leading Scottish public school. Pupils supported by staff and the Master spent several weeks of earnest fund raising, doing gigs and collections. They raised near £4,000 pounds.
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Softorque |
| Softorque - developers of specialist professional applied software from operating electricity supply services to educational databases have provided numerous services pro bono, all in support of our work. For some years Softorque have hosted our web site on one of their servers
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