Fish Farming
Background
For many of the families that the Western Organization for People Living with HIV/AIDS (WOPLAH) serves food insecurity, lack of consistent income, and persistent health issues are the most serious threats to families’ health and well-being. These issues often inhibit parents’ ability to feed their children and themselves, send their children to school, adhere to their antiretroviral (ARV) drug treatment (if HIV-positive), and maintain good hygiene practices. Currently, the fish pond project provides a source of healthy food and income for many individuals in the community. In addition the main WOPLAH farm also has a larger scale fish pond operation.
Objective
The intended impact of the fish pond program is to increase overall nutrition among orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) along with people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHIV) and their families. In addition fish farming opens the doors to increasing household economic status by emphasizing income generation through harvesting and sale of the fish. The overall goal of all WOPLAH’s projects including fish pond development is to improve the overall health of the project’s beneficiaries.
The Future
WOPLAH currently supports 9 fish ponds in their support group network. In addition the fish pond at the main WOPLAH farm has generated over 144,000KES which has ensured the sustainability of other WOPLAH projects.
WOPLAH hopes to expand this project to more support groups teaching individuals how to build and maintain these fish ponds while also providing education on financial literacy related to selling these fish.