Fifteen families benefit from FSPA Share a Sheep fundraising effort

Edited by Marie Des Jarlais, FSPA
Original article in Spanish from Eusebio Hernandez Rojas, translated by Jaime Chavolla

The Share a Sheep project started with the participation of an affiliate group and Sister Suzanne Rubenbauer who attended the Franciscan Pilgrimage Retreat in Mexico in 2008.

After a visit to the countryside, the group expressed an interest in starting a project to help the rural poor. From that experience the Share a Sheep project was born. The group committed to raising $6,000 to assist with the purchase of sheep.

True to their promise, donations from FSPA affiliates, members and prayer partners totaled $6,100. Three payments were made during the project: $2,000 in January 2009, another $2,000 in April 2009, and $2,100 in January 2010.

After the Mexican Revolution, poor farming families were allotted enough land to have small “patios” behind their homes. Now many families raise animals on their small plots of land. By raising chickens, pigs, goats, sheep and sometimes even a cow, rural Mexican families have an added source of food and needed income.
Raising animals has become part of poor farmers’ reality and focus. Today, however, factors such as monopolies and transnational corporations discourage and block natural and family-owned, self-sustainable practices. In the Mexican countryside, especially with the emigration boom and the consequent influx of U.S. dollars, farming families are put in to aggressive competition with the industrialized food process from monopolies and transnational corporations.

In trying to counteract these tendencies, the Mexican families express their gratitude to FSPA affiliates and members for helping the families of Apaseo El Alto, Guanajuato, Mexico. Their donations have directly benefited 15 families and 75 working family members who are organized into three groups under the direction of five single-mother households. It has also allowed for the purchase of 50 ewes and three rams for reproductive purposes, allowing the three groups to benefit financially.

The decision to work with sheep was made because it is mainly the women and children who are raising these more docile animals. There is also adequate pasture in the rural areas since corn, corn husks, sorghum and lentils are raised. Finally, sheep have good market demand and value.

The Share a Sheep project has generated benefits for both the families as well as for the general community. The families have benefitted with increased cooperation among its members. When a family is raising animals everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, feels responsible to contribute to the care of the animals, and finds ways to work together and share in the benefits. In addition, raising small animals is an important factor in the local community’s economy and mirrors an example and possibility for others to follow. This project has generated interest precisely because so many people can benefit.

The present Mexican crisis of scarcity and inflation that affects everyone demands solutions and alternatives. Here in Apaseo El Alto, there are five more groups awaiting assistance. The fifteen families helped are all very grateful.

Currently GATE Charitable Giving has an agricultural account balance of $434. The Share a Sheep project continues to accept gifts.