Fishponds!

Last month I was able to photograph another harvest of one of our fishponds up in Lofa county. This program works through local churches. The community/church commits to building the fishpond with SP's technical leading, and SP supplies the fingerlings for the ponds. There are six ponds typically in one community, so that each pond can be harvested twice a year, giving the community fish every month of the year for up to thirty years! It is quite a cool project.

This particular fishpond is in Sevelahun. Predominantly a M*slim community, the church only had 25 members when SP came to work there. When the church asked the community for land to build the fishpond, the community gave them a spot that has never been farm-able, and was written off. The chief told the church, "If you succeed here, that will say a lot about your god."

The Sevelahun fishpond is the most plentiful fishpond we have! The church has grown to over 150 members, and the last harvest was 325 kilograms of fish! The church has used the fish to feed the vulnerable in their community, and to sell in order to build a church building for themselves.

As a result of the church growth and the fruitfulness of the fishpond, the Imam of Sevelahun responded with, "I now know that you serve the One, true God!"

The town chief and his wife, leaving the harvest with some of the fish they purchased, carried in his hat.