PDM beneficiary in Gulu loses chicken to thieves, poisoning

GULU, July 4, 2024 – A Parish Development Model [PDM] beneficiary in Gulu district is counting losses after her chicken bought using the funds provided under the government programme were stolen while others were allegedly poisoned by unknown persons.

Martina Abu, 78, a resident of Laminyango village, Pageya parish, Awach Subcounty in Gulu district was among the first beneficiaries of the programme in the district in August 2023.

The PDM was launched in February 2022 and aims at moving 3.5 million households in Uganda from the subsistence to the money economy, where the beneficiaries receive money from government in the form of cheap loans to invest in enterprises like poultry, piggery, dairy farming, coffee, among several others.

Abu said she used the Shs 1mln advanced to her by the PDM SACCO to procure 30 Kroiler chicken, 20 of them hens for egg production. The PDM money is supposed to be paid back to the Parish Revolving Fund [RPF] after two years, the beneficiaries having made some profits.

However, she lost 20 of her chicken to unknown thieves while the remaining chicken had started laying eggs offering her some form of quick income.

“My chicken have been laying 12 eggs daily which I have been selling at Shs 400 per egg to local traders who come to buy them. Now I have lost my source of income,” Abu who has a partial hearing difficulty told theCooperator.

Her son, Patrick Labeja said the loss of the chicken is a big blow to his mother who has been relying on the eggs to cater for her six grandchildren.

“This occurrence has really shocked us. We have never experienced this kind of incident, where chicken are poisoned. My mother went to let the chicken out in the morning on Monday only to find some of them dead. Others which were still alive in the morning died later in the banana garden,” Labeja said.

Labeja wondered who could have maliciously poisoned the chicken, adding that one of the dead chicken had ingested poison used by farmers to kill rodents.

Ambrose Odong, Local Council One Chairperson Laminyango village confirmed the bad incident and said the incidents of theft and poisoning of the chicken, saying it is a sabotage of government interventions to support poor households to create wealth for themselves.

“I went and confirmed that the dead chicken were indeed poisoned. I have now convened a meeting for Friday [tomorrow] to address the matter, and find out who could have done such a heartless act,” said Odong.

PDM is a government strategy for organising and delivering public and private sector interventions for wealth creation and employment generation at the parish level as the lowest economic planning unit. The programme follows other government initiatives aimed at fighting poverty and creating wealth, such as Operation Wealth Creation [OWC].

https://thecooperator.news/bugisu-gisos-directed-to-supervise-pdm/

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