Roslin Orphanage Blog

Greetings from Roslin Orphanage
WE WANT TO BE SELF SUFFICIENT

Here is a plan in the near future that Roslin orphanage is having. Any one having  the interest on participating are welcome.

We are planning to open up a banana farm ( which was supposed to be opened few months back but because of my job situation and the day to day need we have not been able to do it ). The length of this project can be 4 to 5 months.

The farm will be at some 2,5 hectares of land or 25 000 m2  ( our land that we bought it  earlier ). They are a 100 x 200 meters  and attached to it 100  x 50 meter. Total perimeter is about 800 meters. The shape is very much squarish , by the road side and full with either Acacia Leucophloea , Disambiguasi or locally we call it as “kom” tree.  Its a complete bush with lots of thorny plants and simply not an easy thing to clear up the land.
What we have to do at the first stage is to make the fence  while at the same time to clean up the land so that we can plan the banana trees on it.
From this farm we are planning to sell the banana as banana , as chips and and food materials that are using banana as the ingredients.
At the same farm also we will have some animals ( cow, goat and pigs) so that the leafs and the trees can be used to feed the animal, the animals can produce the fertilizer and the cycle of being organic can be done accordingly. We will only plant some 600 – 800 trees at the most but in  1 year time it can be some 3000 trees at least. Banana trees are easy to maintain and robust to hardship.
After 2 years of planting the trees and looking after it  well , we can have harvest every day for the whole year .
Thus we will be creating job, making some income for the orphanage to sustain, practical job and activities for the children , breeding animal to later on to be sold with some profit and making the natural and organic fertilizer.
I will be more than happy to share this project with any one who  is having the interest as our partner for this effort.

What will be required are , land clearing, a chain saw for cutting the hard and thorny trees and making fence from live trees as well as barb wire or bricks.  Few cangkul and 5 big parangs , a small generator .The animal stall will be build 5 months later after we are ok with the planting.
Shelter at the farm at the beginning and a proper shelter at the later stage.
We will also need a storage building some 6 months later .
If we are doing the land clearing all by manual means it will at least takes about 4 to months. With some machinery it can be reduced to about 2 months at least. The fencing it self can be 2 months with 6 to 8  people doing it . The fence will be at least using some 800 x 6  meters of barb fence wire. Each unit will cost Rp 130 000 Rupiah for 50 meters.

Here is the breakdown:

Fence barb wire 4800 meters ( 4800: 50) x 130 000 =    Rp 12 480 000

pillars for each 2,5 meters ( the soil is not so solid till about 4 meters deep, so we must make it not more than 2,5 meters separation) ,

800 : 2,5 = 320 pillars , each will cost about Rp 100 000

320  x 100 000               =      Rp  32 000 000.

Water drilling ( we just did or Famila orphanage)         =      Rp  60 000 000

Piping and others for water distribution including 4 water storage for the who farm and later also for the animals breeding                  =       Rp   40 000 000

one water tower to provide gravity water distribution =   Rp     12 000 000

labor for doing the actual land clearing and fence making for 6 to 8 people for 4 months including their food and transport                    =    Rp    35 000 000 to

a generator for the night activities and water pumps      =    Rp    5 000 000

a chain saw made in Germany Styll brand                            =   Rp     10 500 000

2 unit of chains                                                                                 =   Rp         700 000

fuel, oil, gas, material transports , miscellaneous for 4 months

=    Rp      10 000 000

2 water pumps which operated alternately                       =    Rp         4 000 0000

a shelter at the farm which will be build permanently  =    Rp      50 000 000

1000 banana trees to be planted each Rp 6000              =    Rp          6 000 000

Total calculated budget                                                =   Rp  277 680 000

USD 1 is about 9 200  so its about USD  30 183 USD  or 39 ,9 SGD .

some emergency funds can be budgeted too to cover an unplanned expenses.

There so many types of bananas but we will plant Cavendish , Baby/Nino banana, Burro banana, red banana and any banana which having a good possibility to grow well over there.

The salary will be paid by our own for the first 8 months only, after that the farm can pay the labor from the harvests. We will be having about 4 person to look after the farm initially. These people will also be looking after the animal. The animal will be fed with the grass during the rainy season and by the next season will be fed by the banana leaf, Leucaena Leucephala tree or locally called as Lamtoro or Petai China which will be planted at the fence area for some 700 meters stretch and other plants that is edible by the animal. Petai China or Lamtoro is having the high ability to store Nitrogen thus will make the soil more fertile. We  can make the fruit as a salad or cook it with anchovy and young coconut plus chilly. If we eat it as a salad it will create two functions , one is to create an unpleasant gas ( like when we are eating garlic) but the second one is very interesting because  the fruit of this Lamtoro or Petai China can cure people from Askariasis worms ( which will come out alive).

Our target in 4 years , 10-15  jobs being created  at the farm , 10 jobs related with the banana processing and  marketing and sustainable income to support the orphanage.

The animal breeding will be done some 5 months later.
Any efforts to help will be appreciated.

Project can be started as early as soon as possible if the financial part is available

Have a blessed day
Budi and family