Adeline Brevil
6/18/2009
Adeline is in a very good condition compared to other CLM members I have interviewed so far. While others on the program are eating maybe twice a week, Adeline and her family are able to eat twice a day, every day in the week. She also eats variety of food, not just rice and beans. Today, her family ate breadfruit, potatoes, and even some stew.
It turns out that Adeline is a talented entrepreneur. With the stipend, she goes out in the local market to buy rice, citron, mushroom, eggs, and platens. She carries whatever she bought on her head and travels to Milbale, a city that is farther away from the town, and there, she sells them for a better price. With the profit, she buys food to feed her family. This is extraordinary since most other women use their stipend to buy food for direct consumption or to pay debts. Last week, Adeline bought two hens with the stipend. She says that even if she cannot sell them immediately, she can always keep them for a while and then sell them later when she needs money. I asked her if she likes raising animals, and she says that she loves animals and that the animals prosper in her hands.
Adeline chose goat-raising and chicken-raising as her enterprises. Bonison (the case manager) pointed out that one of her goats was already pregnant, which is a really good sign. With the revenue and profit from animals, Adeline wants to buy more animals. She will buy a pig first. Then, more goats, a cow, another cow, and finally a horse. With a horse, she could carry more loads to the village and make more profit. Moreover, she jokes that she would no longer hurt her neck like she did this week.
Adeline hurt her neck and shoulders this week. She fell on her way back from getting drinking water from the local waterfall. She was carrying the water bucket on her head when she fell, so she hurt her shoulders and neck. This seems to be a common problem among the women who live in her village. Another woman complained to me on the same day how the road gets muddy and slippery when it rains, and that she would fall when she is trying to get water. But other than Adeline's shoulders, everyone else in the family is healthy.
Things were not always this good. Before CLM, Adeline would go hungry very often, and the people in the village would save some money for her so she could feed her children. She says that since CLM has started, things have improved a lot.
Mother of four children, Adeline has two girls and two boys. The oldest goes to school, but he is the only one who can go to school at the moment. Adeline herself was not able to go to school. She complained that her parents, or the older generation, did not know enough to put their children into school. With CLM, she was learning to write her own name for the first time. She slowly tried to write her name in front of us, which was not an easy exercise for her. She was able to finish writing her name with some help from her case manager. By the time she would be able to write her name with confidence and ease, I hope that she could also send all of her children to school.
