Report from BHW Field Director

Recent Events

At the end of November 2014 I spent a week in Nagaland with the Bright Hope Nagaland team. I attended a number of meetings and interviews and travelled to Longwa, on the Myanmar border with Nagaland, to attend a medical camp.

Since the last report a lot has happened at the BHN farm. It still continues to produce great pigs and is being used as a demonstration farm for the State. Subong Aier, the director, has been given an award by the State Government for his contribution to animal husbandry and awareness. 

However the farm is only marginally viable financially and it takes a huge amount of effort by Subong to keep it running. He has had serious health issues and a minor stroke so it is a real struggle. Subong and Nerula's son, Moa, was running the farm for a period but he has gone out of State for a year to attend a training course. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community
The influence is large and growing. Goverment officials are constantly coming to see how to farm pigs. University students come for experience. A great problem in the education system in India is that all the learning is done in the classroom. Everything is geared away from being practical. 

Along with the award given to Subong, the pig farmers association continues to grow and have influence. The outcome of more than 30 farmers now growing pigs and joining the association shows the influence this farm is having. 

BHN has partnered with a number of other Christian organisations to maximise their influence in Nagaland and further afield. While in Nagaland I met the leaders of many significant partner organisations. 

Subong clearly sees that the most effective way to impact the community in the future is to get more farms established and growing their own pigs. 

Ideas for the Future
There are a number of issues being explored, but at the end of the day a decision has been made to downscale the current farming operation. This will take a huge amount of pressure off Subong and free him up to become more effective expanding the work out into the community.

The plan is to expand the pig farmers association to over 100 farmers. 

Along with the expansion there will be a need to develop a pig food processing plant in Dimapur. At the moment most of the pig food is brought in from out of State. The cost of pig food is the single biggest issue the farmers face and the major reason the farm is under financial pressure. 

At some time in the future it would be good to introduce Foundations for Farming to grow feed for the pigs as well as for the people. With increased production, there would then be an opportunity to develop the feed mill. 

There is a strong desire to grow the outreach from the farm into more farms and also into support of rural medical health worker training. This will be developed in partnership with Bright Hope World.

Current Issues and Challenges
Working through the best way to downscale the operation so it still produces enough to sustain the family. 

Prayer and Praise Points
1) The impact the farm has had on the community
2) Strength for Subong to continue the farming work
3) Wisdom about the best way forward into other opportunities
4) That the model of bivocational church leaders and missionaries would catch on 
5) That the changes made would increase the impact of the whole work
6) That Foundations for Farming would be able to get there soon

Comments
It's great to see the cooperation that is now going on between BHN and the other mission and farming groups. Subong has been the catalyst for this happening. 

There is no need for further funding for the agriculture but there is opportunity to support the medical outreach plan that is developing (IND12a). There is also a great opportunity to come here with Foundations for Farming. I talked to many of them about it and it cannot come quickly enough from their point of view.