Cal Bombay Ministries

February/March 2012
Telling It Like It Is: As the newest nation on earth, South Sudans economy is fragile and underdeveloped. South Sudan is considered to have the worst social and economic indicators in the world. Its annual inflation shot up to nearly 80 per cent in May 2012. The Good News! I am happy to tell you, that in the face of all these facts, there is hope. I can tell you that one of the brightest spots in this collection of horrors is what is happening in agriculture in the Kajo Kaji area of South Sudan. As you read this newsletter, two wonderful things are happening: 1) The largest harvest we have ever seen is being brought to our mill for processing into flour. Hundreds of tonnes are coming from the fields of the Bori farm itself.
Ladies cooking food

Out-Growers for SFC

the SFC Out-Growers have decided to increase their tillable land, grow extra maize and sell it to the SFC. Their increase is comparatively small, but they expect us to buy their excess! This took us rather off guard, since we were not aware that so many were doing it. There is about 70 tonnes that is available to us. Our challenge is that various government people have urged them to grow more and use the SFC for grinding and distribution. We dont want to disappoint any of them and make them lose faith in what the SFC is doing. We have agreed to buy their extra maize at fare market value. We did not anticipate buying this maize in our budget. This will cost us thousands of unplanned dollars. We really need some extra help to do this. 2) Along with the harvesting and processing, we are

Around 70 per cent of the people are illiterate. According to a recent survey, one out of every seven children in South Sudan dies in infancy. In some regions, there is only one doctor for every 500,000 people. More than 90 per cent of the people in South Sudan live on less than $1 a day. The majority of the people of South Sudan go to bed hungry. Two new internal refugee camps are being established as you read this. Thats the bad news.

Many more tonnes are being purchased from our Out-Growers grown on their small farms. It is probably the busiest time of year for our staff working in the Savannah

100 kg bags of maize in the warehouse in Bori

Farmers Cooperative (SFC). A strange and wonderful situation has arisen. People who have seen the success of

preparing more land than ever before for planting in late March. The machines are in the fields harrowing to be ready to plant before the April rains arrive. The pressure is on! We need to purchase high quality seeds along with fertilizer for our older fields.

coming in.What a wonderful challenge! Then there is warehousing! With our larger harvests as well as the maize being bought and or brought to the Bori mill, we have a problem. This season we have to use the church building to temporarly store some of the harvest. We really need to build additional warehousing. Our current warehouse has 120 tonnes of maize in it and the church has 150 tonnes in it. We are bursting at the seams. We need to build another large warehouse. We are planning to get grain storage bins (20 to 30 tonnes each) from Canada and ship them to South Sudan, together with grain augers to more quickly and safely move the grain from storage to the flour mill. Our job together is far from done. I need your help financially, as well as your prayers that God would lead us as we continue addressing these vital needs in South Sudan. I am often asked about the safety of working in South Sudan: The answer is, we are safe! All the news about conflict at the border between Sudan and South Sudan, and tribal conflicts within South Sudan, are at least 1,000 km away from our area of operation. They simply dont affect us in any way. I feel just as safe there as I do in my own living room. This does not mean that you

Bori Compound from the air

should drop us from your prayer list. We need your prayer support! God has blessed us with good harvests and good relationships with local small farmers. Your partnership helps us expand to meet the needs of a new and growing country. Sincerely yours in Christ, for South Sudan, Cal. R. Bombay

Preparing for the next planting

All our seeds still come from Uganda at inflated prices when being sold to South Sudan. As you can imagine, I am feeling a sense of urgency, as well as the pressure to manage from Canada through our leaders on the ground in South Sudan.

Maize ready for milling

Cal with freshly milled flour

The Challenges Continue: We are processing seven tonnes per day at the mill in Bori. We MUST increase the capacity in the flour mill. We have people working frantically on sourcing larger and better equipment to handle the harvests that are

Cal Bombay Ministries

P.O. Box 22021 794 Colborne Street E. Brantford, ON N3S 7V1 Phone: (519) 753-7380 Fax: (519) 753-6229 www.calbombayministries.org www.harvestsudan.org Email: cal@calbombayministries.org

Visit us on Facebook and Twitter