Lamanzan Sekindi has a remarkable story of a magic chicken! Four years ago, Lamanazan was given a chicken through our programme funded by the Good Gifts Catalogue, and thought then it would be enough to provide eggs for his family. Little did he know though that this chicken was magic! Within a year he had reared over 30 chicks, and Lamanzan had accidentally become a chicken farmer. He sold the cocks, and kept the hens, and his magic chicken continued to give lay ever more eggs.

With the proceeds of the sale of the eggs, and the cocks, he raised enough money to buy himself driving lessons and got his license to earn some additional income as a driver. By the next year, he had generated enough income to buy a cow for his sister. He also has been able to pay for the installation of electricity to his home as well, in Kamonyi in the Southern Province of Rwanda.

He is now building a chicken coop so he can expand his business even more, and through training from a local veterinarian, he has learnt about the mix of seed that the chickens need to maximise their growth. He plans now to grow the maize that they required, so that his poultry project can be even more profitable.

His ambition is simple, to generate enough income to pay the school fees for his two young children, so that “they will not miss out on the education denied to me, and to make it on to university.”

Word has spread far and wide about his magic chicken, and he has received offers of more than FRW 50,000 (£50) to sell it. However, he has refused every offer, as he believes that the chicken still has much more magic to cast for years ahead!

Who could believe that of this is possible in just four years with just one chicken!

You can support other survivors in Rwanda, as well as vulnerable people in other countries, with the purchase from Good Gifts of a chicken too!