I remember being 23, I spent a lot of time rabbit farming.

After many months of planning, working, and preparing my partner and I have won our first grant! We will be starting a demonstration rabbit farm, and be essentially breeding rabbits and helping farmers in our village start a small rabbit farm. We will be bringing a superior breed of rabbit, the new Zealand rabbit, to our village, and doing seminars on proper maintenance and care of rabbits in regard to housing, food, and illnesses. Also, we will be providing some small business training and give those farmers who go through the training an opportunity to buy rabbits at a steeply discounted price so that they can start their own small rabbit business. I didn’t want to talk too much about it because so many opportunities are funding dependent and with scarce micro-funding opportunities, I wasn’t sure we would ever get this project funded. However, I am now a successful grant writer and hopefully become a successful business developer for the farmers in our community.

Volunteers normally get 1-3 grants funded during their service from my program, and to have one funded already is really a good feeling. It is definitely not what this whole job is about, it is only a small part of it to be honest, but it is really often how you are viewed from your host country nationals. I am more happy about showing that I can deliver, that I am in fact competent at something, and hopefully will open up future opportunities.

I will keep you all updated throughout the next 6 months as we implement our project and see it grow, and hopefully I will have other successes to share along the way.

Now for some properly timed, and well deserved vacation traveling. Looks like it will be 65 degrees and sunny upon arrival. Enjoy the blizzard Cincinnati.