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Reaching out

Residents seek to better themselves

& their communities

Each year, the St. John’s College
Outreach Committee supports
charitable projects around the
world and in our local community
to help those in need. To do so,
the members of the Committee
give generously of their time,
helping local organizations and
raising money for a variety of
projects. Over the past two years,
the Committee has been

involved with a chicken project

in Lesotho, Africa, and with

the now famous Holiday Dinner
for Homeless at the Lookout
Society’s Living Room Drop-in
Centre on Vancouver's

Downtown Eastside.

The Chicken Project

In 2006, Junior Fellow Mathabo
Tsepa gave a talk about her

PhD research project based on
the community of Ha Mpiti,
Qacha’s Nek district in southern
Lesotho. After her talk, some
residents asked her how they
could help this community. Their
desire to be involved was the

prelude to this wonderful project!

Ha Mpiti is an area severely
affected by the HIV/AIDS
pandemic, which has negatively
affected agricultural labour and
the food production. In 2004,
Mathabo founded a community-

Members of Mohoma Temeng tend their

new flock of chickens.

based organization called
Mohoma Temeng to help improve
the well-being of the community
and promote food security. The
group consists of 19 women and
one 13 year old girl, who took
her mother’s place in the group
after she died of AIDS. Mohoma
Temeng’s first concern was

to find a way to inexpensively
provide the community with
food in a sustainable fashion.

To help meet the needs identified
by this group of women, the

St. John’s Outreach Committee
decided to raise money, which

their organization could use to

buy chickens. The eggs produced
by the chickens will provide

food for children, money to buy
additional food and supplies,
and resources necessary to sus-

tain the project.

Spring 2007

By: Chantal Beauregard,
Mathabo Tsepa & Dave Freeman

A services auction held during
the March 2006 International
formal dinner raised over
$2,100—four times more than
expected. Mohoma Temeng

has purchased the first group of
100 chickens and will use
leftover money to buy chicken
feed or replace chickens as
necessary. Due to the worldwide
bird flu crisis, delivery of

the chickens took longer than
originally anticipated, but
finally, on January 4th 2007, the
birds arrived in Ha Mpiti. The
help provided by the Outreach
Committee has revitalized the

life of this community.

Holiday Dinner for

the Homeless

This past December, for the
second consecutive year,

the Outreach Committee held

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