Fish farming in the community of Yaoundè

The community of Sisters of Charity in Yaounde is located on one of the hills of Yaounde and lives in a house surrounded by a large plot of land, almost all of which is cultivated to support the sisters and the most needy families in the area. From 2022, the community plans to start fish farming, beginning with Tilapia, to feed the community but also to start a small business with neighbouring congregations, a few small restaurants in the city, some colleges and students from the nearby Catholic University. In addition, the water drained from the ponds helps to irrigate the vegetable garden, so the community can have fresh vegetables throughout the year. The cost of purchasing fish and vegetables has already been significantly reduced.

However, having only one tank made breeding difficult, as it required waiting for the fish to grow, selling them, and then starting the cycle again with another batch of fish to breed. The cycle was therefore very long and extensive. In 2023, the Thouret Foundation contributed to the construction of two more tanks so that each could contain a quantity of fish that had reached the same level of growth, thus ensuring a continuous cycle between the fish sold and those replaced, purchased while still young and to be raised. Even so, it was still not possible to cover the necessary expenses due to the increase in prices and therefore also in the cost of feeding the fish: a sack of feed for fry costs 27,000 CFA francs and that for larger fry 25,000 francs. At these prices, it is difficult to purchase a considerable quantity of fry, while the basins are designed to hold between 1,500 and 2,000. It was therefore necessary to intervene again: last October, with the help of the Foundation and Novara Centre, we managed to build another large concrete tank: this now allows us to have a farm of 3,000 fish that are already growing. The work has therefore increased and the community cannot keep up with it all. A young orphan, eager to work, has therefore been hired: his contribution is very important for keeping the premises clean, caring for the fish and contacting customers. The project promises to lead to positive development and thus make it possible not only to support the community of nuns and the studies of the younger girls, but also to offer some financial assistance to the poorest families in the area. All this also creates greater harmony with nature and creation, in line with the ecological choices that the Congregation is gradually developing and, above all, with the desire to live according to what Pope Francis teaches us in his encyclical Laudato Si’:

(158) In the current state of global society, where there are so many inequalities and an increasing number of people are being excluded and deprived of their fundamental human rights, the principle of the common good immediately becomes, as a logical and inescapable consequence, an appeal for solidarity and a preferential option for the poorest. This option requires understanding the consequences of the common destination of the earth’s resources, however, as I tried to show in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium,[123] it requires first of all contemplating the immense dignity of the poor in the light of the deepest convictions of faith. It is enough to observe reality to understand today that this option is a fundamental ethical requirement for the effective realisation of the common welfare.