Like many rural pastors in Burkina Faso, Pastor Emile’s church cannot fully support him financially. For years he has been trying various gardening practices to provide for his family. A year after ECHO trained members of his village, Emile shared the life-changing impact of this training — both for his family and many others.

After the training, he started a garden, produced liquid fertilizer, and substantially improved his practice of raising pigs… and the results are already very impressive. Emile’s garden produces well with the use of liquid fertilizer — which only costs him a few hours of work. As a result, his family’s nutritional intake has improved, and they are able to generate extra income from the sale of some of the garden produce. He has found that one of the challenges of raising pigs is parasitic diseases. Thanks to the ECHO training, he learned that neem oil is an excellent deworming agent for pigs.

Pastor Emile has also been actively blessing others with his new knowledge.

• He has become a highly sought-after trainer for other groups. He informed ECHO that he has already trained more than 500 people, including a significant number of fellow pastors
• Currently about fifteen women from his church now manufacture liquid fertilizer to generate income for their families. They are also selling neem seeds. Others have made the production and sale of salt licks an income generating activity for their families.
• Thanks to the improvement of his family’s quality of life and personal living conditions, Pastor Emile and his wife have invested in the care of 15 children (mostly orphans and children from impoverished families). Because of his increased income from higher crop yields and pig raising, he is able to help provide for the food and educational needs of these children.

Pastor Emile is loving his neighbors in a very tangible way, spreading the love of God in word and seed.