|PIC1|This Easter Christian charity World Emergency Relief (WER) is asking people to turn one chocolate Easter egg into 150 real eggs for a hungry family in Africa.

As part of its ‘Be a Good Egg’ campaign, for every £6.00 donation – the cost of a typical chocolate Easter egg – the non-denominational charity will fund the purchase of a laying hen for an impoverished family in Africa so that they can get around 150 eggs a year to eat or sell.

According to WER, if just one in every 5,000 people in the UK donated the cost of one of their Easter eggs or asked someone who would normally give them an egg to donate the cash to WER instead, it would enable the charity to buy 12,188 laying hens which would then produce more than 1,828,317 eggs in a year.

“It’s an egg-cellent way to celebrate Easter,” says Alex Haxton, chief executive of Be a Good Egg and director of operations at World Emergency Relief. “It’s normally a time of such chocolatey over-indulgence, so having one less Easter egg will be good for our own health but also help change someone’s life for the better into the bargain.

“We work with lots of projects and communities in developing countries, and having hens laying eggs is one of the easiest steps towards self sufficiency in terms of both food and income. It’s a cheap and easy way to make a real difference to the lives of people who are genuinely hungry and in need.”

According to the British Retail Consortium, an average of 80 million Easter eggs are sold in the UK each year at a cost of £500 million. The £6.00 donation being asked for by WER would fund the purchase of a laying hen and help towards the cost of its feed and housing for a year. The more donations received, the more laying hens can be provided to poor communities in developing countries.

“For us the eternal chicken and egg question is a no-brainer,” continues Alex Haxton. “You need the chicken first in order to get the eggs and this is how, with a little Easter generosity, we’re hoping to help needy families and communities around the world feed themselves.”

Hope Community Centre near Naivasha in Kenya is home to more than 200 children. Two years ago WER provided funding for Sister Lucy, who runs the centre, to buy some laying hens to provide the children with fresh eggs to eat. The scheme has been so successful that the orphanage now has 400 chickens laying around 300 eggs a day. Some of these are eaten and others are sold to raise money. The centre has even been able to buy two pigs, one cow and a welding machine from the proceeds of its eggs.


On the web:
For more information or to order your Be a Good Egg kit, visit www.beagoodegg.com