06-06-2019 | di COOPI

My life has changed for the better thanks to PARFEC

During the month of May, a training course was organised for the beneficiaries of the PARFEC project - Support for the relaunch of the urban and peri-urban breeding industry in the Central African Republic - funded by the Bêkou Trust Fund of the European Union, so that they could improve their theoretical and practical knowledge.

The participatory approach of the sessions allowed the beneficiaries and the PARFEC trainers to find specific solutions that could meet the needs of each participant.

In this occasion, COOPI operators met the fish farmer, Jean De Dieu Wanguilo, in the district of St Paul – here, he showed them how much his production of fingerling had improved, thus highlighting the successful outcomes of the PARFEC project.

"My name is Jean De Dieu. I am 58 years old, married and my family consists of 15 people. I work as a fish farmer and I have a 15-acre farm. I am also a member of the FNPAC, the National Federation of Fishermen and Aquaculture Producers of Central Africa and member of one of the AVEC savings and credit groups, which operates in my district.

I took part in the first phase of fingerlings’ distribution of the PARFEC project - at the beginning I received 4.5 kg of fingerlings, which allowed me to fill one of my three ponds. At the end of the first production cycle and after having emptied the pond, I managed to sell 220 kg of fish, at 1,500 FCFA per kilo. After the sale, I totalled about 330,000 FCFA. This has allowed me to pay my children's school fees and their medical care, to start a new production of fingerlings and to provide for my family needs.

The PARFEC project has really changed my life and that of my family for the better.”

The fish farmer and beneficiary of the PARFEC project, Jean De Dieu Wanguilo