Heart for Africa - Project Canaan Egg Farm in Eswatini (former Swaziland), South Africa.
As well as providing a sustainable food supply, eggs are a high quality protein source which boosts immunity levels, supports brain development of infants and concentration levels of children attending school. Eggs are an amazing food, and SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP intends to spread good karma to those in need, with eggs. With that in mind, the choice of supporting the project Heart of Africa foundation and their Canaan Egg Farm, in Swaziland, was easy.
SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP has, together with our employees and suppliers, donated a complete boiling machine to the farm. The machine is specially designed by our engineers in order to accommodate local conditions, and the entire operation is supported by solar energy.
We are proud to be part of the amazing project and be able to hand over our know-how within egg processing to those in need.
Janine Maxwell and her husband, Ian, co-founded Heart for Africa, a humanitarian organisation focusing on the areas of Hunger, Orphans, Poverty and Education in Swaziland. The organisation brought hope to the region with its large-scale farming project for orphaned and abandoned children.
The egg laying operation at Project Canaan farm provide fresh cooked eggs for all the children living on the Project Canaan farm, and also help thousands of people by providing high-quality, locally produced protein that’s essential for human growth and development. The eggs produced feed and supplement a feeding program that delivers 74,000 hand-packed meals every month to rural areas through a network of 30 churches.
We are proud of being part of Project Canaan / Heart for Africa in Eswatini and the tremendous work they are doing for the local community and children. We have therefore decided to continue our support of the project - this year with 10.000 USD.
For this amount, Project Canaan / Heart for Africa can continue:
• the employment of the persons who deliver the hard-boiled eggs to the 30 schools and churches whom they partner with.
• feeding the hens on the farm, as the feed prices have become very expensive.
• using the solar panels on the roof of the house where the cooking and cooling machines from us are placed. Two of the solar panels need repair as they were ruined during extreme weather.
Check out the video where the supervisor Sifiso Nkambule gives you a tour around the barn and explains the impact of our donation. Lucky Manyatsi and Phindile Mkwanazi, who deliver the hard-boiled eggs, share how this job has impacted their lives and the lives of their families.
We have received a very nice video from IEF, in which they thank us and our employees for our long time contribution to the project.
The past 2 years in total 3,284,760 hard-boiled eggs have been distributed to children in need in the surrounding areas and to the orphans living at Project Caanan - all processed on our machine.
In November 2018 a new donation from SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP and SANOVO EGG GROUP arrived in Swaziland - an egg cooling machine. The warm weather in Swaziland has been a challenge and a solution to cool down the eggs was needed. We have therefore decided to support the Heart for Africa project for the next 3 years with the installation and delivery of a cooling machine.
We hope that this can benefit the local communities but also to the orphans at Project Caanan even more, and we are very proud to be partner in this amazing project.
Heart for Africa recently celebrated the first anniversary of the egg operation, the farm has been operating since January 2016 where it welcomed its first flock of 2,500 hens. The second flock of 2,500 hens arrived in early July 2016.
The farm is already preparing for its first flock change. Given that the two flocks where placed six months apart, Heart for Africa staff are able to maintain continuous production while placing a new flock. In addition, the hens can be used as a multipurpose, which brings an additional source of nutrition to the community and income to the farm.
We have received an updated video from the project where we see the benefits of eggs for children living on the farm and in the surrounding areas - have a look below.
Article by Kirsten Graumans, World Poultry
Report from Swaziland published in World Poultry, August 2016, regarding Project Canaan.
In June 2016 the Project Canaan egg farm officially opened. Vicky Engsted from SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP attended the festivities and took part in the celebration of the donated boiling and cooling machine.
Read the story about the project and get unique insight into her journey to Swaziland.
See how the machine was assembled in our factory by following the link below to a time-lapse movie.
The machine is specially designed by our engineers in order to accommodate local conditions. Watch our small movie to see how it all started with a drawing on the computer to the actual installation of the machine in Swaziland.
SANOVO TECHNOLOGY GROUP have, together with our employees and suppliers, donated a complete boiling and cooling machine.
Our team of technicians have arrived and are ready to begin the installation.
The machine is partly operated with solar energy. It was a team effort with the local people to get the panels on the roof.
The panels are installed on the roof of the building and ready to use energy from the sun.
The machine is a huge help to the farm. They are able to cook a large amount of eggs each day. On the picture you see the 3 men and 1 woman who is operating the machine.
Eggs are being cooked and distributed to the 30 different places in Swaziland where Heart for Africa deliver hard-boiled eggs to those in need.
The men operating the machine is very impressed and proud of having such a technical wonder. They have never thought that is would be possible to cook so many eggs at one time. We are proud to be able to handover our knowledge and see how it can be used to spread good karma with eggs.
On June 24th, 2016, Heart for Africa officially opened the Project Canaan egg farm with a wonderful opening ceremony filled with great speeches, traditional dancing and guided tours around the facilities. The Minister of Health Sibongile Ndlela-Simelane and Minister of Agriculture Moses Vilikati officially opened the farm.
Besides the community feeding program through churches, Heart for Africa also goes on homestead visits, providing food to families who are in vital need of help and food.
A grandmother was living under the same roof, sleeping on the floor and providing for 11 children on her own. At the homestead, all of the children were so quiet and tired, and we quickly found out that this was because they had not had anything to eat for 24 hours. So we quickly handed out the eggs that we brought with us and started a fire to cook a good meal for them. It just puts things into perspective!
We set up a fire outside the church and prepared food for all of the children. And then we also handed out the eggs. It was really lovely to see, how perfect the egg functions in this situation. It is easy to distribute and the children get the much needed protein and nutrition an egg contains.
Visit to one of the 31 churches, which is part of the community support that Project Canaan also offers. And when we say church, you probably think of a big and beautiful building, with an altar, decorations, etc. This was nothing like that. It was a small house, with one small room for everyone to gather. This day, the church was full of children, who had been walking 1 or even 2 hours to get there.
We spread good karma with eggs
Heart for Africa - Project Canaan Egg Farm in Swaziland, South Africa
