In 2005 we placed 200 catfish (Barbel) in our earthern pond to see if they would survive the cold winters and the food supplements in Hawane. Catfish are a great eating fish and fun game for the childen to catch. It is an easy lifeskill to learn, too. Two months later, we thought we had lost them all, that they had all died. There was absolutely no sign of them.We cleaned the pond out several times but could not find them. We gave up on the fish.

Six months later, one of our staff took a torch and shone it on the water late one night. To his (and our) amazement, hundreds of tiny little eyes stared back at him. The fish were alive. They had burrowed tunnels into the side of the banks of the earthern pond and hid there.That is why none of our nets had been able to catch them.We started feeding the fish and they came up to the surface in a real frenzy. The fish had passed the test. They could survive without running water coming into the pond for six months, without the keeper feeding them for six months and without the frost daunting them at all. This was a definite potential sustainability project. Anything that can survive no food for six months and not be affected by the temperatures we experience here is a serious consideration. Not only that, they had multiplied. There were substantially more of them now than before.

Elim Northern Ireland (Gary Armstrong's team) raised funds for us and we developed a system to take the fish out of the earthern pond and to have them put in water tanks which can be flushed and cleaned out regularly, helping the fish to taste a whole lot better than in the earthern ponds with the mud banks as their homes.

The children enjoy fishing, competing for the largest Barbel. Finding volunteers to gut the fish and to prepare and cook them is no problem at all. The children really enjoy it. When we are well established, we will be teaching the children to farm the fish for themselves.