Cricket Farm Kit ($100)

Sometimes, inspiration arrives in the toughest of times, like when a job is lost. And when inspiration meets opportunity, amazing and unexpected things can happen.

Why Help Is Needed

There are few limits to the human imagination. Ideas can help us create solutions that lift us to new heights of purpose and prosperity. But, for women in many developing countries, ideas are halted by an inability to get a small business loan. These ideas then go unrealized, and poverty persists.

Mercy Corps In Action

In places like Indonesia, Mercy Corps works with small microfinance organizations to make female entrepreneurs' dreams into profitable realities. Through business training, loans and technical support, we help women find their niche in local economies — like a cricket farm that provides insects as feed for poultry farmers.

Neng's Story

Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

Some people consider crickets to be lucky. That’s certainly proven true for 38-year-old Neng in Indonesia.

When her husband was laid off, leaving the family without a steady income, Neng discovered a women’s lending group supported by Mercy Corps. At the group’s weekly meetings, Neng learned about how to successfully start and manage a small business.

“My husband had friends in his hometown that were farming crickets and doing well for themselves, so we tried it,” she said. With a $100 loan from the bank, they bought six-and-a-half pounds of cricket eggs, along with materials to construct incubator boxes. Today, they’re selling crickets as chicken feed to local farmers.
They’re able to meet their daily needs — and even save a little bit of money each week.

Which means the chirping in their shed is the sound of success.

Cricket Farm Kit ($100)
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Purchase of a Mercy Kit is a symbolic gift that supports Mercy Corps' worldwide programs to help children and families in need. The Breastfeeding Kit, Climate Change Kit, Fuel-Efficient Stove Kit, Cricket Farm Kit, Send an Orphan to School Kit, Plant a Tree Kit, Play to Heal Kit and Uganda Farm Kit supports those specific project funds. Proceeds from the sale of other Mercy Kits will be used where most needed.