Ever since Colin Bloom came into the picture as International CEO, he has been trying to reinvent Barnabas Aid according to his image. With a background in politics and political manouvering, he has leveraged his experience with an intent to raise huge sums of money for projects. His communication has largely been to tell the big picture, raise the awareness in hope to obtain large sums of donations, without the apparent knowledge of how it can ever be executed. This sounds more of a political talk without much thought in execution and taking care of donors monies.
In the March 2025 Barnabas Aid Magazine in page 15, we find the announcement of the launch of a million pigs and a million chicken as well as “internet connectivity to a million impoverished and rural Christians who are otherwise unconnected to the wider world.” On the surface, these projects sound like a brilliant brainchild of a man of vision, to do huge
projects where nobody has ever done or succeeded before. Why give 100 pigs when you can try to raise money for 1,000,000? How much money is Colin’s target to raise? It is better to say 1,000,000 pigs rather than £100,000,000 because the sum of monies will sound atrocious to any charitable donor. The cost of acquiring, farming and feeding, hygiene, medical, logistics, wholesale and marketing, etc all cost money, and to do so in very difficult locations. It is not merely the cost of a piglet.
Nigeria is a country with a growing pig farming to supply protein sources to the people. It is
admirable to want to help suffering Christians obtain a means to livelihood through the farming of pigs. But Barnabas Aid does not have experience or expertise in anything of this sort of work and must rely on partners. According to the same report in the magazine, Colin Bloom was said to be laying the foundations for “a pig farming that will train and support new farmers in southern Kaduna, as well as raising piglets and providing pork to the community. These animals will help Christians obtain both food and an income, and in learning farming practices the communities will become self-sufficient, gaining highly employable, life-long skills such as butchery, meat packaging, and marketing and distribution.”
Such visionary speech befits a politician but not a charity organization. How does starting a pig farm turn to equipping Christians across the industry? These are wishful thinking painted in visionary words with no thought if this is really what Barnabas Aid is really trying to do. Donors must question such incredible announcements of 1,000,000 pigs and 1,000,000 chickens and 1,000,000 internet access, something governments are responsible for and not a charitable organization is tasked. Did Barnabas Aid become an organization with government goals?
Pig farming in Nigeria and other impoverished places is a growing viable option as a source of income as well as food protein. There is a difference to starting one farm with a few pigs and growing that to an industry. What is the charity part in this vision? Is it really enabling suffering Christians to have a sustainable livelihood or for Barnabas Aid to quietly amass £100,000,000 and not tell us what they are really doing with the money?
Donors must seek answers to how their monies are really used before they actually give and discover it did not achieve the intended purposes. That will be too late. Will the money be given to internal high expenses in Barnabas Aid first rather than to the lofty pig, chicken and internet projects one wonders…
-Message of concern from a BA supporter