Economic Growth Sudan Project #4011

Goats and Donkeys Transform Lives in Darfur

by Kids for Kids

Project Report | Feb 9, 2016
Eyewitness report - how goats save lives in Darfur

By Alex Sanderson | Assistant to CEO

Hayida has 6 children to provide for

Eyewitness report - how goats save lives in Darfur

It has been a difficult start to 2016, with many thousands of children in Darfur facing starvation. As you know, Kids for Kids has a lot to do. However, where help is being given, it is really working. Our Programme Manager Hassan has just returned from a field trip to the village of Kindro in Darfur. This village was adopted by Kids for Kids in 2013 and he has just been there to witness and report back on their first Goat Loan rotation. Beneficiaries who had Kids for Kids Goat Loans two years ago have now passed on new goats to the next families. Every family's story is unique, touching and inspiring in its own way. Here is one of them:

"Hadiya is 42 years old, married, and has 6 children." reports Hassan. "In September 2013 hers was one of the poorest families in Kindro, and she was selected by the Animal Loans Committee to participate in the Kids for Kids projects. Her family received a Goat Loan, a donkey, 2 blankets and 2 mosquito nets. This was a unique opportunity for her to lift the whole family out of poverty and I am delighted to report that she and her children have worked hard to make the most of it."

Over the past two years Hadya has built a big rakouba to be used as a shade in summer and the roof for keeping hay and dry fodder. She has been using mineral salt lick and providing water every day to keep the goats healthy. Paravet Addouma treats her goats when needed and reports that she has provided medication 6 times in the past 2 years. Eldest son Mohammed helps Hadya to look after the goats. Hadya uses the goats’ milk to feed her children and to make sauce. After repaying the Goat Loan Hadya wants to sell her extra bucks and buy a donkey cart. Last year she used the local donkey plough, successfully producing a good harvest of okra, sesame and melons that earned about 1800 SDGs to help feed, clothe and cover emergency expenses for the family.

"The past two years have changed our lives" Hadya said. "Before this help from Kids for Kids I was praying for a miracle even to feed my children. They were so weak, I was truly afraid. Now I have the blankets and mosquitos to protect them from getting sick, and the goats milk to make them stronger. I have worked hard and built up a little flock of 20 goats, and I believe that I can give my children a better future."

This is a total transformation since the family was struggling to survive 2 years ago. And remember - she is now repaying the Goat Loan by passing on healthy young goats to a new family for a new loan, so this miracle will happen all over again. Thank you for being a part of this incredible work.

$62 provides a goat for nutricious milk to stop starvation

$95 provides a donkey to carry water and firewood

$372 provides 6 goats for a mother to give her family a livelihood

$600 trains a paravet to keep the animals healthy

Thank you for your support. You are saving lives in Darfur.

Goats milk saves lives in Darfur

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Nov 10, 2015
Urgent - Starvation is real, please help Darfur

By Alex Sanderson | Assistant to Patricia Parker MBE

A seriously malnourished little girl 14 months old

Urgent – Starvation is real, please help Darfur

Our contacts in Darfur are confirming the UN reports that children are starving in Darfur. The renewed emergency appeal reports hundreds of thousands of children acutely malnourished, which means that without medical help and a longer term feeding plan they will not survive. Even those mothers who make the journey across the desert and reach a hospital with their precious babies face disaster when they return home, since there will still be nothing to eat when they get back.

Children in Kids for Kids villages are surviving because we give the poorest families in each village Goat Loans, and a little donkey to carry water, which takes the pressure off the children who would otherwise be walking up to 7 hours each way for every drop. Goat Loans work wonders. A family receives 6 goats, so that their children have nutritious milk to drink, which keeps them healthy. After 2 years, once the flock has grown, the family passes on 6 goats to another family, and so the miracle continues. Typically the families we support are woman-led households, with no source of income. Having goats means the chance of selling on any surplus as the flock grows, and this empowers mothers, often for the first time in their lives, to provide other things for their family too, such as healthcare, clothes, education. With your help, more families can be given this chance.

Why not “Give a Goat for Christmas” this year and help a family in Darfur.

$372 provides six goats for a family

$62 provides a little goat for milk to keep children healthy

$95 provides a little donkey to carry water

$30 provides a donkey plough so that families can grow more food

$45 provides training for beneficiaries to take good care of their animals

$600 funds a paravet - there is no other animal care

$75 provides 20 tree seedlings - another food source for a sustainable future

Thank you for your support.

Goat Loans save lives, milk keeps children healthy

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Jul 10, 2015
Making sure Goats really do work Miracles

By Alex Sanderson | Assistant to Patricia Parker MBE

A new Goat Loan

Making sure Goats really do work Miracles

You can sense the bright new hope all around the 8 new villages that Kids for Kids has adopted this year. Our Programme Manager Dr Salim and his team are rushed off their feet visiting each community, getting the committees organised and putting training in place to make sure that every project works properly. "Everyone is so eager to make this a success" he reports, "you would not believe the number of questions and the number of people willing to get involved to help their community. Hope is contagious!"

This is the critical preparation phase, when we teach people how to select the right beneficiaries from within the poorest families in the community, and then teach the beneficiaries how to look after their animals. A Kids for Kids Goat Loan, if it is well managed, will transform lives for a whole community. You may know that we lend 6 goats to a family for immediate milk so that children no longer have to go to bed hungry, and the family has a chance of an income as the little flock grows. After 2 years a carefully tended flock could be as large as 20 goats, and at this point 6 kids are passed on to another family, so the miracle starts all over again. A new family is transformed every 2 years.

"We are heading towards my favourite time of year in Darfur" says Patricia our Founder. "The rains are due any time now, and - if they come - the landscape will be transformed for a few short weeks." When the land turns green the goats have plenty to eat and have their kids. But nothing is certain in Darfur! It is a huge relief to know that our villages have saved hay this year, since the rains are already overdue. Let's pray they come soon, before the supplies run out.

We are about to buy 1,992 goats to help 332 families in our 8 new 2015 Kids for Kids Villages. Can you help us please?

$62 provides a goat for nutritious milk to feed hungry children

$372 buys 6 goats for a family Goat Loan - the best microfinance ever!

$800 pays for training to make sure the projects last and last

$600 trains a paravet - there is no other animal care

$165 pays for 100 vaccinations to keep animals healthy

Thank you for your support!

Looking after the goats to keep them healthy

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