Goats and Donkeys Transform Lives in Darfur

A CHANCE YOUR DONATION TO BE MATCHED

In case you are considering one more contribution this year and you are donating from the US, please remember TOMORROW, Tuesday, November 29th is Giving Tuesday.  (Perhaps set an alarm on your phone!)  Donations are being matched by the Gates Foundation …and you can multiple your kindness. But please donate early on November 29th to qualify – it will mean more clean water, more goats, more good in the world.

With the flash floods having wiped out crops early last summer and the drought before that reducing goat herds, we have been hard at work getting more seed and new little goats—kids—on their way to new and long-term Kids for Kids villages.  542 bags of seed are on their way; 942 new goats are headed to the worst hit villages. 

Fatima Daoud Jumaa lives in Lawabid, has six children and is a widow.  She had nothing to rely on and only a small patch of land.  Just two years of the Goat Loan her children were all at school, milk and yoghurt have become a guaranteed part of the family diet and her children are healthier.  Last month, she was able to buy notebooks and pencils for the first time, for them all.  She herself does not read or write, but she has been able to budget, and has also saved enough millet stalks for a second small hut, and a surrounding fence.

Thanks to our wonderful supporters, Kids for Kids’ Goat Loans work miracles, because rather than handing out food for one day at a time, these little creatures provide nutritious milk,  - the only source of protein for many children - and in time, once the flock has grown – the opportunity to earn an income for the family.  Mothers prioritise food, healthcare, education, so the family has real hope for a better future.  And remember, after 2 years the family that received their 6 goats passes on 6 little goats to another family, and the miracle starts all over again.

To give families (and our goats) the best possible chance, Kids for Kids does not stop at Goat Loans. In every village we adopt, we deliver a whole package of changes which we have developed in partnership with village leaders. This ranges from blankets, mosquito nets and food trays to keep food clean and keep weak children healthy, to longer term projects which create a sustainable food supply.   Joanna Lumley, star of ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ and Patron of Kids for Kids, said “a healthy animal means a healthy child” and of course we provide veterinary care by training paravets, providing veterinary drugs and teaching beneficiaries how to look after their animals.

As one little shepherd told us “We were all so hungry. My baby sister was very weak, and I was afraid for her. Now that we have goat’s milk she is full of life again.  I always check our goats every day to make sure they stay healthy and keep giving us milk”.  This is real, meaningful change, and it saves lives.  Our tree planting, farm tools and seed grain, donkey ploughs, water projects, latrines and training are all designed to help entire villages become self-sufficient. 

And don’t forget, your donation will grow by 50% on 29^th thanks to The Gates Foundation. 

Quote - Patricia Parker MBE

It has been an extremely difficult year in Darfur, with violence the worst we have known it, followed by a severe drought in the wake of El Nino. When hay has run out, there is nothing for them to eat, and the grass was so poor at the end of last year that families could not collect sufficient to last them through the 'hungry' months - months when humans and animals succumb to starvation. 

To prevent this, we asked you to help provide emergency  fodder for the animals in the worst affected areas.  Thanks to everyone who helped us we made a real difference, and now at last there is grass again as the rains started early.  

After such a hard summer when people walked miles for water for themselves and their animals it was wonderful to hear that at last there was water near at hand.   Poeple rushed to the fields to plant their crops, from the seed they had managed to save so their families could eat next year.   Tragically, the rains did not stop.    Terrible downpours caused massive flash flooding.   This photograph shows the floods at Um Ga’al, our first village, in the far north of Darfur. 

“It is so surprising seeing this rush of water" said Patricia Parker our Founder who started Kids for Kids when she saw small children struggling across what was desert to fetch every drop of water.  " I have only seen Um Ga’al when the region is only arid desert as far as you can see.  The floods this year in Um Ga’al have resulted not only in goats and sheep being drowned but has washed away an entire side of a valley where people had planted their valuable seed.  Without Kids for Kids there would be no help for those families who have lost their crops.  When your only food is from what you grow, this is disaster.  It is hard to think of families facing starvation when predictions are that, because of the rain, 2017 is likely to be the best harvest for a decade in Sudan as a whole.  The families that have lost their animals have lost more than a year's income.  It is disaster.   We are setting up a disaster fund for Um Ga’al and other villages facing the same loss to make sure they have something to get them through next year.”

But it is not all disaster.  Darfur is the size of France, further south our villages are doing well.   Thankfully now the rains have come, the grass is starting to grow, and soon our goat loan animals will be recovering and reproducing!    We need many more goats so that children will drink milk again.   Thank you for your support.   The goats and donkeys you are helping us provide are changing children's lives forever.

Please help us to keep goats and donkeys healthy, to help maintain starving children

$25 buys seed for 2 families

$30 buys a donkey plough to help a family grow more food

$62 will provide one goat to give children nutritious milk

$75 buys 20 fruit tree seedlings to provide food and shade for the animals and families

$95 buys a donkey for transport and to help carry water

$600 pays for a paravet, as there is no veterinary care to look after the animals

$372 will provide 6 goats for a family to give them milk and income from selling excess dairy product.

$7,000 will provide a simple handpump for the whole community, so that children won’t have to walk miles for fresh clean water.

Thank you so much for your support.

Links:

• Kids for Kids Website