Goats and Donkeys Transform Lives in Darfur

The operation of our goat loan programme requires the beneficiaries to pass on six of the offspring from their initial goats received to another poor family at the end of two years - we refer to this process as 'goat rotation'. During the past month Selei village which became a KIDS FOR KIDS village in 2007 has completed its second goat rotation. 21 poor households initially received goat loans and these initial beneficiary families each passed on 6 of their female offspring to another 21 poor families in 2010. Now in December 2012 20 of these recipient families have in turn passed on 6 of their female offspring to another group of poor households. This means that as a result of the initial goat loans to the village a further 42 households have received help and around 250 additional goats have been distributed to other households. This means that 30% of the households in the village have now received goats as a result of the initial KIDS FOR KIDS' loans. This shows just how valuable your support to us for the goat and donkey loan programme is - you are not just helping one family to find its way out of poverty but through your generosity you help to spread the benefits more widely in the community. The person who has performed best under the goat loan programme in Selei is a lady called Nama Ahmad who even after passing on 6 goats to another family has a flock of 20 goats having initially received just 6.

Our Project Staff in Darfur regularly monitor the performance of the goats provided under our loan programme and in September they visited Tikalat village which received its initial goat loans in 2011. At that time 23 households received 115 female and 7 male goats giving a total of 122 goats and these have now increased to 181 goats. The household with the highest number of goats is 12. The average milk production is 1 litre per day and the highest production is 2 litres per day. This means that these families are now able to provide milk to their children giving them vital protein and minerals to overcome their malnourishment and they often have surplus milk to sell enabling the family to pay for books and uniforms which enables them to send their children to school. Six goats really do make a significant difference.

.   

The remaining 15 poor households selected by the community in Mugabil to receive goat loans have now received their goats. So in total 195 female goats and 13 male goats have been distributed to 39 households in Mugabil. Immediately these goats provide milk which provides much needed nutrition and vital minerals to aid the growth and development of the children of these families who are generally malnourished. In time the female goats will have kids increasing the size of the household's flock. At this juncture the goats become a 'bank' for the families as they now have kids which they can sell to meet any emergencies affecting the family. This gives enormous peace of mind to the women knowing that they now have the means to buy medicines if their children become sick - previously families often could not afford to seek treatment for their children and some children died as a result. So the provision of a few goats to a poor family can genuinely save lives.

All 39 families have now also received their donkeys which has transformed their lives. The donkeys make such a difference as they enable the women and children to undertake their household tasks of collecting water, fodder and fuelwood so much more quickly. As well as saving time when women and children have to go long distances to collect water and fodder the donkey can carry so much more than a human being - a donkey can carry 4 jerry cans of water whilst a person can only carry one. So the family does not have to go so frequently to collect the water requirements for the household. The donkey also means that the women can collect greater quantities of fodder and fuelwood, more than the needs of the family generating a surplus which the women can sell in the market providing much needed income for the family. Now that the children can collect the water so much more quickly, taking perhaps less than an hour rather than 4-5 hours when walking, the children now have time to go to school and this provides them with the chance of a better future.

The goats and the donkeys have the potential to put the families on the pathway out of poverty.  However, some families are not managing to increase their flocks of goats as well as expected and are experiencing a higher rate of abortions than is normal. Our Programme Manager who is a vet is carrying out investigations to hopefully determine the cause. It is possible that despite the training in animal husbandry given to all the recipients of goat loans the women are still lacking in skills and experience to manage their goats effectively. If this proves to be the case we will follow up with further training courses for these women.