Goats and Donkeys Transform Lives in Darfur

The last three months has seen two important developments. The first batch of 120 goats has been procured for 24 of the families who have been selected to receive goat loans in Mugabil village. These goats have been vaccinated before being distributed to the families. This is clearly an exciting day for the families who now have an asset which will provide them with income in due course which will enable them to provide for their families better. Families experience a great sense of relief and peace of mind knowing that they have the goats as a 'bank' providing them with offspring which can be sold if an emergency situation arises in the family such as sickness of a child requiring medicines to be purchased. Before receiving the goats these families had no means of responding to crises which to us is an unimaginable situation.  To ensure that the goats remain healthy the project has purchased a stock of basic veterinary drugs to treat the most common diseases suffered by the goats. This stock of drugs forms the basis of the Revolving Veterinary Drugs Fund which is managed by the Animal Loans Committee in the village. Households have to purchase the drugs when they need them which enables the stock of drugs to be replenished.

The other development which has taken place in the last three months is that 3 of the older villages - Hillat Rahad, Wara and Hillat Salih have recently undertaken their first goat rotation. This is when the households which received 6 goats 2 years ago pass on 6 of their offspring to another poor household in the village to enable them to have the chance to improve the situation of their families.  The first recipient households are in effect repaying their goat loan in kind and it is this  process which ensures the sustainability of the goat loan programme and ensures that the benefits from the original goats provided multiply over the years as the new recipients of goats will be expected to pass on 6 of the offspring to another poor family two years from now.