Goats and Donkeys Transform Lives in Darfur

Mercifully the rains have come at last to Darfur after many months of the worst drought for over a decade which exacerbated the struggle for survival for the villagers of Darfur. Now with the onset of good rains people in the villages have started to cultivate their farms hoping to utilise as much land as possible to get as much production of grains as possible for household consumption. With the rains the state of the pasture has improved and the condition of the goats and donkeys is improving with access to better nutrition.

In the last few months, KIDS FOR KIDS has launched its programme of activities in 3 new villages - Tikailat, Abu Nahla and Kheirban. The prospects of receiving assistance has been welcomed enthusiastically by the communities - one visit by project staff to Kheirban was attended by 955 people - 395 men, 450 women and 110 children. This amply demonstrates the extent of the need in the villages and the fact that KIDS FOR KIDS is the only organisation which is providing help to the villages. It also demonstrates the commitment of the communities to KIDS FOR KIDS' ethos of self-help. At the meeting the community selected the 10 members of the Animal Loan Committee which will be responsible for managing the goat and donkey loans to the poorest households in the village. The community also selected 6 village members to be trained as development workers to serve their community as paravets, first aid workers and village extension agents. The communities in Tikailat and Abu Nahla are similarly in the throes of forming their committees and selecting their volunteer development workers. The next step is for the communities to identify the 10% poorest households who will be the recipients of the goat and donkey loans. In the meantime the project staff are making arrangements for the training for the members of the Animal Loans Committees which will cover management procedures including management of a loans scheme. Arrangements are also being made for the training for the paravets and first aid workers and for the training in improved animal husbandry which is given to all the recipients of goat loans prior to the receipt of their animals to ensure that they have the knowledge to look after the animals well. Training is also being organised for the children as they spend a lot of time looking after the grazing goats and can be very adept as detecting early signs of sickness. During the training the children will be encouraged to form a Children's Shepherd Committee with responsibility for monitoring the herds and reporting to the Animal Loan Committee. Similarly we ensure that the trained paravets are in place in the villages to deal with any animal health problems amongst the loan recipients' goats and donkeys before the animals are distributed to the families. Once the training has been completed the next step will be to purchase the goats and donkeys and distribute them to the families. This will take place in the next few months.

Meanwhile the families in the 51 established KIDS FOR KIDS' villages are continuing to enjoy improvements in their lives as a result of the goats and donkeys they have received. This is amply demonstrated by the comment of Hassina Adam Tahir who at only 23 years of age is solely responsible for caring for her 9 siblings. She states ' I would like to extend my thanks to KIDS FOR KIDS for providing us with the donkey and making life easier for us because previously we were living a difficult life - we had almost nothing to live on. But now with the donkey we can manage better. We are able to go to our land and bring straw, to bring wood from the bush and to bring enough water from as far as 4 km. With the donkey our income has increased because I sell straw, grasses and wood in El-Fasher at SDG 8 (£2) for every single load twice a week. We have been able to rehabilitate our house through bringing poles, wood and straw from the bush.'

ALL THIS IS POSSIBLE ONLY WITH THE HELP WHICH YOU GIVE US - YOU CAN SEE THAT YOUR CONTRIBUTION REALLY DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE. THANK YOU SO MUCH.