Goats and Donkeys Transform Lives in Darfur

Mothers in Darfur have begged us for Kindergartens in their villages.  They know that education is the way out of poverty but schools are often miles away across the desert.    Many children walk 2 to 3 hours to get to school.  Some stay with relatives in distant villages. It is just too far to walk home again.   There are no roads.   The only transport is a donkey, but a donkey costs more than twice a family's annual income.   If only children could have a donkey they would be able to go to school.  They could collect more water.   They could help plough more land with the help of our donkey ploughs.  Donkeys are more than the 4 x 4 of Darfur, they are what makes life possible. That is where Kids for Kids is able to help.   Thanks to you we provided donkeys for the poorest families in four villages just before Christmas.   Those donkeys are busy transforming the lives of their families.   To be given a donkey is to be given a new life, to be freed just a little from the drudgery which is life in the remote villages.

But that is not all we do.   For 16 years Kids for Kids has been lending goats so that children have goat's milk.   Babies whose mothers cannot feed them, have milk to drink.   Children who are malnourished wake up to a cup of milk each day.  Mothers have a supplementary income they can rely on - and after two years they pass on offspring to another family.   And, over time, the health of the entire village is improved.   As you read this, new little goats will be walking into a village in the centre of Africa and bringing smiles to the faces of the children.    Every week the Kids for Kids Children's Shepherds' Committees check all the goats and donkeys.   In Dor Fazy, a village we adopted in 2014, last month the children checked 462 goats.    Already there are 306 kids.  "It is a great responsibility to check the Kids for Kids goats" said Hamid who is 11 and who is Chairman of the Shepherds' Committee in Dor Fazy.  "If we see a goat that won't get up we report it to the paravet who will make it better.   None of the animals has died in our village since Kids for Kids provided veterinary care for us and taught us how to look after the animals."

With your help we have trained two paravets in each of the villages we adopted last year, provided training in animal care and given the beneficiaries things like salt licks to keep the goats healthy.  "It's essential to make sure the animals are well looked after" explains Dr Salim, Programme Manager for Kids for Kids. "Darfur is a tough environment, both for humans and for animals, but if the animals are healthy then they will help keep the children healthy too."

Links:

• Find out why the gift of a goat or donkey means so much