Food and Self-Reliance for AIDS Orphans

We have 12 new kids and 8 of those are twins!  It is always a fascinating time of the year, watching these babies arrive in the world.  Sometimes we are lucky enough to observe and cheer our mums on as they work hard to bring their babies into the world.  Then to see how within the hour those helpless babies are doing a wobbly balancing act and searching out their mum’s udder for the first suck of nourishment.  In each birth I see another miracle of life. We still have several more does due to give birth and so the waiting game continues. 

So far we have had a really good season with 4 sets of twins and 4 single births.  Ratio of bucklings to doelings is slightly in favour of the girls!  It is a close competition!  We are short of sponsors for names and have given temporary names as it is hard to communicate with babes withno names!!!  We can’t call them all Cutie!!!! Some of the temporary names are Bubble and Squeak, Shirley and Shrek, Peach and PawPaw (their mum is Mango!) Cecil and Pookie.

For a project like ours we need to work with our local leaders.  One of the most engaged leaders is Nkosana Ncube.  He keeps goats himself and recently we traded a young buck of ours for one of his young does.  His is excited to now have some new blood in his herd.  The genes of the Kalahari Red breed that we are trying to introduce into the community is one step nearer

The team here at the American Foundation for Children with AIDS thanks you for supporting this project and the work we do for the children in Africa.  As you start to make decisions regarding your end of year giving, please keep us in mind so we can continue our good work into 2019 and beyond.  We wish you a new year full of many blessings and as much hope as you have shared with us.  If you would like to learn even more about what we do or how you can meet some of the children you have helped, please contact Tanya Weaver at tweaver@AFCAids.org. 

Lord of all he surveys, is our Bruce!  Here he is investigating how he can join us in the area fenced off around our homestead.  What he cannot understand is why we should fence HIM out.  We have tried to explain that the fence is there to keep his herd out and the dogs in, but he still likes to make us feel guilty as he finds a large rock to stand on and view us over it, calling out to us to invite him in!

He is growing into a delightful young buck, greeting us gently when we are near him. He is almost a year-old now and has been introduced to most of the ‘ladies’, so we are hoping for a new crop of kids by Christmas.

Winter seems to be nearly past, although we are sure to have a couple of cold days before summer arrives.  We are hoping for some early rains as it very dry.  Until then our browse and grazing are not very good and we need to be supplement the herd with additional food and nutrition.  Although they go out each day to forage, when they are in the holding paddocks we are giving them extra grass that has been cut and stored over the year.  To make it a little more appetizing we pour over a little salted water.   

One of our does likes to climb into the hay troughs to find the best grass.  She is also often seen using it as her ‘bunk’ for the night!

At this time of the year ticks become more of a problem than usual. We need to monitor the herd closely as they can develop Heart Water disease which, if not attended to quickly, can cause a very traumatic death.  Here the team are spraying the goats in the race that was constructed by a previous team.  It has made life for the goats and us a lot easier.

Everyone here at the American Foundation for Children with AIDS enjoys the updates and stories from our partners.  We hope you enjoy them, too, and know that we could not do this amazing work without your continued support.  If you would like to learn even more about this project and others, please contact Tanya Weaver at tweaver@AFCAids.org.