A breeding pair of goats is given to the family of a primary school student who need income to send their child to school. The student learns not only at school, but also animal husbandry at home—and also learns about paying it forward when the first offspring from the pair are given to more families with the same needs, and the same responsibility to pay it forward.

Herding Goats

Seven years of primary school tuition is state-sponsored, but some families simply cannot cover the incidental expenses. And they succeed in primary school, they are more likely to need to pay secondary school tuition, which is the family’s responsibility. A pair of goats during primary school makes it more likely that the student will be able to attend secondary school as well.

Nursing Goat Kid

After initial funding from Alec Johnson and TILT, this project initially met its goal of self-sufficiency. However, in 2023, we received word that the families who had received goats from Alec, not recognizing disease symptoms, lost all of their goats. The families requested replacement with disease-resistant (“exotic”) goats. The drawback of raising these goats is that, although more resistant to disease, they are more susceptible to worms.

Consequently, we funded a request from ALU to fund a breeding facility to develop a crossbreed with the best characteristics of both. This is a long-term project. The facility has been built, but the purchase of breeding stock has been delayed by a quarantine on ovine and bovine livestock because of an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease.

Animal husbandry has not been limited to goats.

After the loss of their goats, and understanding that they could not be replaced quickly, women in one VSLA in Nebbi District have begun to use their savings to buy two-day-old chicks, which mature to market weight quickly.

Training in care of the birds, vaccination, and health inspections are provided by veterinary paratechs from the local District Government. The first woman to start raising poultry had 26 chickens maturing for sale at Easter time. She is reinvesting the profit in more chicks.