Goats for Africa

It is a great idea to provide goats for Africa – see Audlem Online's school story on Saturday.

But my advice is that the school should work through an organisation such as Farm Africa. They have knowledge of the conditions and probably acquire goats in Africa who are already aclimatised.

Of more concern, goats are browsers and will eat more or less any vegetation. Thus the area they go to should not be too arid as they will quickly destroy any remaining vegetation.

I do have experience in these areas for, as a Director of the Moredun, we supported Vet Aid which struggled to strike a balance. Our most successful campaigm was to donate three hens and a cockerel to families in Tanzania.

Mozambique was another country in which Vet Aid operated. It was closed as too small and promised EU funding never materialised (surprise surprise!). The projects have been taken over by other charities working in East Africa.

The idea behind the chickens was to provide extra protein in the form of eggs. Also with the cockerel, eggs could be clucked to increase the flock and be sold or bartered or even eaten. The project was aimed at families where the bread winner had died of Aids.

The extra protein would strengthen the children's immune system and sale/barter of eggs and chicks would provide either money or other requirments for impoverished widows. It was very successful.

The chickens could exist in fairly arid conditions as they forage and can subsist on grubs etc. However some seed is necessary for the productive survival of the quartet. It did fail in really arid parts but generally there was sufficient food for the chickens.

European livstock struggle in Africa and too many well meaning schemes have ended in disaster because the animals were unable to come to terms with their new environment.

Audlem Online adds: How amazing that this expertise exists in Audlem and that a short story from the school about Goats in Africa has attracted such an informative response.

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