Goats and Donkeys Transform Lives in Darfur

I thought you would be fascinated – and delighted – to hear of yet more evidence that giving goats makes a massive difference to the deprived families in Darfur.

Our team in Darfur recently visited Matway, a village which we adopted in 2018, which is the most successful of the 5 villages adopted that year. 

Hana lives in Matway. She is 32 years old, married, with 3 girls and 4 boys, 3 of whom are at school.

In November 2018, Hana was chosen by the village to receive 5 goats to provide protein-rich milk to her malnourished children and one cross-bred donkey to help carry heavy loads.

Hana and her children helped care for the goats, grazing them around the village and taking them to the village hand pump to drink water. The donkey would help carry the water back home for the family and their animals.

Hana followed the local Paravet's advice, using worm drugs for the goats every 2 or 3 weeks and collecting groundnuts, hay and leaves from her farm to feed her goats.

In the first year, her little flock increased to 15 goats and in the second year, the flock became 25 goats.

After two years, in 2020, the village of Matway was ready to revolve the goat loan so each family that had benefitted from the goat loan should have passed on 5 goats to the second generation of beneficiaries.

By this time, Hana had 35 goats.

But sadly Covid hit.

In Darfur there is no diagnosis and no treatment – no ventilators in rural hospital and little oxygen which has to be brought from Khartoum and fuel is scarce. With Covid rife, the villagers had no option but to close and prevent gatherings.

So, sadly, the goat rotation had to be postponed for two years.

Unbelievably, by 2022 Hana's little flock grew to a staggering 95 goats!! This is the largest number of goats any one of our beneficiary families has owned!

Not only could she support her own family with better meals, but she also gave surplus milk to her neighbours' famillies and the village school teacher.

It was agreed within the village that, whilst the goat rotation couldn't take place, the beneficiaries could benefit by selling some of their billy goats, whilst keeping the nanny goats for the postponed rotation.

By selling two of her billy goats, Hana was able to prepare her farm by purchasing seeds and renting a tractor for her farm plough.

Another two billy goats helped treat her son Ahmed, who had suffered a compound fracture in his left hand, at El Fasher hospital.

The sale of two more billy goats helped Hana buy school uniform and books for her children and yet another two billy goats allowed Hana to purchase three iron beds, mattresses, sheets and curtains for her home.

The local breed donkey that Hana was given has also changed her life. The donkey helps carry water from the village hand pumps 7km away, is loaded up with hay and the harvest to take home, ploughs a part of the farm, helps carry things which Hana can sell at the local market, takes her to the neighbouring village to participate in events, and also acts as an ambulance to take patients to the nearest health unit.  

It just goes to show how our Goats and Donkeys really do transform lives!

And it's all thanks to YOU!! We are so grateful for all your support!  Thankfully Covid is now contained and rotations are all happening as planned. 

The time has almost come for us to select the villages we can support this year - an exciting prospect but heart-breaking for those we have to turn down.

Could you help us by donating Goats and Donkeys for us to give to the poorest families? Just think how many lives you can help us change, just like Hana's...

We do everything we can to show people how, if looked after properly, goats are life savers for the poorest families in the world.   Over in the UK, on Saturday 8th October we held our annual Fly Fishing Event: Fishing for Goats! And what an extraordinary day it was at Park Lake, Albury, in Surrey.   It is such a privilege to be allowed sole use of this magical place - thanks to the Duke of Northumberland.

We were blessed with summer conditions, still waters, blue skies, and absolutely beautiful sunshine. Although this did not make the fishing very easy, everyone had a fantastic time and have said they want to come again next year!

"It is so wonderful to see people really enjoying themselves!"   said Patricia Parker OBE, Founder of Kids for Kids. "Fishing is one of my joys but I have virtually no time away from my desk so our Fishing Day is a special treat for me too!. We raised enough money to provide 38 Goats! That's FIVE GOATS each for SEVEN families.  Think of that!"

These Goats will provide vital protein-rich milk for starving chidren and as the flock grows provide a desperately needed income for their mothers.   But there are many more families in need of goats.  This is why we are so grateful to you for your help. This has been one of the worst year's to date, without our wonderful supporters we would be powerless to help. People across Sudan are suffering from the worst food shortage for years.  

We are not an emergency organisation, but when no one else is helping families in rural Darfur villages we have had no choice - we cannot let people or animals starve.  This is why we are asking not only for your support, but to tell others too how much even the smallest help will make a difference.  Perhaps you can plan a fun event though it may not be a Fishing Day! 

We did well with our Fishing Day in England, but need many more life-saving Goats for families to help them nourish their starving chidren and give them hope for the future.   

We would be so incredibly grateful!

For our new villages, adopted in 2022, this is an incredibly exciting time of year!

This is when the Goat Beneficiaries - the poorest families who will receive 5 Nanny Goats each - are chosen.

These families are democratically chosen by the Village Steering Committee - which has also been democratically appointed by the villagers.

When Patricia Parker OBE set up Kids for Kids, she asked "but won't other families be jealous if they are not also receiving 5 Nanny Goats?"

"No," came the answer - "those families will be happy that they now don't need to support the poorer families by sharing their own meagre rations."

In Hillat Um Gadeer, one of the 5 villages adopted by Kids for Kids in 2022, 28 famiiles have been chosen to receive 5 Nanny Goats each. There will also be a Billy Goat for every three families in each village to be shared between the families who also take turns to look after him. 

After two years, our sustainable Goat Loan ensures that, once the little flocks have grown, 5 Nanny Goats will be passed on from each of these families to another family to benefit. So in two years, another 28 families will benefit, and then after another 2 years, another 28 families, and another 28 and so on.  Each family passing on goats then owns the remaining flock - which provides an income for the mothers.   "When crops fail" says Patricia "owning a flock of goats is quite literally a life saver.   The income from the sale of male goats and the milk and yogurt - and some have enough to make cheese too - is often the first time a mother can make decisions for her own family."

Hakima's family is one of the lucky Goat beneficiaries in Hillat Um Gadeer.

Hakima is 35 years old and is married with 6 chidren - 5 boys and a girl.

Her husband, Ibrahim, is a farmer.

During the rainy season, Hakima and her families crops failed totally. They now have no millet and no sorghum stock.

Hakima's only ambition is to find food for her children each day. It's the only thing that keeps her going.

"This year has been very difficult," Hakima says. "It's like war days. My youngest child is so malnourished I have to walk to Kerkara village health unit - which is a long way away across the sand - to get emergency plummy nuts for her."

But our Goat Loan will change Hakima's life and give her and her family hope.

The Goats will provide nutritious milk and desperately-needed vitamins and protein to strengthen their young bones, teeth and even brain cells.

Hakima will have the option to sell any excess Goat's milk and yoghurt to earn herself a living.

For the first time, Hakima will be able to look to the future, rather than just living day-to-day.

Hakima will be able to make decisions for herself and her family, be able to save for the future, plan an education for her chidren, a life out of poverty.

WE REALLY ARE CHANGING LIVES, ONE GOAT AT A TIME.

But we now need to buy the goats for all of these families.

Could you help us by donating a Goat - or five for a whole family? 

We are so grateful for your support, we really can't do it without you - and just think of the smiles those Goats will bring!

Child starvation is a real threat today in remote villages in Darfur.

Our hearts go out to the Ukraine at this terrible time but, in Sudan, life is also a real struggle, the country is on its knees.

Food prices are soaring due to renewed conflict, failed harvests and economic crisis.  

A small loaf of bread is more than a month's income. Families are living off one scant meal a day. Children will die without help.

But the villages are out of sight, the children forgotten.

Very little is publicized about their desperate situation.  

But we can help, we can make a lasting difference. Goat's milk transforms children's health & chickens provide eggs for the frail elderly.

We are so grateful to all your donations to help us save lives - but there is still so much more to be done.

Kids for Kids provide Goat Loans to families in Darfur - 5 Nanny Goats are lent to the poorest families in villages we adopt so that protein-rich milk can be fed to children to stave off malnutrition.

After 2 years, 5 Nanny Goats are passed on to another poor family to benefit, and so the sustainable cycle continues.

Goats are too much for an older person to manage, so we provide chickens - easy to look after and their eggs are nutritious.

This is the best microfinance scheme in the World.

Short term, you will be saving children from immediate malnutrition. Long term, excess goat's milk is sold to pay for children to go to school - the way out of poverty. Women are empowered with their own income for the first time.  Grandparents are stronger and healthier, and contribute to their communities, passing on skills, wisdom and knowledge. The entire community will benefit and families can plan for the future.

Please can you donate a Goat today to help us save children from starvation and give families hope for the future?

Darfur, in the west of Sudan, is one of the most isolated regions of the world.  There are few reasons to visit, and virtually no infrastructure outside the regional capital,  El Fasher. Even people in Khartoum have no understanding of the struggle to survive which every family in the remote villages faces every single day.   The only transport a family can hope for is a little donkey - without that, you walk.  Few villages have accessible water and it can be miles away across the desert.   A donkey is a life line, but people's incomes have collapsed.   Inflation is out of control and if your donkey dies there is no hope of replacing him.

Please help us to provide a donkey for the poorest families in the five villages we are adopting this year.   The importance of a donkey in indescribable - not just for collecting water, but for going to market, pulling a cart, carrying the sick to hospital, ploughing the fields, and much more.  If we can provide a female donkey a family can breed from her.

The goats we lend to families for two years give desperately needed milk - the only source of protein for countless children. If you could help provide a donkey and a nanny goat you will be helping to transform a family's life.    Incomes are now as low as less than $20 a year - the gift of a donkey and a goat is beyond a mother's dream.   No other organisation is helping these families who are out of sight.  What Kids for Kids is doing with your help is hugely important.  We are determined to turn life around for five new villages in 2022 - yes there are many more - but every child we help, means real hope for the future. 

Thank you.