This year, 2019, we are adopting EIGHT new villages! Bargo, Derma, Abu Sineiat A and Abu Sineiat B, Um Isheira, Um Ajaja, Um Shijir, and Turra - transforming the lives of nearly 2,000 children.
All community members are involved in directly selecting the first families to benefit from the Goat Loan and Donkey Projects, and the criteria that the villages use to select the beneficiaries are listed in detail below. Take a look and see a real example of the huge amounts of thought that go into all our projects!
Have you ever wondered how the first goat loan beneficiary families are selected in these villages?
1. Vulnerable groups (poorest women heading households with children, including under age 5, or people with special needs who have capability to care for animals).
2. Lack of reliable income source.
3. Poor housing conditions and minimal assets – utensils, clothes, livestock, land - these are usually the best simple indicators of the poorest families in the village. Assets including number of beds, floor mat, number of jerry cans, number of cooking pots - lack of possessions is a clear indicator of desperate poverty - plus annual income (these days this can be as little as $30/£25 for an entire family) number of animals.
4. Ability and willingness to manage the flock, shared with children after school as necessary
5. Commitment for children to attend school full time
6. Keen to give best care to animals
7. Beneficiaries sign a letter of agreement to participate in the Goat Loan Project, to care for the goats and donkeys, recognition that the animals are a village asset and if not properly cared for, may be removed by decision of the Animal Loan Committee and Programme Manager. Most women are illiterate so they sign with a thumb print. The offspring are the beneficiary's to keep at the completion of the Goat Loan. Commitment not to sell or kill any animals without the agreement of the ALC. Commitment to repay the Goat Loan provided on credit as stipulated by the project.
Donkey Beneficiary Families Criteria:
1. Vulnerable group e.g. poorest women headed families with children.
2. Housing conditions/assets as for goat beneficiaries
3. Does not own a donkey, or has 1 donkey for a family of 4 or more members.
4. Willingness to undertake its management and care
5. Genuine need for a donkey. First choice Kids for Kids goat beneficiary but disabled or disadvantaged (frail, elderly etc) male or female also eligible.
6. Must be able to take care of the donkey.
7. Good livestock caretaker.
8. Commitment not to work any foal in any way under 2 years of age - nothing on its back, including young children
9. Acceptance of a letter of agreement to comply with the project conditions. (see above)
10. Acceptance that if the Animal Loan Committee considers the donkey or its offspring are not being cared for adequately it will be removed and passed to another beneficiary.
Last year, children in all eight villages that we are adopting this year died from malnutrition and malaria. But this year each of these villages will be experiencing significant change, as our life-saving projects will bring an abundance of goats milk to these new villages. Please Give a Goat or a Donkey today to a family in great need. If you make a donation of up to $50/£38 before Friday April 12th at 11:59 pm ET, it will be matched at 60% in GlobalGiving's Little By Little Campaign!! $50 becomes $80 - enough to buy a goat, or with Easter right around the corner, provide Four Families with Chickens for Eggs! Please donate $50 now before matching funds run out (and remember, only one donation per donor of up to $50 is matched).
Every donation matters, but we would particularly like to thank our regular donors who's monthly giving, no matter what the amount, helps us plan and work most efficiently and effectively. Thank you all!
Who made a huge difference in 2018? You did! In 2018, this project raised over $10,000 on GlobalGiving - all thanks to you! Please feel proud that in just one year you helped us reach such a fantastic amount! It was really important help because the harvest had failed and those without goats for valuable milk had no source of protein. It takes more than one year to recover from famine and we are doing our best to make sure as many children as possible have goats milk.
We are currently in the process of deciding how many villages we can adopt in 2019. There are dozens of villages asking us to adopt them this year and unfortunately, we cannot help them all. For the villages that we cannot adopt this year, we provide mosquito nets so no village leader goes away empty handed. However, we are hoping to adopt five new villages as soon as possible! But as you all know, we do not adopt a village without being 100% certain that we can provide all our sustainable projects. The (magnificent!) donations that came in towards the end of 2018, and those that come in over the next few months, are crucial to making our goal of adopting five villages a reality. Can you help us do even MORE in 2019?!
We are not asking you to do this alone. Tell your family members, tell your friends, and tell your colleagues! This year, with your help, we could raise even more than last year's $10,347. And it is not just the money...it's the lives that are saved and changed by the goats and the donkeys. If you forward our project page on to anyone who might be interested, amazing things can happen! Just think what a few more generous donors can do to help families in our new villages in Darfur. Together we can fight malnutrition, give families a future, and prevent whole villages of people from becoming refugees.
You helped make our 2018 phenomenal and we are so grateful. While every donation matters, the power of your voice, the magic of your forwarding button, the impact of your request to friends - can change the world.
Happy New Year - and may this new year be full of goats and donkeys to change the lives of little children in Darfur!
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Meet Amina, a little girl from Um Jum Jum village. You can see by the color of her hair that she is malnourished, as her diet consists of no protein whatsoever. Her hair has been drained of its color because she has been eating mostly assida, made from sorghum - no milk, no meat: no protein in any form.
There are families like Amina's all over Darfur, families who don't have the income to buy healthy, nutrient-rich food and because of the famine this year, many are struggling to find anything at all to eat. Our projects provide help to the poorest in the communities. Many families are suffering with no crops with which to feed themselves and no animals to earn an income, they have run out of food. Anything you can do to help now would make it possible for us to provide seed, flour, and goats for goat's milk to ensure people do not starve before there is finally a harvest.
Every January we adopt new villages, deciding how many we can adopt based on the funds we have incoming. The more you give at this time leading up until the New Year, the more villages we will be able to adopt. We will never adopt a village if we do not have the funds to commit to providing our full range of sustainable grassroots projects to the poorest democratically elected 15% of families in that village. We support each new village for two years, until they are able to run the projects themselves. By donating for donkeys and goats right now, you will make it possible for us to accept more villages that come to us asking to be adopted. A Kids for Kids village is stronger and more able to withstand conditions in Darfur. As well as providing animals, we train villagers in veterinary care, and provide the poorest families with the essentials for life in Darfur. By training communities to democratically manage projects, from water and forestry to health care, we are transforming whole villages long term.
With the holiday season right around the corner, this is the perfect time to Give a Goat or Donkey on behalf of a loved one! Just one cup of goat's milk a day will transform the lives of children in Darfur who have no other hope, and Donkeys are the only transport. These animals also make the very best presents! Print off one of GlobalGiving's Gift Certificates or get in touch with our US volunteer, Mary Jane, directly at MaryJane-US@KidsforKids.org.uk so we can make you a special personalised certificate (see example below). If you are in the UK or anywhere else in the world do reach out to contact@kidsforkids.org.uk.
Please encourage your friends and family members to Give a Goat this year as well! Together we can make a real difference in the New Year.
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Last week we had our third inception meetings in the five new villages that we adopted this year. We are excited to tell you that the first beneficiaries are being chosen right now! Can you imagine how a mother feels when her goats walk into the village and she knows she will have milk for her children - and be able to earn an income herself. These families will be the first to receive goats and donkeys in their villages. Here begins our 2018 Goat Loan!
Prior to this third inception meeting, our Programme Manager and Project Officer held two others where each new village agreed to the requirements and aims of the Kids for Kids programme. These meetings, when the whole village comes together, ensure the sustainability of all our projects - and the long term health and welfare of the children. In the second meeting the community chose the volunteers who will be trained as Midwives, First Aid Workers, and Paravets for the village. Members of the Children’s Shepherd’s Committee and Animal Loan Committee were also chosen – these committees will be responsible for ensuring the proper care and rotation of the animals. The Animal Loan Committee supervises and helps the beneficiary families in order to ensure success of the goat loan project. These measures are essential before animals are brought to the villages. In the third meeting, first and second-generation beneficiaries were democratically elected by the community to receive goats and donkeys.
You will know that 15% of families in a village are chosen as the first to receive animals – these will be the poorest families in need of the greatest help. Every time we adopt a village it is essential that those families who will receive goats in the first rotation, after 2 years, are also chosen because it helps to sustain the project. When the goats are rotated to the second beneficiaries, the third generation of benefitting families will be identified. When families know they will soon be receiving goats, it provides a visible incentive to help those that have the goats first, enabling the project to succeed and remain sustainable.
Now that the first and second generation benefitting families have been chosen, animal husbandry training can begin. We will never bring animals into a Kids for Kids village without first training all those involved with the animals in how to properly care for them and keep them healthy and fed. Once training has occurred, then we will purchase the animals.
The rains have finally come to almost all the villages in Darfur, which means the Goats will have food now that the grass is growing. However, the price of goats is going up which means we have to buy as soon as possible. Can you help? Donating now will enable us to purchase goats at a fair price and ensure families receive the best breed. Goats are bought locally as they will be able to best withstand conditions in Darfur.
The feared famine is now a reality in Darfur. The failed harvest has left families without enough food to get them through until the next rains come - if they come. The lack of food means children and animals may starve if we do nothing. Families need Goats and Donkeys, but those animals need food. This is why we have ordered fodder for the animals of 3,000 families that have been worst hit by the failed harvest- but we need your help to fund it!
Goat’s milk is desperately needed to help prevent starvation in children - especially now. When there is drought, grass too is sparse. Despite walking miles to collect hay, families have not been able to save enough for summer fodder to last across the 'hungry' months. The young, both children and our goat kids, will be the first to succumb. Owning animals is the difference between basic survival and improving your own future. Losing an animal to the famine would be unspeakably heart-breaking. It is not just our goats; our donkeys too are worth their weight in gold. They are not just pack animals; they can also provide additional income. We have to ensure both children and animals stay healthy.
We must also continue to fund the Goats and Donkeys we are organising for families in the Five New Villages we have decided to adopt this year: Javina, Matawy, Teiga, Um Gulla and Um Jum Jum. Please can you help us bring relief to families suffering the drought and famine? Please can you help us support funding Goats and Donkeys in our new villages? By sharing our reports with friends and family you will save lives and change lives.
And if you have the joy of a gift giving occasion coming, a birthday, graduation, wedding or US Mother's Day, why not give a Goat or Donkey. You will save lives. You can print a gift certificate right on the GlobalGiving website. And it is always the right size!
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