Goats and Donkeys Transform Lives in Darfur

Making sure Goats really do work Miracles

You can sense the bright new hope all around the 8 new villages that Kids for Kids has adopted this year.  Our Programme Manager Dr Salim and his team are rushed off their feet visiting each community, getting the committees organised and putting training in place to make sure that every project works properly.  "Everyone is so eager to make this a success" he reports, "you would not believe the number of questions and the number of people willing to get involved to help their community.  Hope is contagious!"  

This is the critical preparation phase, when we teach people how to select the right beneficiaries from within the poorest families in the community, and then teach the beneficiaries how to look after their animals.  A Kids for Kids Goat Loan, if it is well managed, will transform lives for a whole community.  You may know that we lend 6 goats to a family for immediate milk so that children no longer have to go to bed hungry, and the family has a chance of an income as the little flock grows.  After 2 years a carefully tended flock could be as large as 20 goats, and at this point 6 kids are passed on to another family, so the miracle starts all over again.  A new family is transformed every 2 years. 

"We are heading towards my favourite time of year in Darfur" says Patricia our Founder.  "The rains are due any time now, and - if they come - the landscape will be transformed for a few short weeks."  When the land turns green the goats have plenty to eat and have their kids.  But nothing is certain in Darfur!  It is a huge relief to know that our villages have saved hay this year, since the rains are already overdue.  Let's pray they come soon, before the supplies run out.  

We are about to buy 1,992 goats to help 332 families in our 8 new 2015 Kids for Kids Villages.  Can you help us please?  

$62 provides a goat for nutritious milk to feed hungry children

$372 buys 6 goats for a family Goat Loan - the best microfinance ever!

$800 pays for training to make sure the projects last and last 

$600 trains a paravet - there is no other animal care 

$165 pays for 100 vaccinations to keep animals healthy

Thank you for your support! 

Links:

• Kids for Kids website for more information
• Join the conversation on Facebook

It’s not just goats – donkeys are invaluable too.

Aasha (name changed) had no animals and was too old and frail to grow her own crops. She is the sole support of her 4 grandchildren. “It took me 4 days to collect a donkey load of firewood and then a day to sell it in the IDP camp.  5 days work raised $2.20 but I had to give half to the owner of the donkey.  That is all I had for everything. My grandchildren were fading before my eyes". She was doing her very best, but with no other income she was trapped in a desperate cycle of poverty, trying to sustain her family on just $1.10 a week.  “I didn’t think I would find her again” said Patricia our CEO.  

Thanks to your donations, Kids for Kids changed all this when we adopted her village.  Aasha and the poorest 15% of families in her village have received help, in her case her own little donkey.  For Aasha this is truly a lifeline, and she could not be happier.  She was eager to tell Patricia how life-changing this is when she returned to inspect a handpump.  "My life is transformed.  I no longer have to pay to hire a donkey, and I can even hire him out to others to use, and I make sure he is well looked after.  I can feed my grandchildren.  I am no longer frightened I will lose them too.  So many children die here. "  Aasha and her grandchildren have new hope for the future. Thank you for making this possible.  

Kids for Kids has adopted 70 vilages so far, and we would love to adopt 5 more in 2015.  With your help we can bring these simple, life changing projects to more communities in desperate need.  Will you support them now?  

Thank you for your help!

$45 Provides training so that people care for their animals properly (we always train beneficiaries before they receive animals into their care)

$62 buys a goat to provide milk for hungry children

$95 buys a little donkey to carry water, or firewood, to help people like Aasha earn a living 

$372 buys 6 goats to provide a family with milk and a chance of an income, and their offspring help another family in 2 years time

$600 provides a paravet - there is no other veterinary care in Darfur 

Every penny goes a long way in Darfur. Thank you! 

Links:

• Kids for Kids website
• Kids for Kids Facebook Community

Goats really do work Miracles in Darfur

Thanks to you, our generous supporters, Grace* has literally had her life transformed.  When she received her goats on loan from Kids for Kids in 2005, she was chosen by the community as one of the poorest in the village - and the village itself was one of the most in need.

In 2007 she passed on 6 goats to another family, which left her with a flock of 20 goats. Now, in 2014, she still has 22 goats, having sold 40 goats. The proceeds of the ones she sold have paid for her children's education, food and clothes. She was also able to buy a bed, sheets, a donkey to carry water, and a radio. But that is not all - two of her children are studying in the university in El Fasher, because they were able to finish their schooling.  All that, from just 6 goats which we lent her in 2005!

And remember, she passed goats to another family too, and that family passed on 6 in 2010. The miracle goes on:  That first goat loan continues to help a new family every 2 years.  Kids for Kids have adopted 70 villages in Darfur so far.  We would love to add five more in 2015, with your help.  

Please will you support Kids for Kids this Christmas, and fund another miracle?

Thank You! 

Links:

• Our Gift List - what you can send to help in Darfur
• Kids for Kids website

We received excellent news this morning that our first goats, for the five new 2014 adopted villages, have been purchased.   Adam Sebil is Chairman of the Kids for Kids Steering Committee (our registered organisation in Darfur) and was able to go to the market in Khamis, with the village purchase committee, to ensure that good goats were purchased - and importantly at the right price.

The aim is to buy all of the goats, for the new villages, and get them with their families by Eid. When we have achieved this important date in the past, the villagers said that the goats were specially blessed. This shows how important our goats are to the villagers and the high esteem they are held in. Ensuring that we have local people taking responsibility in Darfur for everything we purchase is vital to our success. But we need more!

We currently support 70 villages but so many beg us for help each year.  They know that our Goat Loan and other sustainable projects can transform their lives and build a future for their children.  The villagers that already live in a Kids for Kids village are touched that people so far away, like you and I, care about them and are willing to help. 

Our goats continue to provide a lifeline - milk for the children and an income for their mother - and then in two years, they pass on six kids to another family so that they too can benefit, then another and another.  Villages that have experienced several successful rotations have completely eradicated malnutrition.  We are proud of our success but more villagers need goats to help them build a future.  Thank you for your support.

Children are starving in the villages but no one is helping.  Kids for Kids is continuing to do everything possible to prevent people from forgetting Darfur.  There are so many other regions in the world which face tragedy, but something we can say with certainty, is that the help you have enabled us to give to children in remote villages, is helping us to transform their lives.

Last year there were eighteen villages on our shortlist, when we were having to decide which five we would be able to adopt in 2014.  It is heart-breaking to think of the thirteen villages that are desperate for our help but that we are unable to help yet.  Of course, the more support we receive, the more villages we can adopt.  To adopt five, instead of our normal three, is a significant difference for 2014.  The five villages chosen have been selected using a detailed criteria and all must adhere to our reporting requirements so that we can be sure that our help is having the required impact. It is these simple grassroots preventive measures that are the key to so much of what we do.  Next month for example, paravets and first aid workers will start their training.  The result will be small health problems, in both animals and humans, prevented in many cases from becoming more serious. Anything we can do to help people so far away from assistance makes a difference. 

Our most significant project remains our Goat Loan.  To think of one goat potentially able to help children and their families for years to come - as it's kids get passed on to other families and then others two years on, - is an incredibly heart-warming thought. Our Goat Loan continues to be hailed as the 'best microfinance project in Darfur'.  This month (until 20 July 2014 or until funds run out), any donations made to this project (up to the value of £1,000) will be doubled by Global Giving UK@ http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/projects/darfur-goats-and-donkeys/.  This is an incredible opportunity to help even more children and we would be delighted if you could take this opportunity to donate during this period. So please dig deep and "Buy one goat and give another one free"!

Thank you for remembering Darfur.