EADD II - East Africa Dairy Development Phase II

The Road from Farm to Market 

This article originally appeared in the 2015 Holiday edition of World Ark magazine

Southern Highlands, Tanzania - A thin, pink notebook rests on the living room coffee table of Rahel Mhema and her husband, Steven Kipagatie, at their home in Ikando village.  Malengo, "goals" in Swahili, is neatly written in capital letters at the top of the book's cover.

Shortly after receiving a dairy cow from Heifer International Tanzania in 2010 the couple sat down to share their long-term dreams together, and they decided it was a good idea to write them down. Reading from the book, Kipagatie listed their goals: “Educate our children through high school and on to university; establish an orchard; buy more land for commercial timber; plant timber trees; buy a motorcycle.”

Five years later, Mhema, 40, and Kipagatie, 43, have achieved all of their goals and then some—they also started beekeeping, added goats and another cow, and have enough money to hire help for their farm.

When the two married 19 years ago, setting goals like these seemed futile. Mhema supported both of them by sorting tea in a factory, where she might work a week with only a four-hour break every 24 hours or go two or three days without sleep. After seven years of this grueling work, Mhema left the factory, and the couple tried their hand at farming. But the farm never paid off by itself. Fortunately, the cow did.

It’s the classic Heifer story—and literally, a heifer story—the gift of a cow and training leads to a life that once seemed out of reach for a family of farmers. Milk money provides for the basics and allows Mhema and Kipagatie to invest in other profitable ventures while also saving for the future. The cow’s manure increases the quality and quantity of their crops. And all of that leads to checking off each of the aspirations listed in the pink malengo notebook.

But now Mhema and Kipagatie have a new goal. Through Heifer’s East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) program, Mhema and Kipagatie’s next step is to become entrepreneurs on a larger scale.