Goats: Help Families Become Self-Sufficient

Lambi Fund is currently partnering on  a goat breeding project implemented by the MPPDSCA Organization (Progressive Peasant Movement Twelfth Section of the Aken commune) which is located in the Southern Department of Haiti.

The organization made this request because its members and others in the community do a lot of farming, especially goat farming. This activity provides a source of income for the peasants. When the animals reproduce, the peasants have more kids to sell, which allows them to solve problems that usually fall on them in an emergency in the family, such as cases of illness, death, etc. In addition to this economic aspect, the Organization believes that the project will allow it to have more opportunities to strengthen itself and also make more meat available on site in the community. For all these reasons Lambi Fund decided to help the Organization find the means to set up this small breeding project for its members.

The MPPDSCA project started with a herd of 70 goats, 64 females and 6 males. The organization distributed these first goats to members who have a lot of experience in raising goats and also have space for the animals to find food to eat. Beneficiary members are distributed among the seven villages in the section.

Here is the strategy adopted by the Organization in the project: the goats will be reared in the backyard of the beneficiary members where they will look for grass to feed them, and where the kids will be born. When the kids are born, the beneficiary members will give part of the litter to the Organization to distribute to the members who have not yet gotten any goats  and the other part will remain for the member who was taking care of the goat.

So there are 64 members who received 64 female goats and 6 male goats were distributed to group managers in each of the villages. These managers will have the responsibility to take care of the male goats and control the reproduction of the females. As it was also foreseen in the project strategy, each beneficiary is feeding his animals but they help the managers to get food for their village as well.

Second Phase: The first group of goats now have kids, which includes about 50 goats.

The organization has already made many reforms to the herd, the old goats (male and female) that can no longer produce good yields are sold and replaced by younger ones so that the breeding process can continue among the Organization.

MPPDSCA started at the end of 2021 with a herd of 70 goats, 64 females and 6 males. Unfortunately, 15 of the goats died a week after their purchase due to poor transport conditions and poor adaptation to the new environment. As the project progressed, the Organization decided to change the strategy. The Organization did not distribute the goats to small groups as usual. Inxtead the goats were distributed directly to the members. The kids are raised in the backyard, where the kids are born. Upon the birth of their new kids, the beneficiary members provide the Organization with one animal to distribute to the remaining members and the other animals will remain for the currrent members.

There are now 49 goats left, already raised as breeding goats. Several miscarriage cases, approximately 8, were recorded in the project and other cases of disease also appeared in the herd.

Fortunately, the Veterinary Technician was able to provide all the support he could to prevent the death of other kids. About 50 kids were born by the end of the summer.