Proposal to establish a "Goat Bank"

Hello, my name is Vincent Ulargiw and I am the Coordinator of Nyalebbe CDA and the link to the outside world. We do not have power or internet in Nyalebbe. I live just across the border, in Uganda, in the town of Nebbi, where communication is much easier. I submitted to Global Giving our proposal for a Goat Bank, after completion of a 'diligence' process and their request for formal submission.

You can download the full project document by clicking here.

Here is some text and photos to illustrate.

Here is a local breed female goat [a doe]. Our local goats produce twins only 30% of the time and their milk supply is barely sufficient to feed the kids. We will buy good local females like this to breed with imported Boer goats for more health, milk and meat.

To do this well, we must have good training, good nutrition and good veterinary support.

Eventually, we will do all that from our resources. We need your help in the first year, to get equipment and initial supplies and training.

Here, in contrast, is a Boer goat. They get the name Boer because they were first developed as a breed in South Africa.

In Uganda people have used Boer goat bucks for cross breeding with local doe to improve the quality of the goat production in terms of meat and milk.

We shall import two male goats (bucks) for the project.

This is expensive and it is essential that we care for them well.

For this reason we need good equipment and proper training.

So who are we, seeking your support?

Here is a photo we took in November 2007: our committee and community members celebrate our first donated sewing machine, a gift from Australian friend.

With further donations, we began a training program for young people, to enable them to earn income.

We had just registered as an NGO. We have reported on this at our blog and will continue to report on our projects and their impact. Let us break the vicious circle of poverty that ties most of us down.

Achor Meka is Vice Chair of Nyalebbe CDA, seen here with his family.

Achor now cares for his orphan grandchildren. A generation has been lost in war and to AIDS. The older grandchildren cannot go to school because they have to take care of their younger brothers and sisters. There are also fees for school for which there is no money. CDA's first target is to provide young people like this with vocational skills to enable them to gain a living and build the future.

That was why we set up training in carpentry and joinery and tailoring and cutting. Now we plan this more complex project, requiring much wider community cooperation and skills development... and bigger benefits.

Here is a community meeting - again, see the older children caring for younger children.

We have made a beginning with community projects in which we have set up our own training schemes (carpentry and tailoring) to provide skills and potential for work and income for young people.

These projects also are giving us experience in receiving and managing financial support in a transparent and accountable way.

We want to run a goat bank project to restock the animals that were lost during the civil strife and political instability.

We also want to ensuring constant supply of milk and meat as a means of food security, and to reduce the problem of malnutrition especially among the children and pregnant and breast feeding mothers.

This project will also help in conflict resolution and reconciliation among the community as they will be organized in groups hence bringing them closer, working together.

We have experienced war and the impact of AIDS, which have taken away many of our people.

We had to flee from our village during the Second Congo War and return with nothing but our own capacity for subsistence.

We have to build skills and resources to help the next generation.

We do not have electric power, we do not have running water in our homes.

Here you see members of the community drawing water for home use and also washing clothes in a local stream.

You can see the basic level from which we need to improve quality of life and meet basic human needs.

Our projects focus on empowering and building skills and resources, not just charity.

Bedijo Ukungo Deo is an agricultural field extension worker for Anghal Collectivité – our local government area.

He is the CDA's volunteer 'mobilizer' - his role is to get members and support their understanding of projects and the principles of empowerment and capacity building.

You can see in this the way we seek to bring together resources of local government (which are quite limited) and community action.

He is a very hard working young man in his late 30s, he is here working at his veranda with his son looking on.

We are building a positive new way of life for our children.

Concluding note from Vince:

The period for donation via GlobalGiving has concluded. If you would like to contribute, write to me at the address on left and I will give you bank information.

I hope this introduction to our lives has given you an appetite to understand our project. Again, you can click here to read the details.

You can also return to our home page to read the words of our Chairperson Mama Mado and others setting out our self-reliance approach to community recovery.

... and me?

I have a Diploma in Social Work and a Certificate in Strategic Procurement and Logistics Management.

I am in my third year as an external student pursuing a degree in Democracy and Development Studies.

I have just opened a small video shop for income self-sufficiency. Wish me luck!

Write to me if you would like to help on this or other projects. Also read news at our blog.

Vince

This page and this project have been developed with the assistance of Dennis Argall, formerly Australian Ambassador to China, resident in Australia.

Dennis is happy to provide any background, by email (address below pic) or conversation on Skype.

Please email to arrange Skype call in advance.