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Ambassador Information Manual

Index

The Ambassador Roles (synopsis)

ProgrammesCountry Overviews

Programmes Summary

Figures and Multiplier summary

The Process Of Getting Livestock from Send a Cow

Programmes’ Case Studies

Frequently asked questions and answersMost frequently asked questions

Answers to above questions

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Thank you for Becoming a Send a Cow Ambassador

We do hope you enjoy fulfilling this important role and Send a Cow promises to help and support you as you carry out our work.

Always remember what you are now doing for Send a Cow isn’t just about increasing the charity’s income. You are now a vital part of Send a Cow’s commitment in helping families in Africa fight back against poverty and malnutrition.

Our support will include supplying you with stories, DVDs and PowerPoint presentations. We produce “The Ambassador” newsletter twice a year, which concentrates on news and sharing ideas from the volunteer network.

We hold regional meetings and an annual national workshop every May. These are designed to help Ambassadors become more knowledgeable about the work of Send a Cow and how best we can present the work being done in Africa in ways which are informative and interesting to the many diverse audiences that we speak to.

This manual contains much of the information you need to help you prepare your talks, answer the many questions you will be asked and proactively find groups to talk to, events to run or media outlets to contact!

Never worry about asking too many questions – we are here to help you. If at all possible try to join one of our African Study Tours. It will transform your understanding of Send a Cow and how we work.

A Send a Cow Ambassador: the role

As a national charity with a limited number of permanent staff at its headquarters, Send a Cow relies greatly on its network of Volunteers throughout the UK. The role of the Ambassador is crucial to the success and growth of the charity. Often the only way the public hears about Send a Cow is through the actions of an Ambassador.

It is therefore essential that Ambassadors are well informed, resourced, motivated and supported to spread the word and fundraise in their local area. The following points describe some of the different roles of a Send a Cow Ambassadors:

a representative voice – Ambassadors will be able to represent the charity in many areas – from giving talks to interested groups (Speaker), to attending local shows with a display stand or running a fundraising event (Fundraiser), to speaking to the media (Media contact).

a promoter – The Ambassador will be able to talk about Send a Cow with conviction and authority. They will be promoting the aims of the charity accurately in their contact with the public.

a local point of contact – The Ambassador will be able to disseminate centrally produced information and news about Send a Cow, and feedback any information from their area.

a fundraiser – The Ambassador will aim to stimulate and encourage local fundraising for Send a Cow by community groups. The Ambassador may also wish to organise

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fundraising ventures during the year. This would be with the view to raise money for the work of Send a Cow and to further promote the charity locally.

an identifier of opportunities – The Ambassador, as the expert on his/her area, will be able to keep an eye on activity in their local area to identify opportunities where the work of Send a Cow can be promoted or funds can be raised.

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PROGRAMMES INFORMATION

SEND A COW

COUNTRY PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

Introduction and HistoryOur workVision & StrategyAffects of Climate ChangeCarmeroonEthiopiaKenyaLesotho

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RwandaUgandaZambia

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Introduction and History

IntroductionSend a Cow helps African farmers grow enough food to feed their families, sell produce and develop small businesses that last. Inspired by our Christian values, we provide training, livestock, seeds and ongoing support; and help families to make the most of the land and resources they already have.

In turn, these families then pass on young livestock, seeds or training to others. And so on. And so on. This ‘Pass it on’ principle not only builds stronger communities, it allows us to help even more people to develop skills, confidence and self respect. People are happier and healthier, children are educated, homes are improved and communities are more harmonious.Send a Cow doesn’t offer a quick fix solution to rural development. In for the long haul, we typically work with groups for five years to effect substantial and sustainable change. We also acknowledge from the outset that issues such as gender equality, health and family harmony are just as vital to the success of development programmes in Africa as simple livestock provision.

So in addition to ongoing training in animal wellbeing, sustainable organic farming practices and natural resource management, our work also provides courses in subjects such as gender equality, conflict resolution, health and hygiene and HIV/AIDS awareness. This balance of practical farming skills with social, life skills is a potent mix and produces remarkable results.

HistorySend a Cow was set up by a group of UK farmers almost 20 years ago who sent out cows from their own herds in response to an appeal for milk from Uganda. The country was just coming out of a long civil war, communities and their farmland had been destroyed and much of the country's livestock wiped out. People were unable to feed themselves and milk would provide an instant source of food.

From day one we learnt that we needed to help rebuild communities if providing livestock was going to work for the long term. Without strong support networks, and lots of training,

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people simply wouldn't be able to manage a cow. And it quickly became clear that cows' manure, as well as the milk, would provide the long-term path out of poverty that communities so desperately needed. With 70% of Uganda's poor struggling to survive on infertile soil, cows' manure turned into compost provided the vital ingredient for communities to work their way out of poverty for good.

Today we work in seven countries: Uganda, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Lesotho, Rwanda, Zambia and Kenya, and we source all livestock within Africa. Tailoring different packages to meet the diverse needs of the communities we are working

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Our Work

We work in rural areas of seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa – the poorest, least developed region of the world. 70% of people here depend on the soil to provide them with food, yet it can be one of the driest places on earth.

By working with local communities and experts, we adapt our approach to benefit differing climates, terrains, and people’s needs. With our support, smallholder farmers from the equatorial rainforests of Cameroon to the mountains of Lesotho are discovering how to get the most out of their resources and build thriving rural communities

Those we work with include women, orphaned children, and people with HIV/AIDS. They have often lived in extreme poverty – despite their hard work. Yet now, with our support, they are starting to feed their families, send their children to school, earn a steady income, and lead happy and fulfilled lives.

Our work has three core strands1. Strengthening People, 2. Farming and Animals 3. Caring for the Environment.

Working with people in groups, for that critical peer support, we train them in how to use their natural resources wisely to build thriving mixed crop-livestock farming systems. This includes training in natural – or organic – farming; and in livestock care. Where necessary, we provide good quality animals, seeds and tools to get families started.

As well as being cheap and effective, the farming methods we promote are kind to the environment. Families learn how to combat environmental challenges such as soil erosion and water shortages – often the result of climate change.

It’s an approach that is enabling whole communities in seven African countries to move towards self-sufficiency. And along the way, they know they can rely on the support of our extension workers.

1. Strengthening PeopleHappier families. Greater community spirit. More respect between women and men. Better health, housing and education. More spiritual fulfilment. Increased dignity. Send a Cow offers African farmers benefits way beyond food security.

By helping people overcome challenges such as lack of education, low self-confidence, isolation and prejudice, we help them reach their goals. They gain the courage and skills they need to make a success of the agricultural assistance we provide, and leave poverty behind for good.

We work with some of the poorest people in Africa, including children orphaned by AIDS and war, disabled people, and widows. Most of those we work with are women, as they tend to be the poorest in their communities. Our gender awareness training helps them understand and fulfil their potential, lifting the whole family’s happiness. By challenging the stigma of disability and HIV, our social development teams help everybody to play their part in their community.

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We always work through groups, tapping into the strong community spirit that characterises much of African society. Our country staff, who are African, involve groups closely in deciding what assistance they need. They then provide training in how those groups can function more fairly and effectively.

By working together on shared goals, and passing on the benefits to others, families and communities become stronger. Neighbours support each other, practically and emotionally, even after our funding for their project ceases.

2. Farming and AnimalsBy making best use of their natural resources – soil, crops, animals, and water – people can farm cheaply, effectively, and sustainably. While we do provide many families with suitable animals such as a cow, goats, or poultry, the training we give is just as important – and is included in the cost of the virtual gifts you buy.

Families learn natural farming methods to boost crop and vegetable yields. Key to those techniques is the use of composted manure – crucial for families who cannot afford commercial fertiliser. They also learn how to keep their animals healthy and productive, and prevent them from damaging the land. Our support workers make regular visits to check the animals are well cared for and offer veterinary advice.

With a good supply of vegetables and milk, eggs or meat to eat and sell, families no longer go hungry, and can even share produce with their neighbours. Once farmers have enough to meet their basic needs, we provide extra support in business and marketing skills to help them set up farming enterprises – perhaps by making their surplus fruit into preserves for sale. That way, they can spread their risks, and build flourishing livelihoods.

3. Caring for the EnvironmentIn the semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, about 70% of people depend on the soil to provide them with food. Yet it can be one of the driest places on earth.

Pressure is rising on natural resources. Soils are becoming degraded, rainfall more erratic, and populations are increasing. All of which spells poverty and hunger for many rural communities.

Yet smallholder farmers can become stewards of the earth. By nurturing their natural resources, they can develop farms that produce plentiful food for generations to come.

Our farming approach has the environment at its heart. By using manure and other soil and water conservation techniques, farmers get more out of their land. They no longer need to destroy forests or marginal lands for cultivation.

Rather, they start planting trees, often for fodder. Those trees, plus the crops planted on manure-enriched land, absorb carbon from the air. In fact, recent research in Uganda indicates that more than twice as much carbon is absorbed in this way than is emitted by the livestock we provide and by our staff travel.

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What makes Send a Cow different?Started by a group of Christian farmers, we’ve always had farming and faith at our heart. We’re proud that some of our founders are still working with us today, helping families in Africa, farmer to farmer.

This knowledge and experience has stood us in good stead, helping us grow into the practical, innovative charity we are today, and enabling African families to become healthier, wealthier and happier.

Passing on the giftsSharing knowledge and skills is a truly unique and wonderful aspect of our work. Each farmer that receives training, seeds or livestock from Send a Cow is asked to ‘pass on’ the benefits to another needy family in the community. This Pass it On principle not only builds stronger communities, it allows us to help even more people to develop skills, confidence and self respect. People are happier and healthier, children are educated, homes are improved and communities are more harmonious.

Pass on ceremonies bring whole communities together to see first born calves, sheep, donkeys, seedlings or even training passed on in emotional ceremonies. It’s a truly inspiring event, when very poor beneficiaries themselves become donors, transforming their self-esteem and the community’s perception of them.

Specialists, getting truly special resultsOur work gets astonishing results because we don’t just provide isolated pockets of help and support to African farmers; our experts give advice across the board, from agricultural training to environmental sustainability, from livestock care to social development.

And this is no ‘off the shelf’ solution. Working carefully with each farmer, we identify a package of help and support that meets their needs perfectly and which can be adapted to meet the needs of different people, whether that’s young orphans heading up the home, disabled people or elderly widows for example.

Hand in hand, for as long as it takesImportantly, we support and share a family’s journey out of poverty for as long as it takes – typically five years. By that time, knowledge, skills, materials, hope and dignity have been passed on and on between even more families so that whole communities are transformed.

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Vision & Strategy

Our VisionA world without poverty and malnutrition.

Our Mission“To enable poor rural families in Africa to attain food and livelihood security, by developing strong community groups and sustainable agricultural systems which integrate crops and livestock”.

How we will get thereSend a Cow is focusing on two key areas for the next three years:

Improving livelihoods in Africa by providing farmers with quality help, training and support; and

Continuing to raise awareness amongst UK school children of key global issues: food production and security, sustainable development, and climate change.

We help more and more farmers every year –at the moment we’re supporting 16,000 families on their journey out of poverty- but it’s important that we keep increasing our help for families in need. So we’ll keep exploring how we can extend our programme reach across Africa. And we’ll work hard to achieve some challenging targets both in the UK and in Africa:

Improving Livelihoods in Africa To deliver practical help and support to at least 10,000 new families in Africa by

2013; To ensure a further 10,000 families have completed our training programme and

achieve food security by 2013; To ensure 5,000 farmers pass on their livestock, knowledge or seeds by 2013.

Advocacy, Campaigning and Education To introduce 10,000 more primary school children to the challenges faced in Africa;

and To continue supporting teachers with current and relevant resources to help them

bring Africa into the classroom. To advocate on behalf of disadvantaged rural households, and encourage more

Governments to adopt natural low input farming systems across Africa.

Affects of Climate Change

Rural communities in Africa have already been hit hard by climate change. Rainfall is becoming more erratic, leading to droughts and floods that devastate families’ livelihoods. Yet by taking simple measures such as composting manure and planting trees, we can help families to nurture their land and help protect themselves against environmental challenges. It’s a natural approach to farming which is kind to the environment too; independent research carried out for Send a Cow indicates that our programmes absorb more carbon than they emit.

Soil and compostMost farmers in Africa rely on rain-fed agriculture on tiny parcels of tired land. For many of them, training in how to make and use compost is often the first step of an incredible

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journey out of poverty. By learning how to produce more food from their plots using composted manure, farmers no longer need to destroy forests to open up more land for cultivation. And because compost increases the water-holding capacity of the soil, it protects the land against both floods and droughts. This increases the amount of vegetation that can be grown, which in turn absorbs carbon from the air.

Compost can also replace commercial fertilisers (although most farmers we work with cannot afford these). But because such fertilisers are made from fossil fuels, they don’t protect the land for as long as composted manure. Another soil protection technique used by farmers is contouring, which limits the effects of heavy downpours by helping to prevent precious top soils being washed away.

Livestock Globally, livestock emissions are a major contributor to climate change. Yet African smallholders in our projects integrate them into a mixed farming system that is very sustainable. Animal manure is used as compost; while food for animals is produced largely on the farm, rather than transported long distances. What’s more, farmers own just a few animals rather than huge herds; and practice stall feeding, which limits the environmental damage caused by grazing. Good feeding practices reduce livestock emissions.

Trees and grasslandAll farmers who receive dairy cows have to plant leguminous fodder trees and establish a fodder grass crop – often on land that could not be used for crops. This not only provides food for livestock, it helps to protect the environment and the soil.

Trees capture carbon through their leaves and trunks and nitrogen through their roots. Farmers take prunings from the trees and fodder grass to feed their animals, leaving the maximum amount of biomass in the fields to continue absorbing carbon. Tree roots also bind the soil together, increasing its water-holding capacity, and can be an effective measure against soil erosion when planted on sloping land.

We also train families in our projects in making fuel-saving stoves. These use approximately one-third of the firewood of a traditional open fire, so families no longer need to destroy the forests to get fuel. What’s more, most have chimneys that take away the smoke, resulting in both health and social improvements as families come together to cook in a newly smoke-free environment.

Small is beautifulGlobal agriculture, in particular livestock farming, has attracted heavy criticism for its environmental impact. However, the natural farming approach promoted by Send a Cow among small-scale farmers in Africa is very different from the intensive farming systems of the developed world. Recent independent research carried out for Send a Cow showed that overall, our projects have a positive impact on the environment and that we capture more than twice as much carbon as the programmes emit.

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Cameroon

Country OverviewThe modern state of Cameroon was created in 1961 by the unification of two former colonies, one British and one French. Since then it has struggled from one-party rule to a multi-party system in which the freedom of expression is severely limited.

Cameroon began its independence with a bloody insurrection which was suppressed only with the help of French forces. There followed 20 years of repressive government under President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Nonetheless, Cameroon saw investment in agriculture, education, health care and transport.

In 1982 Mr Ahidjo was succeeded by his prime minister, Paul Biya. Faced with popular discontent, Mr Biya allowed multi-party presidential elections in 1992, which he won.

In 1994 and 1996 Cameroon and Nigeria fought over the disputed, oil-rich Bakassi peninsula. Nigeria withdrew its troops from the area in 2006 in line with an international court ruling which awarded sovereignty to Cameroon.

In November 2007 the Nigerian senate passed a motion declaring as illegal the Nigeria-Cameroon agreement for the Bakassi Peninsula to be handed over to Cameroon.

Internally, there are tensions over the two mainly English-speaking southern provinces. A secessionist movement, the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), emerged in the 1990s and has been declared as illegal.

Cameroon has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa. However, the country's progress is hampered by a level of corruption that is among the highest in the world.

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Our Work in CameroonFrom equatorial rainforests to semi-deserts, Cameroon encompasses a huge range of climates and terrains. Living off the land is tough, and extreme poverty remains rife for rural people.

With support from us however, families are learning how to adapt to their local conditions, build livelihoods that last and protect their environment.

In the poorest region, the Far North Province, months of drought are followed by intense downpours. To prepare for these acute climatic changes, we train families in water harvesting, and show them how to integrate livestock such as goats into a sustainable farming system.

In the central and southern regions, hungry families are all too frequently forced to hunt for bush-meat, destroying the valuable forests in the process. By providing them with grasscutters (a cane rat that grows to about 8kg and is much prized for its meat) for breeding, we enable them to add protein to their diets as well as earn an income. We also help families to set up ‘backyard gardens’ to produce healthy vegetables.

We work in Cameroon through our partner, the non-governmental organisation Heifer Cameroon.

Our programme in Cameroon, run through our partner Heifer Cameroon, is one of our newest. Yet already, farmers we work with are discovering how clever use of resources such as land, water and livestock can enable them to prosper. We work in three areas here – the equatorial rainforest of the south, the humid rainforest of the central region, and the arid Far North Province – and adapt our work to suit the very different demands of each.

Locations of our Projects in Cameroon Equatorial Rainforest Humid Rainforest Far North Province

Number of Groups and Households we work withGroups = 45Households = 860

Main Livestock Gifts Programme Co-ordinatorGrass Cutters Anna Campbell-JohnstonMeat Goats

Strengthening peopleIn recent years, Cameroon’s economy has steadily improved – but rural communities have largely missed out.

Men in the southern and central areas of the country often seek work in the cities, leaving their wives to run the household and the farm. With our help and support, these women are now beginning to overcome barriers such as lack of education, resources and problems accessing credit. They are also now taking steps towards building decent livelihoods for their families.

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For many people in the Far North Province, a reliance on cash crops such as cotton and rice leaves them vulnerable to price fluctuations. With our help, they are now adapting their farming methods, and discovering how they can increase food security for their families.

Farming and animalsIn the rainforest zones, ownership of animals is very low, and diets are protein-poor. So we provide small livestock including goats and grasscutters (sometimes also known as a cane rat, an animal that grows to about 8kgs and is considered a delicacy in parts of West Africa), which add milk and meat to their owners’ diets. We also provide training in how to set up kitchen gardens using the animals’ manure.

In the Far North Province, competition for scarce resources sometimes leads to disputes between herders, who need large areas of land to graze their animals; and agro-pastoralists, who wish to open up more land for cultivation. Send a Cow works with agro-pastoralists to show them how to get more crops out of their existing plots so they do not need to encroach on other lands. We also provide sheep and some pigs for breeding, giving people a source of food and an income in the lengthy gap between harvests.

Given the remoteness of the Far North Province, people struggle to fetch water and take goods to market. So we supply some donkeys to relieve the burdens on these people – especially children. And because donkeys can also be used to pull ploughs, families are able to break up their land quickly, in time for sowing in the rainy season.

Types of animalWe work in two rainforest zones in Cameroon – both of which are under threat from farming and hunting practices. As soil fertility drops, farmers are forced to ‘slash and burn’ the forests to clear more land for cultivation. And in order to add protein to their diets of staple crops such as cassava, they hunt bushmeat, destroying the forests in the process.

For this reason, our work in Cameroon has a distinct environmental focus. By providing rainforest farmers with grasscutters for breeding, plus training in natural farming methods, Send a Cow reduces such environmental devastation, while ensuring that families get the nutrition they need.

And in the far North, where farmers face three months of intense rain, followed by nine very hot and dry months, we place a great emphasis on training in water harvesting and soil conservation techniques to help farmers beat the acute environment.

United Nations Human Development Rankings

Human Development Index 150 out of 179 countriesLife expectancy at birth 50 yearsPopulation on less than $1 a day: 33%%Population undernourished 23%Primary school completion rate 53%Under-5s mortality rate 148 per 1,000 live birthsAccess to improved water 70%

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Ethiopia

Country OverviewEthiopia is Africa's oldest independent country. Apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini's Italy, it has never been colonised. But the nation is better known for its periodic droughts and famines, its long civil conflict and a border war with Eritrea

In the first part of the 20th century Ethiopia forged strong links with Britain, whose troops helped evict the Italians in 1941 and put Emperor Haile Selassie back on his throne. From the 1960s British influence gave way to that of the US, which in turn was supplanted by the Soviet Union.

Although largely free from the coups that have plagued other African countries, Ethiopia's turmoil has been no less devastating. Drought, famine, war and ill-conceived policies brought millions to the brink of starvation in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1974 this helped topple Haile Selassie. His regime was replaced by a self-proclaimed Marxist junta led by Mengistu Haile Mariam under which many thousands of opponents were purged or killed, property was confiscated and defence spending spiralled. The overthrow of the junta in 1991 saw political and economic conditions stabilise, but not enough to restore investors' confidence.

Ethiopia is one of Africa's poorest states. Almost two-thirds of its people are illiterate. The economy revolves around agriculture, which in turn relies on rainfall. The country is one of Africa's leading coffee producers.

Many Ethiopians depend on food aid from abroad. In 2004 the government began a drive to move more than two million people away from the arid highlands of the east in an attempt to provide a lasting solution to food shortages. At the end of 2006 Ethiopia sent between 5,000 and 10,000 troops into Somalia to support forces of the weak transitional government there and helped to oust the Islamists who had controlled southern Somalia for six months. But, despite initial successes, the Ethiopians were unable to break the power of the Islamists, who gradually began to win back lost territory. Ethiopia's presence in Somalia ended in early 2009, when it pulled its troops under an agreement between the transitional Somali government and moderate Islamists.

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Our Work in Ethiopia“We’re not just giving training and seeds or cows. We are helping farmers to understand their potential, and the potential of their land. We are opening up their eyes and their minds.”Aklilu Dogisso, Country Director, Send a Cow Ethiopia

Millions of Ethiopians rely on food aid between harvests – even in a good year. When the rains fail, as is happening more and more often, many face starvation.

With Send a Cow training, thousands of farmers are now learning to break free of this cycle. They are producing food all year round – despite the growing pressures on their land from environmental challenges and rising populations.

Our focus here is on training in natural resource management. That means enabling farmers to make the best use of soil, rainfall and livestock to develop a productive farming system that does not harm the fragile environment.

Most families already own livestock, so we provide few animals. Instead, farmers learn how to manage their livestock better, so they stay healthy and productive.

Rural families in Ethiopia are extremely vulnerable to shocks such as drought and rising food prices. Yet with Send a Cow support, thousands are overcoming the odds and starting to produce food all year round. That means they can eat well and sell any surplus produce to pay for homes, education, and healthcare. They can also begin to save money to cushion themselves against shocks in the future.

Our Project Partners in Ethiopia

Highland Community Development Project (HiCoDep Project)Groups = 53Households = 1076SAC Ethiopia working in partnership with the Kale Hywet Church in the heavily populated Gamo Gofa Highlands to over 50 food insecure and therefore food aid dependent, community groups of farmers and their families on small plots of land. Most are now able to feed themselves all year round, have a better and more nutritious diet and sell surplus farm production to enable their children to attend school, pay health cost and generally improve family cohesion and housing. There is very significant evidence of many other farmers not trained by the SACEth/HiCoDeP team copying successfully the approaches they see practiced by those trained directly. This confirms the potential of many more benefiting beyond the direct SAC influence.

Integrated Dairy and Horticulture Development Project (SEDA Project)Groups = 16Households = 571In the much hotter and drier area in the Rift Valley region, SAC Ethiopia in partnership with the Ethiopian NGO Selam Environmental Development Association is giving training and working with farmers to learn how to manage improved milk producing animal using pumped lake water irrigated crop and pasture lands. As a spin off many farmers with minimal access to irrigation are digging their own shallow wells and learning, by copying, to grow food all year round where before they only grew crops during the 5-7 month rain fed growing season.

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Women’s Sustainable Agriculture, Natural Resources Management Project (SUNARMA Project)Groups = 15 Households = 320Working with an Ethiopian NGO partner, SUNARMA Ethiopia [Sustainable Natural Resource Management Assoc] SAC Ethiopia, is developing a project approach aimed at securing ‘Conservation through the marketplace’. This is a chronically food insecure area in the North Shoa highland plateau, with high levels of food aid dependency. The focus here again is on training mainly women farmers to grow new and varied crops for human consumption [food security] and for sale in local markets. Previously the farmers here relied on dried cow manure for their cooking so depriving the soil of valuable nutrient. Now using locally produced simple fuel saving stoves they burn 2/3rds less cow manure fuel. The rest is now being composted and applied to the soil to dramatically improve crop production for people and animals. All the training here like everywhere else is designed to make better use of natural resources. As well as conserving/improving the environment, people are finding themselves better off. Significant work is being done with this project to sensitise farmers to keeping less animals better such that they get better production as well as reducing the pressure on the common grazing environment they depend on.

Walii- Dabarsa Women Livelihood Improvement Initiative (ROBA Project)Groups = 20 Households = 474Very similar to the last project described above and working with Ethiopian NGO Rural Organisation for Betterment of Agropastoralist. SAC Eth is looking to transfer the learning so far to a new food insecure highland area near the Boli Mountains.

Kotoba Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihoods Project Groups = 29 Households = 580SAC Ethiopia’s newest NGO partner. Building on all the learning from all the other partnerships SAC Ethiopia is seeking to work within the West Shoa highland area. SACEth has deliberately selected a community where food insecurity is a new and recent challenge as population increase puts much greater pressure on land resource. No previous history of food aid dependency is expected to reduce the time taken to wean people from dependency into a self help mindset as has been the case elsewhere. All development and extension staff have been trained by experienced and successful farmers from the HiCoDeP project. Exchange, experience sharing visits between the two project areas, will be set up between farmers, Kotoba staff and Government development agents. This will include farmer trainers from HiCoDeP providing follow up monitoring and training of Kotoba staff and training farmer trainers from the best performing Kotoba farmers.

Main Livestock Gifts Programme Co-ordinatorBreeding Bulls David BraggCrossbred and Local CowsDonkeys & Sheep

Strengthening people We work with mixed groups of men and women in Ethiopia, including many widows. Women in Ethiopia have a particularly low social status. Through our projects, they discover they can play a fuller role in the economic life of the family and community, and men develop respect for their input.

By sharing workloads and responsibility, and by introducing new farming practices, families can increase yields and income. Importantly, family harmony can also improve.

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In the Highlands, where men are often forced to seek work away from home, Send a Cow provides support to their wives and families so that the men frequently return to their land full-time. Our social development teams also raise awareness of health issues such as HIV/AIDS which is on the rise in Ethiopia, and female genital mutilation, which is still widespread.

Farming and animals Ethiopia suffers frequent droughts which leave millions on the verge of starvation. Yet by integrating land and livestock, families can keep their crops growing. Ethiopian smallholder farmers tend to grow mainly staple crops, but through our training in techniques such as building and maintaining a kitchen garden, they discover that leafy greens and other vegetables can add much-needed vitamins to their diets. And by selling the produce, farmers can also tide themselves over between harvests of main crops.

Most families in Ethiopia own some livestock, so we give few animals here and focus instead on training in animal management. For example, farmers learn how to control grazing, so that animals do not damage land and crops.

What local livestock there is however, tends to be of poor quality. So we distribute some ‘village bulls’ – good quality animals used for stud purposes to improve the genetic stock in a given area. We also provide some poultry, sheep and local cows, as well as donkeys, which enable families in the highlands to access markets on the plains.

Caring for the environment With our support, farmers in Ethiopia are learning how best to protect their land from the severe environmental challenges the country faces.

Climate change is causing more frequent droughts and heavy rains, which make soils even more fragile. In the highland areas where many of our projects are located, those valuable topsoil’s are then washed away down the steep slopes. It’s a devastating cycle.

Our projects train people in how to conserve the soil. Tree planting, for instance, is crucial, as the roots bind the soil together. And by terracing steep land, farmers can prevent soils being eroded away. Families also learn how to harvest water, to keep their crops flourishing through times of drought.

Our natural agricultural techniques also enable farmers to get more out of their land. That means they do not have to encroach on forests and marginal lands in order to feed their families.

United Nations Human Development RankingsHuman Development Index 169 out of 179 countriesLife expectancy at birth 52 yearsPopulation on less than $1 a day: 39%%Population undernourished 46%Primary school completion rate 43%Under-5s mortality rate 119 per 1,000 live birthsAccess to improved water 42%

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Kenya

Country OverviewSituated on the equator on Africa's east coast, Kenya has been described as "the cradle of humanity". In the Great Rift Valley palaeontologists have discovered some of the earliest evidence of man's ancestors. In the present day, Kenya's ethnic diversity has produced a vibrant culture but is also a source of conflict.

After independence from Britain in 1963, politics was dominated by the charismatic Jomo Kenyatta. He was succeeded in 1978 by Daniel arap Moi, who remained in power for 24 years. The ruling Kenya African National Union, Kanu, was the only legal political party for much of the 1980s.

Violent unrest and international pressure led to the restoration of multi-party politics in the early 1990s. But it was to be another decade before opposition candidate Mwai Kibaki ended nearly 40 years of Kanu rule with his landslide victory in 2002's general election.

Other pressing challenges include high unemployment, crime and poverty; most Kenyans live below the poverty level of $1 a day. Droughts frequently put millions of people at risk.

With its scenic beauty and abundant wildlife, Kenya is one of Africa's major safari destinations. The lucrative tourist industry has bounced back following the slump that followed bomb attacks in Nairobi in 1998 and Mombasa in 2002. And in 2006 tourism was the country's best hard currency earner, ahead of horticulture and tea.

Our Work in KenyaIn recent years, parts of Kenya have been beset by violence, droughts and floods – highlighting how precarious life is for poor communities here. Almost half the population cannot rely on having food all year round, and in the Western Province, where Send a Cow provides support, that figure is even higher.

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Yet with training, plus good quality cows and goats from Send a Cow, families in this remote and poor region are now managing to produce enough food. They are earning an income to send their children to school, and building themselves secure livelihoods and stronger communities.

Many of the families we work with in Kenya are affected by HIV/AIDS, which is widespread in the Western Province. We also support many widows and disabled people here, helping them overcome stigma and fulfil their potential.

Send a Cow works in Kenya through our partner, the non-governmental organisation Heifer Kenya.

The remote, underdeveloped Western Province of Kenya is a world apart from the country’s better known beaches and safari parks. Poverty and hunger are rife. Yet groups funded by Send a Cow are now setting up small businesses, sending their children to school or even university, and telling us that their home lives are happier.

Our approach here is one of real partnership: we work through the non-governmental organisation Heifer Kenya, and we often organise visits for farmers to learn from more established groups across the border working with Send a Cow Uganda.

Locations of our Projects in Kenya Western Region


Main Livestock Gifts Programme Co-ordinatorDairy Cows David BraggDairy and Meat Goats

Strengthening people Making a living in the Western Province is tough for many. People often lack education, soils are poor, and communities are isolated. One district where we work, Busia, is the poorest in the whole country.

Nonetheless, the groups we work with here – largely women – are discovering that they can overcome these challenges, and build thriving rural communities.

Traditionally, many men work away from home, either as fishermen, or trading with nearby Uganda. That has harmed community cohesion, and also increased the HIV/AIDS rate. So many of those we work with are widows, or women who have taken in orphaned children.

Often, group members will contribute surplus milk, vegetables and even money to those families who care for orphans – a real tribute to their community spirit. Some groups are also forming dairy cooperatives to boost their ability to market their produce and earn a sustainable living.

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Farming and Animals You’re likely to find Kenyan vegetables, sugar and other foodstuffs in your local UK supermarket. However, smallholder farming in Kenya is very far removed from the agricultural export trade. Most farming families only have tiny plots of fragile land, and they simply cannot afford commercial fertilisers. But by adopting a natural farming approach based around the use of composted manure, farmers are boosting their yields, often with dramatic results.

Dairy farming is hugely important to the Kenyan economy – but again, smallholder farmers struggle to compete. If they own any livestock it is likely to be a low-yielding, local breed, and they lack the know-how to manage it productively.

To help, Send a Cow provides good quality dairy and crossbreed cows, capable of giving up to 20 litres of milk per day. Breeding bulls are also supplied, which can improve the genetic stock of cattle for a wide area – not just those owned by the farmers we work with directly. We’re also providing lots of dairy goats in Kenya, particularly for the many people we work with who are HIV+. Goats are easier to manage than cows, and their milk provides the nourishment needed by people taking antiretroviral medication.

Caring for the Environment Although it’s one of Kenya’s smallest provinces, the Western Province is hugely varied in terrain. It ranges from Lake Victoria in the south, to the rainforest of Kakamega in the east, and to the rocky, arid Teso district in the west.

Because floods and droughts have hit Kenya in recent years and rainfall has become more erratic, there is an urgent need for farmers to protect their land.

Send a Cow trains farmers in environmental protection methods to suit all terrains. These include: fuel-saving stoves, which spare the forests; agro-forestry methods, where trees and crops are integrated to mutual benefit; and water conservation techniques.

Most importantly, though, our natural farming methods are kind to the environment. By using manure-based compost, farmers strengthen their soil, which then becomes better able both to retain water during drought, and to soak up heavy rains. So farmers can make a healthy living from their existing land, and have less need to encroach on the valuable forests.



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Lesotho

Country OverviewThe Kingdom of Lesotho is made up mostly of highlands where many of the villages can be reached only on horseback, by foot or light aircraft. During the winter shepherds wearing only boots and wrap-around blankets have to contend with snow. While much of the tiny country, with spectacular canyons and thatched huts, remains untouched by modern machines, developers have laid down roads to reach its mineral and water resources. Major construction work has been under way in recent years to create the Lesotho Highlands Water Project to supply South Africa with fresh water.

Resources are scarce a consequence of the harsh environment of the highland plateau and limited agricultural space in the lowlands. So, Lesotho has been heavily dependent on the country which completely surrounds it - South Africa.

Over the decades thousands of workers have been forced by the lack of job opportunities to find work at South African mines. South Africa has on several occasions intervened in Lesotho's politics, including in 1998 when it sent its troops to help quell unrest.

The former British protectorate has had a turbulent, if not particularly bloody, period of independence with several parties, army factions and the royal family competing for power in coups and mutinies. The position of king has been reduced to a symbolic and unifying role.

Lesotho has one of the world's highest rates of HIV-Aids infection. A drive to encourage people to take HIV tests was spurred on by Prime Minister Mosisili, who was tested in public in 2004.

Poverty is deep and widespread, with the UN describing 40% of the population as "ultra-poor". Food output has been hit by the deaths from Aids of farmers. Economic woes have been compounded by the scrapping of a global textile quota system which exposed producers to Asian competition. Thousands of jobs in the industry have been lost.

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Our Work in LesothoFew people in the tiny, mountainous kingdom of Lesotho manage to make a living from their rocky land. Traditionally, men have sought work in South Africa, yet those jobs have dwindled dramatically in recent years.

However, parts of the country are now dotted with keyhole gardens – the pioneering vegetable-growing method that we introduced to Lesotho. These gardens produce food throughout the extreme heat of summer and cold of winter, so families can eat better and earn an income.

As farmers discover their effectiveness, they pass on the knowledge to their neighbours. With our ongoing support, they’re also pulling together to find new markets and other ways of making an income.

While sustainable farming is our focus in Lesotho, we also provide some poultry, rabbits and goats. Milk from dairy goats is considered particularly healthy for those with HIV/AIDS – around a quarter of Lesotho’s adult population.

Lesotho’s high, rugged terrain and extreme climate make it difficult for rural communities to be self-sufficient. Yet with Send a Cow’s support, groups here are developing innovative ways of producing food. In addition to the reassurance of having food for their families each day, farmers also have a product they can sell to pay for healthcare, education and housing. They can also invest in small businesses – vital in Lesotho, where job opportunities have dwindled in recent years.

Locations of our Projects in Lesotho Morija district Mafateng (in association with UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation)

Number of Groups and Households we work withGroups = 13 Households = 780

Main Livestock GiftsDairy GoatsPoultryRabbits

Programme Co-ordinatorAnna Campbell-Johnston

Strengthening peopleMany of the families we work with here have fallen into extreme poverty only in recent years, since men were made redundant from the South African mines. Before that, men often lived away from home, returning only occasionally. Bringing men and women closer together is therefore crucial to our work in Lesotho. And, because it is so difficult to earn a living here, we also work hard to bring whole communities together, working on marketing and business ventures.

Lesotho has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world, leaving communities badly hit. Many people are too weak to work and many children orphaned. In partnership with the charity Sentebale, we work with a group of orphans and vulnerable children here, helping to give them a better start in life.

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Farming and livestock Most of Lesotho’s food is imported, leaving families vulnerable to price hikes. Yet with training in sustainable agriculture, the families we work with are becoming more self-sufficient and better nourished.

Our main focus in Lesotho is to encourage families to introduce vegetable gardens near their homes as well as cultivating fields of staple crops. Families learn how to use manure-based compost to keep their vegetables nourished and watered throughout the country’s hot summers and cold winters. These Keyhole gardens, which we introduced to Lesotho, have proven so successful that they have been widely adopted by other non-governmental organisations and local authorities.

The manure for Keyhole gardens comes from families’ existing livestock, and from goats, rabbits and poultry that we provide (dairy cows aren’t suitable in this terrain).

Caring for the environment Lesotho faces extremes of weather, exacerbated by climate change. But with Send a Cow training and support, farmers here are learning how to combat the enormous environmental challenges and cultivate their land.

Heavy downpours alternate with dry spells here so water conservation methods are crucial. Send a Cow provides farmers with training and materials for hafir building – large pits to collect rainwater for crops and livestock.

And because the soils in Lesotho are fragile and easily washed down the steep mountainsides by the rains, huge dongas, or gullies are often created. Planting trees, whose roots bind the soils together, and terracing sloping land are therefore a priority for the country and for Send a Cow’s projects.

Another environmental challenge is regular hailstorms which can destroy crops within hours. Our answer is simple: to provide hailnets to protect vegetable gardens. These now dot the countryside in the areas where we work.



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Rwanda

Country OverviewRwanda experienced Africa's worst genocide in modern times, and the country's recovery was marred by its intervention in the conflict in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. The country has been beset by ethnic tension associated with the traditionally unequal relationship between the dominant Tutsi minority and the majority Hutus. Although after 1959 the ethnic relationship was reversed, when civil war prompted around 200,000 Tutsis to flee to Burundi, lingering resentment led to periodic massacres of Tutsis

The most notorious of these began in April 1994. The shooting down of the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana, and his Burundian counterpart, near Kigali triggered what appeared to be a coordinated attempt by Hutus to eliminate the Tutsi population. In response, the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched a military campaign to control the country. It achieved this by July, by which time at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been brutally massacred. Some two million Hutus fled to Zaire, now the DR Congo.

The country is striving to rebuild its economy, with coffee and tea production being among its main sources of foreign exchange. Nearly two thirds of the population live below the poverty line.

Our Work in Rwanda“Communities have the tireless support of Send a Cow staff as they strive to heal their wounds and build a happier, more secure future. We could not do it without your support.” Froduald Munyankiko, Country Director, Send a Cow Rwanda

The 1994 genocide left Rwanda deeply scarred. Yet today, Rwandans are taking great strides to overcome the rifts and re-build their country.

In Send a Cow projects, many fractured communities are working together to find solutions to the shared problems of poverty. And by passing on the benefits of our work to their neighbours, they strengthen community ties further.

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The problems they face are huge. Most families only have tiny plots of land, with degraded soils. And many have taken in orphaned children. HIV/AIDS rates are high, and malnutrition is widespread.

The country also lost much of its livestock in the violence. So Send a Cow provides people in Rwanda with good quality cows, goats and smaller animals, while also training them in sustainable organic farming and environmental protection techniques.

Communities fractured by fear after the genocide are now finding common goals in Send a Cow projects. Widows, orphans, disabled people and those with HIV/AIDS are discovering they can make a living – and by doing so earn the respect of their wider communities. People here are also working hard to combat severe environmental challenges, and restoring fertility to tired soils. Some longer established groups are also lobbying local government for better services.

Their success speaks for itself; families are growing food, communities are coming together and the national Government is adopting Send a Cow’s approach right across the country.

Our Project Partners in Rwanda

PAPSTA – (Support Project for the Strategic Transformation of Agriculture)Number of Groups = 46The Projects overall objective is to increase the agriculture income and improve the nutrition of poor rural population by implementing the Strategic Plan for Agricultural Transformation within the frame of innovative partnership with stakeholders.

PADEBL – (Dairy Cattle Development Support Project)Number of Groups = 9The overall project objective is to contribute to food self-sufficiency and poverty reduction. The specific objective of the project is to satisfy domestic demand for milk and beef, as well as contribute to increasing the incomes of producers. The project contributes to sustainable increase in milk and meat production, through the introduction of appropriate technological packages into stockbreeding in villages and per urban areas (training of stockbreeders and all operators in the sub-sector, improvement of animal health, genetic improvement and feeding).

KWAMP – (Kirehe Community-based Watershed Management Project)Number of Groups = 19The goal of the project would be the reduction in rural poverty in Kirehe District, as evidenced primarily by a step improvement in household food and nutrition security, asset ownership and quality of life indicators, particularly amongst vulnerable groups including woman-headed households, orphans and those living with HIV/AIDS.

Locations of our Projects in Rwanda Eastern Province Northern Province Southern Province


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Main Livestock GiftsCrossbred and Dairy CowsDairy and Meat Goats

Programme Co-ordinatorHenry Pomeroy

Strengthening peopleThe 1994 genocide left one million people dead, and forced thousands to flee to neighbouring countries. Those left homeless were often re-housed by the Government in areas where they had no ties.

For this reason, Send a Cow places a special focus on social development work in Rwanda. In most countries, we work with existing community groups; in Rwanda, we have helped neighbours from different ethnic backgrounds come together. Our training in conflict resolution and democratic ways of working is vital to the success of our projects.

The majority of our group members are women, including a high number of widows. We also work with groups comprising solely orphaned children; disabled people; and people with HIV/AIDS. Their family members are always welcome at training events and meetings.

Send a Cow also supports groups in lobbying local authorities on issues such as clean water supplies. Through this, many members have also found the confidence to take on responsible roles in the wider community.

Farming and animalsRwanda presents a challenging environment for farming, where crop yields per hectare have been declining since the mid-1990s. This is due in part to the destruction of much of Rwanda’s livestock during the genocide, leading to a reduction in manure supply. Access to water is also limited, so we train farmers in water harvesting to ensure they can care for their animals properly.

Our approach of providing families with good quality livestock to supply milk, meat and manure has proven so successful that it has been adopted by the Rwandan Government. The aim of its ‘One Cow Per Poor Family’ policy is to provide every poor family in the country with good quality, suitable livestock – not just cows – by 2020. Send a Cow is proud to be one of the partners delivering the programme.

Caring for the environmentLandlocked, hilly Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, and this places huge pressures on the environment.

As families try to produce more food from smaller plots, soil quality is declining. Deforestation is a problem, as the rising population needs more land to cultivate and extra fuel to burn, and the valuable wetlands are under threat.

Our sustainable farming techniques however enable farmers to manage their land in an environmentally sensitive manner. Fertility is restored to the soil, protecting it from

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erosion. People begin to grow more food on their existing plots of land, so they have less need to clear forests. And fuel-saving stoves spare the trees


Human Development Index 165 out of 179 countriesLife expectancy at birth 46 yearsPopulation on less than $1 a day: 76%Population undernourished 40%Primary school completion rate 35%Under-5s mortality rate 121 per 1,000 live birthsAccess to improved water 65%

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Uganda

Country OverviewSince the late 1980s Uganda has rebounded from the abyss of civil war and economic catastrophe to become relatively peaceful, stable and prosperous. But the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the north remain blighted by one of Africa's most brutal rebellions.

In the 1970s and 1980s Uganda was notorious for its human rights abuses, first during the military dictatorship of Idi Amin from 1971-79 and then after the return to power of Milton Obote, who had been ousted by Amin. During this time up to half a million people were killed in state-sponsored violence.

Since becoming president in 1986 Yoweri Museveni has introduced democratic reforms and has been credited with substantially improving human rights, notably by reducing abuses by the army and the police. In addition, Western-backed economic reforms produced solid growth and falls in inflation in the 1990s. However, Mr Museveni has bemoaned his country's failure to industrialise. The president came under fire for Uganda's military involvement, along with five other countries, in neighbouring DR Congo's 1998-2003 civil war. DR Congo accuses Uganda of maintaining its influence in the mineral-rich east of the country. Uganda says DR Congo has failed to disarm Ugandan rebels on its soil.

At home, the cult-like Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has perpetrated massacres and mutilations in the north for nearly two decades. The group's leader has said he wants to run the country along the lines of the biblical ten commandments. The violence has displaced more than 1.6 million people and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed or kidnapped. The UN estimates that the group has abducted 20,000 children. The LRA and government signed a permanent cease-fire in February 2008 aimed at ending the long-running conflict. However, a final peace agreement remained elusive throughout 2008, with rebel leader Joseph Kony repeatedly failing to attend signing ceremonies. Uganda has won praise for its vigorous campaign against HIV/Aids. This has helped to reduce the prevalence of the virus - which reached 30% in the 1990s - to single-digit figures.

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Our Work in Uganda“In Uganda, Send a Cow’s work has gained national recognition. Most importantly, though, it is enabling very poor families to grow food, gain an income, and start thinking about a brighter future.”Samuel Kawumi, Country Director, Send a Cow Uganda

Uganda is rich in natural resources – yet has been badly hit by HIV/AIDS, conflict, floods and droughts. We began working here in 1988, making this our longest standing programme. Some of the farmers we worked with in the early years are now successful businesspeople with adult children at university – proving that our approach really does make a lasting difference. Many of those farmers have found that one good quality cow – and associated training and support – is all the input they need to leave poverty behind for good. For others, we have adapted our programmes, focusing more on smaller livestock and sustainable organic agriculture.

Nowadays, many older community groups are still flourishing, despite no longer receiving funding from us. And Send a Cow Uganda has also developed into an autonomous organisation, with its own trustees: it remains largely funded by us, and is an important part of the Send a Cow family.

Uganda is home to our longest-standing programme, launched in 1988. Families in our projects here face problems such as environmental degradation, HIV/AIDs and conflict. Yet they are growing food, selling surplus vegetables, milk and calves, and setting up small businesses. Many parents who themselves never went to school are seeing their children through university – and members of our most established groups are lobbying local authorities on behalf of their communities.

Location of our Projects in UgandaSACU activities are spread in 36 districts of the country in all regions as listed below:

Central Uganda : Mukono, Kampala, Wakiso, Mpigi, Luwero, Mubende, Kiboga, Mityana, Masaka, Sembabule, Rakai and Kabarole district districts.

Eastern Uganda : Kamuli, Pallisa, Budaka, Kumi, Bukedea, Soroti, Mbale, Manafwa, Bududa, Sironko, Tororo, Butaleja, Iganga, Bugiri, Mayuge and Busia districts.

Northern Uganda : Lira, Oyam, Apac, Gulu, Nebbi, Arua Maracha and Amuru district.


Main Livestock GiftsBreeding Bulls, Crossbred, Dairy and Local CowsDairy and Meat Goats, Poultry

Programme Co-ordinator Martin Long

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Strengthening peopleUgandan society has undergone upheaval in recent decades; previously strong family and community networks have been damaged, and conflict during the last few decades has left many families’ livelihoods in tatters. As a result, most of our work here is with communities as they start afresh.In the 1990s, HIV/AIDS hit Uganda. Although rates are now dropping, many children have been left orphaned and adults too weak to work. Our project work includes support for families who have taken in orphaned children, plus some groups of child-headed households. We also support groups of disabled people and their families. Many of the longest-standing groups have now ‘graduated’ from Send a Cow. They no longer receive funding, yet many retain links with us and continue to pass on their livestock, skills and support to new groups. Some groups are now strong enough to lobby their local authorities for services, while individual members have become confident enough to stand for election to local bodies.

Farming and animalsMost rural people in Uganda are smallholder farmers. The country has huge agricultural potential, particularly in the fertile south. Yet environmental degradation, lack of skills, and shortage of quality livestock hampers farmers’ attempts to escape poverty. Many spend most of their income on buying food to survive.

The country’s animal stock was massively depleted by the civil war in the 1970s and 1980s. The consequent shortage of manure led to a drop in crop yields and what livestock there is in Uganda is generally low-yielding, local cattle. However, by introducing some dairy and cross-breed animals, Send a Cow can improve the genetic stock for a wide area. All the families we work with in Uganda receive livestock from us, along with training in animal care and the skills to integrate those animals into a mixed farming system.Uganda has a diverse range of climates, terrains and soils, so we need to adapt our natural farming techniques to suit. This tailored approach reaps great benefits; in the arid north and east, for instance, families are now successfully growing oranges and pineapples and other high-value fruit and vegetables –an achievement they had previously thought impossible.

Caring for the environmentBecause our projects are located right across Uganda, we operate in many differing climates and terrains. Water conservation is vital, particularly in the arid north and east. We also have to focus hard on conserving woodlands, which are under threat from farmers needing new land to cultivate, and people seeking wood for fuel. Despite the challenges, our work in Uganda is clearly having beneficial effects on the wider environment. By planting fodder trees and cultivating crops on manure-enriched land, farmers absorb carbon from the air. In fact, recent research indicated that over a five year period, one Send a Cow group captured twice as much carbon than was emitted.

United Nations Human Development RankingsHuman Development Index 156 out of 179 countriesLife expectancy at birth 50.5 yearsPopulation on less than $1 a day: 51%Population undernourished 15%Primary school completion rate 54%Under-5s mortality rate 130 per 1,000 live birthsAccess to improved water 64%

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Zambia

Country OverviewZambia is landlocked and sparsely populated by more than 70 ethnic groups, many of them Bantu-speaking. It has some spectacular scenery, including the Victoria Falls along the Zambezi river, the Bangweulu Swamps and the Luangwa river valley.

In the late 1960s it was the third largest copper miner, after the US and the Soviet Union. World copper prices collapsed in 1975 with devastating effects on the economy. The World Bank has urged Zambia to develop other sources of revenue - including tourism and agriculture. Even so, copper accounts for most of Zambia's foreign earnings and there is optimism about the future of the industry, which was privatised in the 1990s. Electronics manufacturers have fuelled demand and investment in mines has grown.

Aids is blamed for decimating the cream of Zambian professionals - including engineers and politicians - and malaria is a major problem. Millions of Zambians live below the World Bank poverty threshold of $1 a day. Zambia hosts tens of thousands of refugees who have fled fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Our Work in ZambiaIn the Eastern Province of Zambia, where Send a Cow works, livestock are vital to the livelihoods of the vast majority of people. Yet they tend to be local, low-yielding animals, and are often poorly managed. Poverty and food insecurity remain widespread.

We provide good quality cows and goats – and teach people the skills to manage them correctly. With our support, families are gradually finding they can earn money, set up small enterprises, produce food from their tiny plots of land even during the dry seasons, and send their children to school. Whole communities are being transformed.

Send a Cow works in Zambia through our partner, the non-governmental organisation Heifer Zambia. Zambia’s remote, rural Eastern Province is extremely poor – yet has huge agricultural potential. With training and good quality livestock from Send a Cow and its partner Heifer Zambia, communities here are learning how to combat problems such as lack of job opportunities and high rates of HIV/AIDS, and are build thriving, sustainable farms.

Locations of our Projects in ZambiaChadiza District; Chipata District; Katete District

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Main Livestock Gifts Programme Co-ordinatorDairy Cows Anna Campbell-JohnstonDairy and Meat Goats

Strengthening peopleWe work mainly with women in Zambia – and with good reason. Gender inequality is severe, and women are normally excluded from decision-making at home and in the wider community. Many have been widowed by HIV/AIDS, or have taken in orphaned children. Our work bolsters women’s confidence and skills. As they start to make a success of their farming and get milk, manure and money, their pride grows. They report happier families, and improved social status. Of course, men are welcome in our projects too! They can join community groups themselves, or accompany their wives to training.

Farming and Animals Most farmers only have small land holdings, on which they grow mainly maize, sometimes with smaller amounts also of cotton, groundnuts and sunflowers. The vast majority of farming families also keep some form of livestock – mainly local Ngoni cattle.

These low-yielding animals are grazed on common land or on crop residues in farmers’ fields. They are susceptible to tick-borne diseases such as East Coast Fever – yet farmers have limited access to vet and vaccination services. We provide good quality crossbreed, dairy and draft cattle in Zambia, as well as meat and dairy goats. Farmers learn stall feeding methods to prevent their animals from damaging their land while also keeping the animals away from most ticks, thereby protecting them against many diseases.Through our sustainable agricultural training, farmers are making use of their livestock manure, and discovering that they can increase their crop yields and meet the demands of a rising population.

Caring for the Environment As elsewhere, climate change is making life even tougher for subsistence farmers. By learning how to integrate crops and livestock, families are discovering how to get the most of their land. We also train them in environmental protection techniques such as soil and water conservation, and agro-forestry.

United Nations Human Development RankingsHuman Development Index 163 out of 179 countriesLife expectancy at birth 41 yearsPopulation on less than $1 a day: 64%%Population undernourished 45%Primary school completion rate 75%Under-5s mortality rate 170 per 1,000 live birthsAccess to improved water 58%

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The Process Of Getting Livestock From Send A Cow

1. Receipt of applications form

2. Review of applications

3. Initial visit to short listed applicants 4. Visit to group to agree aims and objectives

5. Group select first beneficiaries based on those in greatest need.

6.Training of the beneficiaries

Cornerstones, Animal husbandry practices, Organic farming

Training in social subjects like Gender, Home hygiene and management conducted by Send a Cow staff and external facilitators

Capacity building of the groups

6. How do we decide when they get the animals? Preparing farmers are inspected at various levels of preparation.

When the farmers have planted all the required pasture (aprox. 2 acres) they are inspected and passed to go on to shed construction. In some cases the needy farmers are assisted with a loan to construct sheds. During shed construction they are monitored to ensure that they are building the right sheds.

After the sheds have been completed then there is an overall inspection conducted by Send a Cow staff and they are passed to receive livestock. Those who are not ready at the time have to wait until the next round. This normally takes 6-12 months.

8. Provision of livestock after the final inspection.

Livestock is sourced, identified, ear tagged and paid for and transported to the relevant projects. Receipt of livestock by the groups is normally marked by lots of dancing and merry making for “the dream come true!”

Soon after the livestock has been placed, a team from Send a Cow plus the group leaders visit the new farmers to find out how the livestock is settling in and how the farmers are coping. If there are any urgent issues they are handled then.

9. Monitoring and Evaluation

M&E is a major component of Send a Cow work. This is carried on at various levels by:

The farmers themselves, Send a Cow staff , The group leadership, The Extension workers, Peer farmers & Send a Cow UK staff.

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LIVESTOCK FOR LIFETHE DIFFERENT TYPES OF GIFTS

AND HOW THEY HELP

BeesSweet Friend To Humans

Bees have been producing honey for at least 150 million years and human beings have been helping themselves to those honey stores for many thousands of years.

Honeybees are social insects, living in colonies 2,000 – 60,000 strong. Each colony has one large queen bee, up to 500 male drones and a huge army of female worker bees. The workers’ many tasks include turning the nectar they collect into the huge stores of honey which will feed the colony through the winter months when there are no flowers.

Perfect For The Poorest Farmers

In some of the countries where Send a Cow works, the average family is struggling to survive on no more than 500 square metres of land – far too little for most livestock.

Which is where bees come in. Beehives take up hardly any space, and even in very infertile areas bees can usually find enough flowers to provide them with the nectar and pollen they need. So bee-keeping is the perfect way for a very poor family to bring in extra income, from the sale of honey, beeswax and pollen. Just six beehives provide roughly the same income as a cross-bred cow.

In fact, bees help to improve fertility, pollinating plants as they search for nectar. A couple of strategically placed beehives can benefit a whole village, doubling fruit and vegetable yields for their owners and their neighbours.

Send a Cow’s Programme

Send a Cow has only recently begun to provide bees, but the results are so encouraging that we will almost certainly be giving more in the future.

So far we have given hives containing about 40,000 bees each to 30 families in Ha Matela, a village in a harsh, infertile area of Lesotho, in southern Africa. Each family will repay the cost of their hive over four years, so that other families can be given a hive. In addition, “gathering hives” have been placed around the village, so that when the original colonies swarm, several other families will receive free colonies, courtesy of the wind.

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‘Mamakhabane’s Bees’Farming in Ha Matela is all but impossible, because of the erratic climate and poor soil. But there has been little other work since the South African mines stopped recruiting labour from Lesotho.

‘Mamakhabane Letsie is 95 years old, and a great-grandmother. Send a Cow gave her a beehive and training in beekeeping in 2001, and she has already harvested her first honey. She was able to sell it for £30, which she divided carefully into quarters: one went into a healthcare fund, and another into the community credit fund to benefit other poor farmers who want to start beekeeping.

The third is for her to spend, but the forth she has already set aside: this money will help to see her two youngest grandchildren through primary school.

‘Mamakhabane is delighted with the independence the bees are giving her in her old age. “My eyes are not good enough to see the bees,” she says, “but the sound of them flying around brings me real hope.”

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CowsAnimals to treasure

Cows are highly valued throughout the world. Not surprisingly, for just one cow can mean economic security for that family, providing milk through much of its life. A cow or bull can be used for ploughing, thus enabling a family to cultivate up to five times more than they could manage with a hand-plough. Cows, including European breeds such as Friesian-Holsteins or Jerseys, flourish in most African countries – many African farmers cannot imagine how they survive British winters! In fact, they tend to live much longer in Africa: usually dying of natural causes at 12-13 years, rather than the two to seven years they live in Britain before being slaughtered. Most cows calve first at the age of two or three, and pure-bred cows have milk yields of between 10 and 25 litres a day. Native cows in Africa give less than three litres.

Bringing new hope

Send a Cow has learned over the past 14 years that one cow can enable a family to work its way out of poverty for good. Its milk can transform the diets of families suffering from malnutrition. Selling the surplus brings in much-needed extra income, enabling parents to pay for health care, their children’s education and better housing. They can buy new assets such as more land or livestock. And they can either keep the calves or sell them for a good price. In addition, they can use their cows’ manure to restore soil exhausted by over cultivation.

Using organic farming techniques learned on their Send a Cow preparatory training, many farmers have doubled and trebled their crop yields. They also make fertiliser and an organic pesticide from the cow’s urine. And in some areas of Uganda they use their animals to help with ploughing, increasing the amount of land they can bring under cultivation.k for Life Cows


Like most of the livestock Send a Cow gives, most cows are “stall fed”: food is brought to them, and they do not roam at will. This system - the only way that farmers with so little land could ever keep livestock - should not be confused with western intensive, or “battery”, farming methods. Send a Cow cows have plenty of space to move around, including a small paddock. They are kept clean and comfortable and fed a natural balanced diet.

We now provide cows in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, and work hard to make sure that our gifts meet local needs and conditions. Increasingly we are handing over cross-bred cows, the offspring of local cows and carefully bred, European-type bulls. These cows are cheaper than European ones, but they give 12-13 litres of milk a day – nearly as much as many European cows, and a good 10 litres more than local ones. We also run animal breeding services.

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Elizabeth’s CowElizabeth Ngeno, from Kenya, received a cow from Send a Cow in 2001. Before the cow came, the family lived on nothing but maize, and Elizabeth, who is blind, supported them mainly by going into the nearby town each day to search for poorly paid casual work or to beg.

The cow’s milk has greatly improved the family’s diet, and Elizabeth also makes about £1.70 a day from selling the surplus milk. Much of this money goes on her three younger children’s schooling.

Receiving their cow has eased Elizabeth’s life considerably. She no longer has to trek into town in her search for food for the family, but is able to stay at home, working on her small plot of land and caring for her cow. “I am very happy to have the cow,” she says. “It has helped the whole family.”

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GoatsThis is designed to tell you about the part goats play in our programme of support to poor African farmers.

Goats can survive almost anywhere. They flourish in harsh climates, and will eat virtually anything, from grass to household scraps. Most are tough, intelligent, nimble animals, able to graze land where no crops can be grown, and survive where most other animals would starve.

Add to that a milk yield of several pints a day and you have the perfect animal for an African farmer trying to cope with dry, infertile soil. In addition, goats’ dung pellets, soaked in water, actually help to improve the soil’s fertility.

As a result, goats are found throughout the world – from high on the mountain-sides of Europe to the wide plains of Africa.

In fact, they have been domesticated for far longer than cattle or sheep. In many parts of Africa and Asia they are a much-prized symbol of wealth and status, and their meat is a staple part of people’s diets.

The need for control

However, there are disadvantages to keeping too many goats. Over-grazing can leave land bare of vegetation, and vulnerable to erosion and desertification. And goats grazed in farming areas can be a menace to crops.

Goats breed fairly rapidly – does (the females) have two or three kids a year – so it is important to keep herds down to a manageable size, as well as under control.Lstock for Life Goats


Send a Cow is providing a mixture of dairy and meat goats to farmers in Uganda and Rwanda. Some of the goats we give are local breeds, and some are “improved” European breeds, such as Sannens and Toggenburgs, or South African Boer goats.

Sannens and Toggenburgs are both kept for their milk, which is easier than cow’s milk for humans to digest. Most of the goats we are currently giving, however, are Boers: large stocky animals, reared mainly for their meat.

Where we give local breeds, we usually provide some improved animals as well. As with our other livestock, we are increasingly encouraging recipients to cross-breed local animals with improved ones, and then cross the offspring back with improved animals. In this way we are using a relatively small number of expensive animals to improve the genetic quality of whole populations of animals.

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Goats for Rwandan orphansMost poor rural families in Rwanda have very small plots of land, especially those who were driven from their homes during the genocide of 1994, and are now housed in government resettlement projects.

Our new programme there is concentrating particularly on helping children orphaned during the genocide or by AIDS who have had to take on responsibility for their younger brothers and sisters. Since they have little land, and lack the strength of adults, goats are the ideal livestock for them. They are keeping the goats in well ventilated shelters built of banana stems plastered with mud. The goats flourish on grass and vegetation gathered from rough ground, and hillsides too steep to cultivate.

Liberata Musabyemariya was just 15 when her parents were killed in the genocide. Liberata has been responsible for her three younger brothers ever since, as well as taking on an orphaned cousin, now aged five. The family’s new goats will soon be providing milk, meat and possibly income, to young people who at the moment have virtually nothing.

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PoultryProtein providers

Chickens can lay up to 200 eggs a year – a good, reliable source of protein, especially for children. Because they are so prolific, farmers can soon build up a sizable flock. And each bird grows fast, some doubling in value in just three months. In fact, people in some African countries obtain as much as 80 per cent of their animal protein from poultry.

Eggs not needed by the family bring in a steady income, to pay for schooling and clothing, and to deal with sudden emergencies, such as illness or accidents.

Good for the land, chickens are particularly suitable for families with little land, since they do not require a lot of space to forage in. They are also popular because they need less labour than most other forms of livestock, so poultry rearing combines well with work in the fields and the home.

They are beneficial for the environment as well. They peck at insects and weeds, scratch up the soil, letting in air and rain, and enrich it with their droppings. Farmers in Lesotho who have received chickens from Send a Cow have constructed what they call “chicken tractors”: movable coops which enable them to keep the chickens on one patch of ground until they have cleared and fertilised it, then move them on to the next patch. for Life Poultry


In Uganda and Rwanda we work with children orphaned by AIDS and genocide, who are bringing up their younger brothers and sisters. Their situations are desperate, but most are not old enough to cope with bringing up larger animals, and they are keen to be given poultry, mostly Rhode Island Reds. We have also given broiler chickens to 35 families in Lesotho.

Lydia’s chickensLydia Lutimba, from southern Uganda, obtained four hens about three years ago. She now has 200, which she keeps in a large hut, and feeds on maize. She uses local “weeds” to de-worm them and as a medicine. She makes about £3 a week from selling eggs, and sells some for meat: a hen usually goes for £2 and a cock for £3.

Lydia has only three acres of land, and her husband brings in very little money. He is a carpenter, but local people cannot afford to buy much from him, and he lacks the more sophisticated tools and training which would enable him to seek work in the nearest town. Lydia’s poultry money is invaluable to her family, and most goes on the costs of schooling for her children.

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Fruit TreesWorking with natureThe plump, sweet apples, pears and plums we eat today were probably developed from local wild varieties by the Romans. They learned to blend the most desirable qualities of certain fruit trees by selective pollination and by grafting: taking cuttings from selected trees, and binding them into sturdy root-stock.

There are now well over 7,000 different varieties of apple – a shame that so few make it to supermarket shelves in Britain! The number of pear varieties has also dropped dramatically from the hundreds available in the nineteenth century.

A very special tree

Some 30 years ago Protestant missionaries brought a strange present – a pear seedling - to the people of Chencha, a small town in Ethiopia’s Southern Highlands. Today, a venerable tree, it is still proudly pointed out as the beginning of a whole new local industry: fruit growing.

Today hundreds of local farmers are making a good living from pears, plums, apples and cherries. The climate in the Highlands is very similar to Britain’s, so the fruit grows well there. It fetches good prices in the capital, where it is prized as an exotic luxury.

Send a Cow’s programme

As well as a livestock programme, Send a Cow is also helping the Kale Hywet Church to develop fruit-growing further, giving seedlings as well as animals. We are establishing three new Fruit and Livestock Centres, where new varieties can be tried out. Granny Smiths have hitherto been the most popular crop, but now farmers are also testing pumpkins and melon-like “Italian apples”.

The Fruit and Livestock Centres are also developing sustainable organic farming techniques, such as using artemisia (wormwood shrub) as a pesticide. They pass these techniques on to local farmers, many of whom are already noticing increases in their crop yields, and are passing on the techniques to their neighbours. With Send a Cow’s support, the farmers have set up their own fruit marketing and transport co-operative.

A house built from apples

“You couldn’t possibly make so much money from any other crop using the same ground area,” says Asfaro Jafaro. “You can’t compare apples with any other crop. “Asfaro has ten apple trees, and income from selling the 200 or so kgs of fruit they produce each year is enabling him to build a new, spacious house with a fire and rain-proof metal roof: it will replace the one-room thatched house in which he and his wife have brought up their six children. He has also used the apple money to buy clothes for his children and more land. “My life has changed because of the apples,” he says. “They have given me such dignity.”ivestock for

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TrainingTraining is essential

When we give livestock to a poor family, we are making a major investment in their future. So, it makes sense to do everything possible to enable that family to make a real success of their gift. Indeed, one or two families tell of previous gifts of livestock from other organisations that they lost to illness because they lacked the knowledge to keep them healthy. In addition, our training in sustainable organic farming, based on their animals’ manure, is invaluable in helping them to maximize the value of their new livestock.

Much of what we teach is helping to revive the traditional knowledge and skills that African farming has been based on for generations. Many of the methods we teach have, however, fallen into disuse under pressure to adopt European ways of farming, though these are often less suited to an African context. We are also helping to bridge the gap left by the premature deaths of so many parents, before they have been able to pass on all their knowledge to their children.

Our training philosophy

Send a Cow Uganda has drawn up a philosophy of training that would be echoed by our other programmes: “Our philosophy is to design and conduct family-focused training programmes that enhance the ability of the beneficiary to care an share; that promote freedom of choice and increase self-esteem, self-confidence and self-reliance.

Send a Cow Programme

We believe in training that is relevant and simple for farmers to understand, practical and affordable to apply, and useful enough to replicate.” All our training is a mixture of simple classroom-based theory and hands-on work out in the fields and the animal shelters. Weekly visits from Send a Cow funded Extension Workers help participants to retain and use their new knowledge

An important element is visits to other farmers who have already put the training into practice and proved its worth. Child household heads from southern Uganda, for example, were recently taken to visit a farmer near Kampala who has been particularly successful in rearing poultry. Such visits are especially beneficial and stimulating for women, many of whom have never travelled far from home.

Increasingly, training in Uganda, our longest established programme, is being provided to farmers by other farmers, who have already been trained.

Training content

Our preparatory training courses include: the principles of zero-grazing; animal health; animal shelter construction; record keeping; milk production and hygiene; soil and water conservation; agro-forestry; sustainable soil enrichment; plant husbandry; and organic pest control.

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We work with and through community groups, so much of our training focuses on such issues as group dynamics, gender awareness, leadership skills and conflict resolution. We also provide training of more interest at individual level, such as health in the home and family planning.

Again and again, we see that our training is in itself a force for social cohesiveness. In Rwanda, for example, our courses have provided opportunities for Hutus and Tutsis to come back together after the horrors of the 1994 genocide. Child-headed orphan households find their isolation lessened when they meet others in similar positions during our training. Orphan households on the first training course in Rwanda went on to start their own self-help association.

Grace’s training“All my skills are from Send a Cow,” says Grace Asio, who lives in the dry northern region of Uganda. “I now have knowledge of managing crops. My thanks cannot be weighed.”

Grace began to grow matoke (plantain), which is not normally grown in this arid area, after a training course in the south of the country. Her soil is enriched with compost made from her cow’s manure, and holds moisture much better than it used to. Many other farmers have been encouraged by her success to start growing it themselves.

Grace is now one of Send a Cow’s local trainers, and says that many people come to her training who have not even received animals from Send a Cow. “They are so interested,” she says, and particularly enjoy the gender awareness and business training.

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WaterA crisis looms

More than 90% of the fresh water consumed by people in Africa is used to grow food. Most of African agriculture is built round a climate pattern where prolonged periods without any rain alternate with periods of extremely heavy rainfall. So when the rains fail, life can become very hard in deed for poor farmers. Most of them make some provision for this, saving money or food during good years to tide them over bad ones. But few can save much, so two drought years in a row can bring them to ruin.

Nowadays the climate in Africa is changing, contributed to by the activities of people in the world’s richer countries – too many cars, too much industrial pollution. Deforestation has also been a major contributor. Many areas of Africa are finding they can no longer rely on the rains coming as expected.

Conserving a precious resource

Many experts are putting their faith in high-tech solutions to Africa’s water problems – building big dams and pumping up water from every deeper sources. But there are few good sites left for dams, as more rivers start to run dry. The earth’s deep aquifers are drying up. It looks as if African farmers will have to carry on relying on rainfall to grow their crops.

This is why all across Africa farmers are reviving half-forgotten technologies to capture rain. No longer can they afford to let a drop of this precious resource run off or evaporate before it can be used.


We work with people who have to take water conservation seriously – people who may make a two or three mile round trip to get to their nearest water source. So our preparatory training for recipients of our livestock has always included low-cost techniques for catching, storing and making the most of rainwater when it does fall.

Cheap gravity fed trickle-irrigation systems –using old lengths of punctured hose pipe or a disused jerry can with a hole pierced in one corner- all take water to where it is needed with minimal loss. Mulching helps to prevent moisture from evaporating. Keyhole and bag gardens take water to the maximum number of plants. In fact, bag gardens by the kitchen door grow excellent vegetables from discarded dishwashing water.

Now we are also helping farmers in countries such as Lesotho to go one step further, and store rain water for use in the dry season or in times of drought.

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Water for MahalefangA cement water storage tank or a small earth check-dam can make all the difference to farmers in arid areas, storing rain water to see them through months of drought. But such technology is beyond the means of many African farmers.

Mahalefang Mangobe lives on a small plot of infertile land in the harsh, dry, mountains of Lesotho. Send a Cow has helped her to build a ten thousand-litre ferro-cement water storage tank, which collects rainwater as it runs off her roof.

Send a Cow also taught her how to create a vegetable patch using two keyhole gardens and three double dug trenches, which she irrigates with the water to greatly increase her crops. The vegetables that she and her three children do not eat are sold to neighbours, bringing in money for household essentials such as salt and soap.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Please don’t worry if you can’t answer a question straight away about Send a Cow. You can always take someone’s details and offer to get back to them or pass the question onto Head office. However, we hope that the following information will help you answer some of the most frequent questions.

Gift Catalogue

1. Can I find out more about the family who will get livestock paid for by my donation?

The gift catalogue is designed so that people who want to make a donation to our work can see what their donation could buy / how their donation could make a difference.

All proceeds raised through the catalogue are spent on our livestock and training programmes in Africa.

If we were to match donations to gifts it would significantly increase administration costs, so less of your donation would go to the families you want to help (for breakdown of costs see q. 3).

And, our staff in Africa wouldn't have the time or the resources to provide feedback on individual cases.

However, Send a Cow does keep in contact with all the families we help through our African offices. All beneficiaries get regular visits from extension workers and other staff.

We tell our supporters how their donations have helped farmers through stories and photos in our regular newsletter, Lifeline.

2. Can my donation go to a country I choose/ I’d like my donation to go to Uganda/ Rwanda etc. Is this possible?

You can choose to make a donation to a country of your choice. However, you cannot choose a specific gift for a given country. The donation will be earmarked for our programme in that country and spent on the gifts most suitable to the need of the farmers we are working with.

You may, however, want to choose a particular country because there are certain gifts provided there. For instance:- Lesotho: Primarily training in organic farming practices (with a few goats and

rabbits)- Kenya: Primarily cows and dairy goats

- Ethiopia: The only country where we currently run fruit tree programmes - Rwanda: The only countries where we currently provide bee hives

Also, if you make a donation over £3,600 you can talk to our grants officer about the possibility of it being allocated to a specific project.

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3. How much do you spend on administration costs? What percentage of my donation goes to recipients? Seventy-four per cent of our total income was spent on our charitable objectives.

That is: 69% of livestock and agricultural projects, and five per cent on development education.

It cost us 24 pence in every pound to raise our income last year. We spent 1p in every pound investing in developing future income.

We spent 1p in every pound on governance costs. Our income for the financial year 2008-8 was £4.1m.

4. Other charities have similar gift catalogues to Send a Cow, and their prices are lower. Why are yours so expensive?

We cannot comment on why other charities might offer cheaper animals in their catalogues than we do. However, we can tell you why our animals cost what they do.

Our costs don’t just cover the animal – they cover the whole Send a Cow ‘package’. That includes training, low-cost vet services, and regular visits by extension workers to give the beneficiaries advice and check that their livestock is doing well.

A majority of our dairy cows and dairy goats are provided ‘in calf’ or ‘in kid’ which adds to the cost – but provides the family ‘two for the price of one’ and an immediate impact in terms of milk. If the first born is a female it is passed on to another needy member of the group.

To make a real impact on a family’s life we always buy good quality animals (pure breeds or pure breed crosses). Unfortunately there is often a shortage of good quality animals, resulting in high prices. Our staff are knowledgeable, and ensure that we get the best value for our money.

Good quality animals produce much higher yields of milk or eggs etc. Their offspring are also of a superior quality and fetch more money at market – the offspring of meat goats, for instance, are much heavier than their local counterparts.

Less good quality animals create almost as much extra work as better quality ones – but with far less return.

In many villages we place good quality bulls, to breed with local cows. This improves the genetic stock of animals for an entire area.

Other animals may seem comparable to other charities. This is because the local markets for these animals are more buoyant.

5. Can I name the cow/ goats/ sheep I have bought? No, I’m afraid this isn’t possible. The donation you made will be spent where the need is greatest. To match

donations to livestock gifts would significantly increase administration costs, so less of your donation would go to the families you want to help.

However, recipients treat their donated animals like a new family member, so they are usually very keen to pick some wonderful names for their animals.

They often choose names that translate as things like Hope, Comfort or Loved One, which demonstrates how important your donation is to their lives.

6. Can I visit my recipient / group? Can I volunteer for Send a Cow in Africa?

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No, I’m afraid this isn’t possible. Our staff in Africa wouldn’t have the time or the resources to manage such a trip – it

would distract from the work they do with the poor families we are working with. I’m afraid we don’t need volunteers from the UK on our projects. We employ people

with specialist skills in animal husbandry, sustainable organic farming or social development, and it is best if they come from the relevant communities themselves and speak the local language.

If you would like to volunteer in a developing country, have you tried approaching Voluntary Service Overseas? They specialise in such volunteer placements. Go to their website http://www.vso.org.uk/ or phone them on (0)20 8780 7500.

7. Can I send one of my own cows? Send a Cow was started by farmers each donating a cow from their own herds, so

we can appreciate why you would want to make such a generous offer. However, we currently purchase all livestock within Africa and to deliver a single

cow from the UK would be cost prohibitive. What we have suggested in the past, is that people who want to donate a cow to

Send a Cow, sell a cow at market and donate the money to us. Does this sound of interest?

8. I’m a vegetarian. Can you guarantee that my donation won’t be spent on livestock?

We cannot restrict your donation to a type of gift – only to a specific country. However, all our country programmes involve livestock in some way.

Our programme in Lesotho has a particular emphasis on the development of organic vegetable gardens, but we do still provide smaller livestock such as dairy goats there.

This is because the manure they provide is key to enabling farmers to grow organically.

Livestock is extremely useful to poor farmers across Africa. It enables them to develop integrated livestock systems, where manure is used to enrich poor quality soils so they can grow crops.

I am sorry we cannot earmark your donation for non-livestock gifts, but I hope you understand that it would be very difficult for us to administer your gift in this way.

Gift Aid Questions

1. What is Gift Aid? Gift Aid allows a charity to claim from the Inland Revenue the basic rate of income

tax on a donation made by a tax-paying donor. This means that we can claim an extra 28p for every £1 you give. As long as you are a UK taxpayer, all you have to do is give a simple Gift Aid

declaration.

2. Why do I need to give a declaration? The declaration is our authority to reclaim tax from the Inland Revenue on your gift.

By giving the declaration, you are confirming that you understand this.

3. What are the benefits?

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http://www.vso.org.uk/

Gift Aid is a great way of boosting donations whatever their size, at no extra cost to you, the donor, and with minimal extra administration for Send a Cow. A single Gift Aid declaration covers any number of donations made since 6 April 2000.

4. Who is eligible? For a donation to qualify for Gift Aid, you must be a UK taxpayer. You must pay

enough income tax or capital gains tax to at least equal the amount of tax Send a Cow will claim on your donations made in that tax year.

A Tax year runs from 6 April; to the following 5 April. Send a Cow will claim from the Inland Revenue 28p for every £1 given. So, if you give £100 in a tax year, you must have paid at least £28 in tax, the amount Send a Cow can claim from the Inland Revenue.

5. Which donations are NOT eligible for Gift Aid?

The Inland Revenue does not allow us to reclaim Gift Aid on your donation if you told us that:

The donation was on behalf of someone else or a group of people. You can only make a Gift Aid declaration on your own donation. You cannot make a Gift Aid declaration on behalf of someone else, even if they

are themselves a UK taxpayer. The only way around this is to ask each person to complete a declaration on the

amount they have donated. We can supply collection envelopes, which do make provision for Gift Aid. See Question 9.

The donation was made on behalf of a company. If you are making a donation on behalf of a company, or using a company

credit card, the donation is not eligible. However, the company is entitled to claim tax relief on the donation, this

needs to be performed at the end of each tax year.

If the charity holds a valid declaration, they will automatically go ahead and claim all eligible donations unless the donor informs the charity that a particular donation is not eligible.

6. How do I make a declaration?We have gift aid envelopes available or fill out the gift aid section of one of our leaflets.

7. Can Gift Aid be applied to sponsorship? Yes - Gift Aid can apply to your sponsorship donations. You simply need to indicate

this on the sponsorship form. However, remember to include details of your full name, your home address

(including postcode) & tick the Gift Aid box. We need this information to certify that you are a taxpayer to enable us to reclaim 28% extra.

If you are being sponsored for an event please request a sponsorship form from us

8. Can I use Gift Aid to donate the proceeds of a fundraising event? We cannot normally claim the gift aid portion of this type of donation, as the

collection will be made up from many individuals, some of whom may not pay tax. To claim on the whole amount we would require a valid declaration from

each of the individuals who donated.

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We can supply you with collection envelopes, which do make provision for gift aid and ensures that we make the most from the donation.

If you have been sponsored for an event, and each sponsor has signed a Gift Aid declaration, then we can recover the tax on the amounts covered by declarations.

9. Can I cancel my Gift Aid Declaration? If you wish you can cancel your declaration at any time. Please let us know

if you no longer pay sufficient tax to cover the tax that we reclaim. The cancellation will take effect from the time we receive your letter.

Animal welfare answers

1. Do you really ‘send cows’? Are the animals you donate transported humanely?

When we first started, we sent cows from the UK to Africa. Then there was a ban on importing European animals into Africa after the BSE outbreak of 1996. So we now source our animals within Africa.

This also supports local markets and reduces transport costs. The majority of animals we buy are not transported long distances, although we

have recently imported a few very good quality goats and cows into Uganda and Rwanda from South Africa.

We always do our best to ensure they are well cared for in transit. They are transported in vehicles that provide enough space for them to stand normally, and they are given adequate food and water.

There are more details in our Animal Wellbeing Policy. Would you like me to send you a copy?

2. How do you make sure the animals are not treated cruelly? It is in families’ interests to treat their animals well as they benefit enormously from

them. All beneficiaries learn animal husbandry in their training courses before they are

given livestock. They also sign a contract with their Send a Cow group, which outlines their

responsibilities. We also employ extension workers, who monitor animals’ health and wellbeing after

they have been given to a family. All families given livestock are part of a community group, which will also monitor

the wellbeing of animals received by its members. It is rare, but it has been known for groups to remove animals from those that are not caring for them properly and place them with a more caring member of the group.

Our beneficiaries only have small land holdings, so it is easy for extension workers and other group member to check animals are living in a good environment.

Our stall feeding policy means that farmers owning as little as 1 ½ acres have enough room to build a light and airy shed, sufficient to house their animal and provide it with a spacious exercise yard.

The average life expectancy of a cow donated by Send a Cow is much greater than that of a cow in the UK.

We also recommend that small livestock, such as rabbits and cane rats, have spacious, light and airy shelters and that the same preparation and ongoing care applies.

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In a few areas, where space and timber is at a premium, farmers may introduce ‘protein stacking’ systems to house livestock – primarily housing chickens above goats. This should not be confused with intensive farming practices and our policy for livestock to be housed in light, airy spacious shelters continues to be actively encouraged. Furthermore, there is a solid floor between chickens and goats enabling goats to be protected and for farmers to easily collect the droppings from both livestock sources to use in their compost.

Would you like us to send you a copy of our Animal Wellbeing Policy?

3. Can cows give milk without having to give birth to a calf? Isn’t it cruel to keep them in calf so they keep lactating?

Cows, like other mammals, only begin producing milk to feed their young. It is natural for cows to have a succession of calves, and to continue producing milk

when pregnant. Send a Cow animals do not have any more calves than they would naturally.

We train recipients in how to manage the cows’ natural breeding and lactation cycles in the best interests of the cow and calves.

That includes allowing the cow a “dry period” (ie not milking the cow) for two months before her next calf is born, so she can produce a lot of good quality milk for a long time afterwards.

It is always in families’ interests to ensure the health and wellbeing of the cow and calves.

Would you like a copy of our Animal Wellbeing policy?

4. How can poor families feed their animals? Is there competition between animals and humans for food?

Before giving any animals, we spend a long time working with Send a Cow groups on deciding what livestock is best in that area and for different families.

We only donate animals to families with enough land to provide fodder for their animals, and enough time to care for them. We also train beneficiaries in how to grow fodder and all the other skills necessary to care for their animals.

If necessary, we give them a packet of fodder seeds to get them started. Most of the animals we provide are ruminants, which eat grass and other fodder

plants. So they do not eat the same food as humans. Chickens are only placed in areas where there are lots of affordable sources of

chicken feed. They do not eat much, however, and can forage for food, so have never proved a problem.

Pigs could potentially compete with very poor families for food. So we only donate them in areas where we are sure this won’t happen.

5. I’m a vegetarian. Why do you give livestock and not just crops and training? Mixed livestock and crop farming is a traditional and extremely widespread way of

life in Africa. People tend to have at least a basic grasp of the necessary skills. Most very poor people aspire to own livestock, and it is what they ask us for.

Livestock eat grass and farm by-products that cannot be used directly by people. They convert such fodder into milk, eggs or meat – a valuable source of protein for humans.

Dairy products are a very effective way of restoring malnourished people to health, fast.

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Furthermore, animal manure is an excellent way of enriching the soil. This means that farmers can grow much higher yields of crops, as well as more varieties. These crops form the bulk of their diets.

They can also use animal urine as a pesticide. This means they don’t need to buy commercial brands, and can instead farm organically.

Farmers are able to sell milk, eggs or meat from their livestock. This income can help them lift themselves out of poverty.

By keeping animals as well as crops, farmers spread their risks. Large animals can also be used to transport goods to market, or plough fields. We are, however, planning to introduce a mushroom growing programme in

Rwanda soon. Would you like a copy of our How We Work leaflet or our Animal Wellbeing Policy?

6. Are the animals you donate ever eaten? Are they slaughtered humanely? Beneficiaries invest a great deal of their own time, love and effort in their gifts. Most female animals are seen as far too precious to be eaten, because of the eggs

or milk they produce. Their manure is used to enrich the soil too. They might be killed for meat once their productive life has ended. However, many

families keep them on for the manure they produce. Families are likely to eat the male offspring of their animals, or sell them for meat.

And we do give some animals primarily for their meat: rabbits and grasscutters, for example.

Our staff in Africa manage all projects very carefully to make sure that all animals are treated well – and provide veterinary assistance to ensure that, where possible, animals remain disease free.

Families would not eat an animal that has died of a disease. Animals are generally killed on the farm, so are spared the stress associated with

being transported to an abattoir. Would you like a copy of our Animal Wellbeing policy?

7. What happens if the animal dies? We do our best to replace any animal that dies, although our staff in Africa will

check first that it did not die due to maltreatment or neglect. This has never been the case.

We also sometimes replace animals if their milk yield is not high enough. We give beneficiaries thorough training in looking after their animal and spotting

problems. We also employ extension workers to keep an eye on them. So our gift animals usually live long and healthy lives.

Would you like a copy of our Animal Wellbeing policy?

Programme Answers

1. How many people have you helped/ How many animals have you donated? We have helped over 12,000 households between 1988 and 2007. That is roughly

equivalent to 72,000 people. And first generation pass-on figures are not included in our official figures – so we

do not know how many families have received livestock as a result of pass-on. In 2007 alone we helped 13000 farming families. Our work has a significant multiplier effect. On average for every person we help

nine more benefit. Most of our beneficiaries report that their neighbours ask them about – and adopt – their new crop growing techniques. We also know the wider community benefits through the increased availability of milk, vegetables and fruit,

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as well as jobs in some cases when farmers employ people to help them work. So by training one person, a whole community can benefit.

Although we have been in existence since 1988, we were a very small charity until 1999. Since then, we have expanded rapidly, and we now help many more families per year than we did at first. Between April 2004 and June 2005, for example, we helped almost 1,800 families by giving them livestock. Our schemes gave out almost 6,000 animals in this time.

In addition, some families receive training rather than livestock. For example, in the highlands of Ethiopia and Lesotho, our programme has concentrated on teaching people how best to grow crops in those regions, though we are now distributing livestock.

2. How do farmers store the milk? Most families boil milk to destroy any harmful bacteria and consume or sell it on the

same day. It is commonplace in many of the countries where we work that families will drink

milk in the form of a milky tea or consume it in a type of porridge. Some families will also process their milk to make cottage cheese and butter,

particularly in Ethiopia where milk based products are often the only source of animal protein for families. In Zambia many farmers will sour their milk.

Increasingly Send a Cow is working with groups that are looking to set up cottage industry processing organisations, whereby groups get together and set up a savings scheme to purchase storage facilities, giving them the opportunity to market dairy products such as yoghurt and butter.

3. Don’t animals, especially goats, cause erosion in many parts of Africa? All the animals we give are properly controlled. We give all the families we work

with thorough training in how to manage their animals, and we check that they have built suitable shelters before we place any animals.

Generally, larger animals such as cows are stall fed. This means the animal is not allowed to roam freely, which can cause erosion, but is kept in a roomy shelter and has food brought to it.

This also means that farmers can easily collect their animals’ manure and urine to use on their soil to grow better crops. We train them in these techniques.

Some animals, for example local cows, are not stall fed. They may be grazed – but always under close supervision, to ensure they do not eat crops or harm the land. We train our farmers to provide night shelters and supplementary forage feeding. This practice enables them to collect manure to make compost, and also provides security for the animals. The supplementary forage feeding improves the animal’s health and productivity.

Often, neighbours of the families we help will adopt the shelters and feeding methods that we teach. So in fact, we are spreading good practice.

We also train farmers in many other sustainable farming methods. These include how to prevent and combat problems such as soil erosion by terracing land and harvesting rainwater, so it does not flow off and take the topsoil with it.

So our work helps the environment, rather than harms it.

4. How do you select recipients? Why are so many of them women? Established groups, such as church organisations or women’s groups, usually hear

about Send a Cow through word of mouth and approach us for help.

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Our African staff look at the group carefully, to see if it is suitable. They check that it has clear aims, and that its members work together well and care about one another.

If our staff decide the group could benefit from our programme, they then help them decide which members should be the first to receive livestock.

In some cases, we do work with a community who have never worked together as a group before.

The group and Send a Cow staff discuss which members should be the first to receive animals. Groups in Africa tend to have a deep understanding of community needs, so members are happy to see poorer neighbours helped before themselves.

Our beneficiaries are always chosen on the basis of need. We do not choose people on the basis of their religion, gender or ethnicity.

This means that the majority are women, as women are usually the poorest in any community. We work with a lot of widows, and a lot of women who have taken in orphaned children.

In the case of poor couples, the man frequently has to work outside the home – often many miles away. So it is more practicable to train the woman.

However, if a woman is trained and given an animal, her whole family benefits – including her husband, if she has one. We encourage women and men to share equally in decision-making, the work involved and the benefits the livestock brings.

5. How does pass-on work? Initially a whole group will be trained together. Wherever possible all will receive a

livestock gift, although in some cases we will provide a percentage of the group with the gift, knowing that every member will ultimately receive a gift through pass on.

Other groups will then receive training ready for pass-on of livestock from the original group.

We will also train some particularly effective farmers in ‘peer farming’ techniques, so they are able to train new recipients themselves.

By the time a region is looking to pass-on third or fourth generation offspring there will be many ‘peer’ farmers that will take on the role of training new recipients.

Send a Cow will remain involved until it is satisfied groups are managing their land and their livestock (where appropriate); that the the pass-on process is properly managed; and that there is an effective peer farmer network in place. This can sometimes take as long as long as 5-10 years.

This process is key to the long-term sustainability of the programmes.

6. How does the pass-on principle work for fish, bees or fruit trees? Gifts of beehives are repaid once the recipients have sold their first honey harvest. They pay money into a group fund, which is then used to buy more beehives to give

to other group members. Gifts of apple tree saplings are repaid by passing on the saplings generated from

the original gift saplings. When we give fish, we stock a newly constructed pond with fingerlings. After a

harvest, farmers catch fingerlings and pass them on.

7. What topics do beneficiaries learn in their training courses? All beneficiaries are given training before they receive an animal. This includes:

o Animal husbandry, so they can care for their animal and spot signs of disease.

o Animal feeds, so they can grow fodder for their livestock.

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o Organic farming, so they can use the animal’s manure to grow better crops to feed their families.

o Environmental issues, so they know how to conserve water and increase soil fertility.

o Credit, savings and business skills, so they can manage the money they make from the sale of eggs, milk etc.

o Family nutrition and family planning, to keep the family healthy.o Group dynamics and management, so their group functions well and ensures

the project’s success.o Gender issues, so that women and men can make decisions together and

become equal partners. We also offer ongoing training courses on topics suggested by farmers. A lot of training is carried out in villages, so farmers can see its relevance in the

context of their own lives. This may be backed up by short residential courses at specialist centres, such as St Jude’s Centre in southern Uganda, and the Gako Centre in central Rwanda.

Some is provided by our own staff, and some by relevant government staff or local training centres.

In some countries, we are training “peer farmers” – people chosen from within their communities to deliver on-going training within the group.

We regard training as just as important as livestock.

8. What training do you give in water storage? / What other practices do you teach for times of drought?

There is a common misconception that Africa is just one large desert – when in reality it is a huge continent with diverse climates, landscapes and rainfall patterns.

We work in all types of environments – tropical and sub-tropical, semi-arid, and mountainous – and only provide livestock suitable to these environments and the associated rainfall patterns. If there is not enough water, we won’t provide livestock.

In countries where water is scarce, there can often be an extended dry period followed by a torrential downpour.

Send a Cow’s training helps farmers ‘trap’ this water on their land – either by improving the quality of soil through organic farming practices (so rain soaks into it, rather than running off it) or through simple water harvesting techniques.

Our water harvesting techniques include the provision of materials for groups to dig their own water catchment ponds and simple ‘around farm’ practices such as the introduction of water tanks that can collect up to 10,000 litres of rainwater as it runs off the roofs of houses.

We also provide training in producing cheap gravity fed trickle-irrigation systems using old lengths of punctured hosepipe.

For times of extended drought our training includes hay and silage making and the storage of dried foods, to help families feed themselves and their livestock.

9. Don’t farmers in Africa already farm “organically”? What do you mean by “organic or sustainable farming”?

Sustainable agricultural practices are natural methods that meet the needs of present-day farmers without damaging the potential of the land for future generations.

Over the years, many traditional farming methods in Africa have fallen into disuse, often because people have adopted unsuitable western methods of farming. Often, the result is that farms deteriorate over time.

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Our sustainable farming training brings these techniques back. But it also improves upon these methods, and brings in ideas from other areas, or new techniques that have been developed.

Some problems, such as erosion, might be new in an area, so farmers won’t have learned ways of combating them from their parents or grandparents.

Sustainable farming techniques include: using manure to make compost and enrich soil; making pesticides from animals’ urine; making a bag garden that conserves water.

The result is a massive increase in crop yields. Farmers report they can triple or quadruple the amount of food they can produce, and can grow varieties they never thought possible – such as pineapples.

There is a lot more information about sustainable farming on our website, or would you like our How to Make A Bag Garden or our Organic Farming leaflet?

10.How does the relationship between Send a Cow and Heifer International work?

Our approaches are fundamentally the same, so we work closely together. In Kenya and Zambia, Send a Cow’s programmes are managed by Heifer. In

Ethiopia, Send a Cow is the managing organisation. In Tanzania and Cameroon, Send a Cow funds part of Heifer’s programme.

There is very little actual difference between the two organisations. It’s more a difference of emphasis. Heifer does more work supporting micro-enterprise development. Send a Cow focuses more on organic farming practices. Both work with farmers of any religion or none.

We are looking at developing joint programmes in new countries, and both organisations are keen to learn from one another.

11.What happens when only a few people in a village receive livestock? Does it create jealousy or tensions?

Not everyone wants to join a group, because of the commitment and effort required. Recipients have to build a shelter, grow fodder and attend a training course before they even receive an animal.

Though we are always involved in such discussions, we encourage the groups we work with to decide for themselves which members are the most in need, so will get the first livestock. This reduces the chance of any resentment.

Even those who do not get livestock can benefit. We encourage beneficiaries to teach their neighbours the sustainable farming techniques and other skills they have learned in their training courses.

12.What about families who don’t have enough land or money to look after

cows? Families do need to have at least the use of a little land – enough to grow crops or

keep a beehive on – in order to benefit from our programme. Most will need to invest some money in building a shelter for their animals – though

we do help child-headed households with this. For most new projects, we help set up a revolving fund. Farmers can borrow from

this to pay for essential goods for their animal, and pay the money back when they start to make a profit from their animal.

For families that do not have much land or money we can donate gifts such as beehives, which do not need much land or care.

We do not offer disaster relief – that is outside our remit.

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Would you like me to send you some animal fact sheets? You can also find out more on our website.

13.Why do Africans have such big families? Isn’t that why they’re poor? In most Africa countries, all support to an individual from birth to death comes from

the family. People may have several children to ensure care and companionship when old, infirm or sick.

Children do need to be fed, but also contribute to their families by carrying out household and farm chores. And, once older, the children will provide for their parent and older family members.

In some cultures, children are seen as a blessing; the more children the greater the blessing.

Families often welcome others into their homes, for example clan members from elsewhere.

Families with a few more resources would be expected to care for those in greater need. Increasingly, families are taking in orphans, whose parents have died from HIV / AIDS or other causes.

Even if parents wish to limit their family size, they have limited access to family planning services.

Our training looks at cultural expectation as well as family planning; particularly important for those orphaned children who do not have the guidance of their parents.

14.How is Send a Cow funded? What is its income? Most of our money is from the general public: either individuals, or groups. Rotary

Clubs, schools and churches are some of our biggest supporters. We have about 40,000 supporters currently on our database.

We also get institutional funding from the Department for International Development and Comic Relief. In the past, we have been helped by the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

Between June 2005 and June 2006, our income was £5.4m. Our annual income has been growing a lot over the past few years: between April 2000 and April 2001, it was just £0.5m.

Most of that rise has been due to increased support from the general public.

15.How do you guard against corruption? Do you work with governments? Our remit is to give practical help in the form of livestock and training directly to

community groups. Our staff in Africa buy our gift animals themselves. They do not entrust large sums

of money to anyone outside Send a Cow, including the government. Only small amounts of money are given to community groups, to set up loan funds. All our projects are carefully financially managed, by staff with relevant training and

qualifications. We also train beneficiaries in basic book-keeping and other financial skills, so they

are able to monitor the group loan fund too. Although we have excellent working relationships with local and national

governments, we do not work through local officials.

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Our accounts and country programmes are audited, and submitted to the Charity Commission.

A summary is available in our annual report. Would you like a copy?

16.What do you mean when you say you are a Christian charity? Send a Cow was founded by a group of Christian farmers in response to a plea for

help from an African bishop. Christian ideals underpin all our work. All our trustees are Christians, as are the majority of our staff. Anyone who works

for us needs to be sympathetic to and comfortable with our Christian ethos. However, we welcome the support of non-Christians. Our work is essentially practical. We do not preach to, or try to convert,

beneficiaries. We do not help only Christians. Many of our beneficiaries are Muslims or have

traditional beliefs. No attempt is made to convert them. A minority of the groups we work with in Africa are church groups, but that is by no

means always the case. We select beneficiaries according to need, not religion or race.

You can read our Christian statement on our website, or would you like to be sent a copy?

17.Aren’t cows worse for the environment than cars? Many of the statistics you may have heard come from the report called Livestock’s

Long Shadow by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, or from other research that applies mainly to animals kept in intensive farming systems in the developed world.

There is a huge difference between that kind of agriculture, in which milk and meat yields override environmental concerns; and the type of small-scale sustainable farming system that Send a Cow promotes in Africa, where people live in harmony with their environments.

Emissions/ flatulence/ burping/ manure One of the main environmental concerns is about emissions of the greenhouse gas

methane from cows’ burping, flatulence or manure. Methane production is an unavoidable by product of rumination.

Cows that are fed easily digestible food emit less methane. We train farming families in how to chop up specially grown fodder into small pieces and mix it with legumes, to make it more digestible.

They also use mineral blocks containing urea and molasses, which further aid cows’ digestion.

We also train families in compost management, so that manure emits less methane as it breaks down. Methane can even be captured in biogas digesters for fuel for families who have no access to mains electricity or gas.

Deforestation Farmers who keep livestock are also accused of deforestation to create grazing

land. This is simply not true of families supported by Send a Cow. They keep one cow, or just a few, and do not generally allow them to graze, but instead grow special fodder which is chopped up and brought to the animals in their shelters.

Where animals are allowed to graze, it is under close supervision. They do not graze on specially created pastures, but instead on areas such as hillsides where little other than grass will grow.

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Farmers are actually planting leguminous fodder trees to feed their cows – up to 500 per cow. Like all trees, these soak up carbon from the air; and as they are leguminous, they also fix nitrogen. This means more carbon is captured and held in the soil, and more carbon is stored in the growing plants – rather than being released into the atmosphere.

Water consumption Livestock is also accused of using up too much water. We only give families large

livestock if they have a reliable water supply, and we also teach them water harvesting techniques.

Families in areas without a good water supply might be given other gifts that need less water, such as sheep or poultry.

All the fodder grown is rain fed only so is not using underground or stored water otherwise needed by humans.

Farming families with livestock and training from Send a Cow use manure to increase the water holding capacity of the soil, so they can grow more crops using less water.

Transport/ fossil fuels Some of the statistics about livestock’s effect on the environment factor in the

carbon emissions from agricultural transport. Rural families supported by Send a Cow use virtually no motorised transport.

Fossil fuels are used to make artificial fertiliser, emitting about three tonnes of carbon dioxide for every tonne of fertiliser produced. Farmers helped by Send a Cow use composted manure instead.

Pollution By using composted manure, farmers can avoid artificial fertilisers which can pollute

water supplies and deplete soils in the long term. They can also avoid artificial pesticides, as cows’ urine provide the basic ingredient

for organic pesticides.

Overview: Send a Cow is beneficial – not detrimental By training families in such methods as to ‘how to grow fodder and how to make

compost’, Send a Cow is actually improving the existing agricultural situation in Africa. The farming families we train will pass on the methods they have learned to others in their wider community, who can then farm in a more sustainable manner.

By supporting rural families with our sustainable agriculture programmes, we enable them to stay living on the land, eating locally produced food, and preserving the environment for future generations.

25. I would like to apply for help from Send a Cow/ I know of someone who would like help from Send a Cow.

You need to apply to your local Send a Cow office for assistance. Send a Cow UK is not involved in deciding which groups to help, but if you contact head office they might be able to pass your request onto the appropriate country office.

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WELCOME TO BECOMING A - Send a Cow | · Web viewIf at all possible try to join one of our...

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