GOATS

June was packed with visitors. A communications team from HQ. Marketing people. Colleagues from Nairobi. An operations team from HQ. Coffee gurus. And a refugee advocate. It’s crazy. It’s fun. A bit stressful and sometimes annoying… but one thing I often really love about visitors is that they give me an opportunity to get out of the World Relief office in Buj and get out to the field where our programs are in action. I love that.

Thus, I got to again visit our livelihood and rehabilitation programs in Nyanza-lac. That small town is one of my favorite places in Burundi. I associate it with Dolla, crispy mukeke fish, lots of children running around in their tan school uniforms, and, of course, goats. Dolla’s passion is goats, so much so that within his album of family pictures, he has many pictures of goats! AND, the other day, he told me:

“A goat is an answer to almost everything, even my personal problems.”

Goats. One of World Relief Burundi’s oldest programs (that Dolla helps run) wor with goats. We work to help returning Burundian refugees and internally displaced persons (“IDPs”) get their feet on the ground by providing for the most basic of needs. These programs (rehabilitation and livelihoods) are located in the southern most province of Burundi, in an area called Makamba, where refugees are returning daily. Nyanza-Lac is a town in Makamba, right along lake Tanganyika. In fact, as Tanzania has committed to closing refugee camps this month, Burundian government officials estimate that approximately 3,000 returnees will be flooding the transit camps and making their way back into Burundi EACH WEEK for the next month! In fact, we saw 800 returnees packed out in UNHCR trucks at the Tanzanian/Burundian border this last weekend. And do you know there are Burundian refugees in the US? Several families in P-town, in fact!

For these people who are making their way back into Burundi, we provide assistance on several different levels— materials for shelter, food for work, seeds, tools, and goats.

Goats?! While goats may not seem to top the list of a human’s most basic needs (one would tend to think food, water, shelter…), they actually are, as Dolla our Rehabilitation Program states, “an answer to almost everything.”

They really are quite funny animals… crazy bleating noises, nervous skittering, beards like old men… but when you learn a bit more about them, they are quite interesting and useful animals!

A dairy goat will provide very useful resources to a returning refugee or IDP family. Such a goat will give one to two liters of milk, a very adequate amount to consume at home but not enough that would compel a family to sell it. This milk provides MUCH NEEDED nutrients that a malnourished child could not from a mother who herself is malnourished— protein, minerals, and vitamins.

Also, because goats have a gestation period of five months, they produce an average of one and a half kids a year. Even more as the occurrence of twins is more than 60%! These kids are sometimes sold in the market, increasing the well-being of family. Goats are typically sold for between $30-60— which can provide food for a family for two months, the financial means to access health care, the ability to buy a uniform and materials so that the children can attend school, and so forth.

The offspring of these goats are not only sold for profit… the recipients are required to give every other kid that is born to another member of their community that has also been selected to receive one (selected by their community because of the health needs of their family). This sharing of livestock, in Burundian culture, is a powerful way to build relationships. When someone gives a gift like that to another, friendships and community are built.

Additionally, a goat will produce a kilo of droppings a day. These droppings provide the best possible natural fertilizer to the family. These families rely on their land for subsistence— land that they rarely get enough food from to provide for their family because is nutrient-depleted, farmed year in and year out for years on end.

Therefore, these funny animals are an incredible resource for needy Burundians in Makamba. And they are a successful, ongoing, and life-changing project of World Relief Burundi. Providing milk. Money. Community. Fertilizer… “an answer to almost everything…” :)