Christmas pets

For Christmas, Amazima purchased a female goat for every family with a child in our sponsor program.  120 goats were given in love (representing the 400 children Amazima sponsors)! 

Families can drink or sell the milk, as well as breed their female goats with male goats, producing 1-3 offspring.  This is a sustainable way for families to gain a little bit of income and to be able to use the benefits of these goats themselves. 

Not only did the people receive a goat, but we taught the families how to take care of the goats, as well as explained the many ways this goat could be used.  We also encouraged the families to give away the first offspring from their goat to a neighbor in need, practicing Jesus’ command in Matthew 22: 29: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Getting all of the goats was logistically quite challenging! The closest animal auction is hours away, near the Kenyan border and proved to be unsuccessful as we only brought 10 goats back from the auction. The other goats were found by the ingenuity of Ugandan nationals.  Our Amazima employee, Brad, mobilized young Ugandans to go out and find goats wherever they could. He gave them an incentive per goat that they found.  The amount of money that the boys earned depended on how inexpensively they bought the goats.  All of the goats were found in about a month.

To house the goats in the interim between finding them and giving them to the families, a piece of land was fenced in for the goats to graze. When some of the goats became sick, the sickness spread to the other goats, and before we knew it, goats were sneezing and having all sorts of issues!  A veterinarian was brought in and gave shots to ALL of the goats to help prevent the spread of the sickness or pneumonia. By God’s grace, only one goat died during this time.

When the families arrived to get their goats there was a massive line.  All the children were full of excitement, eager to breed their goats and take care of their new pets. 

To help with animal projects like this, you can make a gift online at: www.amazima.org