Border Goats!
In April 2010, 88 dairy goats crossed the border between Uganda and Tanzania on their way to assist struggling families in Tanzania. All of these goats were descendants of animals originally sent to Ugandan families by Bóthar and Heifer Uganda.
The goats that arrived from Ireland in the previous decade were carefully bred by the Ugandan farmers. They recognised that they had to do their best to ensure the quality of the goats. These goats produced a much greater amount of milk than the local goats and therefore were much more valuable.
Bóthar Tanzania wanted to source good quality goats for struggling families who lived along the Ugandan border. Instead of looking to Europe or South Africa for good quality goats, as they have in the past, they contacted the goat farmers supported by Bóthar in Uganda. The Ugandan farmers were delighted to have an opportunity to find a new market for their animals.
The cross border initiative took place on April 13, 2010, at Mutukula border post and was the first of its kind for the two country programmes.
While handing over the goats, the representative from Heifer Uganda program thanked the management of the two country programmes for recognising the need to help each other. The Bóthar field worker from Tanzania was extremely impressed by the quality of the goats and the excellent goat management employed by the Uganda farmers and promised to import more goats for their programme later this year.
The goats originated from three farmer groups; Kisinga Women Dairy Goat project, Kayunga Dairy Goat project and Nakalama Dairy goat project in Western and Eastern regions of Uganda.
This is the first time that an event like this has occurred and hopefully it will not be the last.
