Photo: Anna (far left) and other women in her village in Karamoja, Uganda, with goats they received from Farm Africa.
Farm Africa has done a great thing by giving goats to women. I didn’t always get permission to sell a goat to send my child to school. Now, it’s my decision.” Anna, Karamoja, Uganda"
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“There is one important reason why women should be given goats. Before, I did not have authorisation from my husband to own property.” Like most women in the pastoralist region of Karamoja in north-east Uganda, Anna has lived most of her life not owning anything.
Caring for children falls to women here, but whenever Anna needed money to pay school fees, she had to ask her husband. Sometimes he said yes, sometimes no.
The unpredictable weather made feeding her children a struggle. “When it is rainy or windy, the crops get destroyed.”
Farm Africa supports women like Anna by giving them their own goats, which means a supply of goats’ milk and meat when harvests fail, and their own money to pay for basic needs for their children.
Each woman receives two or three goats from Farm Africa on the condition they pass on two or three goat kids to another woman in need once their herd has grown.
Anna told us: “The village received 20 goats in total from Farm Africa last year. I have seen the difference that having goats has made. When we have the goats’ milk, the children will be able to grow big, strong and healthy. We can sell the milk, and this means we are able to send our children to school.”
For more information about Farm Africa please visit .
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Farm Africa Michael Palin presents the Radio 4 Appeal, 13 Dec 2020