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Leonilas goat - an AIDS orphan’s happy story
Leonilas and her sisters in Tanzania with their living gift of an Irish dairy goat. |
With your help, Bóthar has been flying good quality dairy goats from Ireland to destitute families in Tanzania since 1995. Each goat is carefully delivered to a family who has spent months waiting and training to receive her. It is a joyous occassion when she finally arrives!
One of the regions in Tanzania where we have been working closely with families is the Kibosho, Moshi Rural District in the Kilimanjaro region, in the north of the country.
In this region we work with families that are living with AIDS or that have lost loved ones to that devastating disease. We call them AIDS survivors. Leonila Bartholomew (Marco Village) is an AIDS survivor.
Leonila is a 14 year old orphan. Her parents died of AIDS in 2002 within one week of each other, leaving a family of 7 children aged 8 – 20 behind.
The older children left Marco (their family village) in search of work and a better life for themselves. The four youngest children (two boys and two girls), who would not have been able to support themselves, went to live with their 76 year old grandmother Maria.
Maria had heard about the Bóthar dairy goat project through her neighbours in the Marco village area and so she investigated how to get involved in the programme. Having learned of the benefits she applied to receive a goat but decided, at her age in life, it would be more practical to allow her eldest granddaughter Leonila to attend the training sessions in her place.
Leonila attended training on dairy goat husbandry and bio-intensive agriculture over a 3 month period. She also, with the help of her brothers and sisters and neighbours, prepared a housing unit and grew fodder grass for the goat she would be receiving.
Maria and Leonilas family received their dairy goat from Ireland on the 24th of December 2003. It was the best Christmas present they could have hoped for.
The goat has since kidded several times, even having twin kids (considered good luck in Tanzania)!
The milk is flowing daily and is being sold at the local market earning the family a small income. During her best production periods Leonilas goat milks up to six litres of milk a day! Manure from the goat is just the thing for fertilising the soil which they use for growing bananas and coffee.
Leonila and her grandmother have ‘passed-on’ the first female offspring from their goat to another family and, thanks to the improvements in their livelihood, Maria has been able to afford to send Leonila and her brothers and sister to school.
Nothing will ever ease the pain of the loss of a parent, especially at such a young age, but thanks to your support of Bóthar, we’ve been able to help Leonilas family in a tangible way and help them on the path to rebuilding their lives.
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