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| Goat in Haiti gets special treatment from its owner |
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HAITI — Angoma Gaston beams with pride as he shows his goat - the only goat in town that gets his own room, complete with room service.
Most goats in Haiti don’t get such preferential treatment as to have cut grass be served twice day.
Instead, the goats are staked out in fields or alongside of roads during the day and have to eat what they can find within the radius of the rope that restrains them.
Angoma’s goat enjoys this pampering because he is an “improved” goat.
“This is a special goat, provided by the (World Vision) project, and (the community has) have chosen me to manage the goat, because I am responsible … and I can provide security to the goat,” said Angoma, standing next to the wooden structure he built to keep the goat out of harm’s way and away from others who might be tempted to take him.
An “improved” goat means a bigger goat. Bigger goats bring more benefits to the individual families and their communities.
“We can have more milk. We can have more meat. And, if we want, we can sell it in the market and have more money,” reported Angoma.
The idea behind the distribution of “improved” goats is that the benefits from the bigger goats eventually translate into healthier children and communities, as adults are able to have more income and parents are better able to provide for their children’s physical and educational needs.
“Now that we have improved goats that we can sell for more money in the market, we can pay for the school fees,” explained Angoma. But, that is not the only benefit. “We can also have meat on the table right now,” he said with a smile.
As part of the project, World Vision distributed 20 female goats to families in Angoma’s community. Each family can bring their goat (marked by a special branding) for breeding for $5 Haitian dollars - less than 15 cents.
Their first offspring will then be given to 20 other families, to multiply the impact of the project. After the first round, the families and owners of the female goats will be able to keep any future offspring born of this large goat.
Angoma is sure that this project will have a wide and positive impact.
“It is not a special benefit for me; it is for the community,” he said.
His job, as he said, is just to breed the goat and keep good records of how many times the goat is bred. Since he received the goat, about eight months ago, it has been used to breed many times and the first babies are already being born - bigger and better than before. |
| 11/3/2010 |
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