By HEIDI ISAZA
World Vision Correspondent

LUSAKA, Zambia — “Konabula Mukowa Kombe Ko Kwete.”
English translation: “If you don’t have family or friends, you better at least have animals.”

This Zambian proverb illustrates just how integral animals are for the livelihood and living conditions of individuals and families. Here, animals aren’t just pets - they are investments and the key that unlocks personal and community development.

“I had a lot of challenges finding food for the children to eat,” recalled Dorothy Chapanga, a mother of six and a widow. “We used to eat sometimes once a day or sometimes the whole day we would go without eating anything,” noting how painful it was for her to see her children hungry and not have anything to give them.

Dorothy didn’t have anyone to turn to - no family who could help her care for her six young children and no livestock to lean on.
“The main thing that was running in my mind was, ‘How do I look after these children?’” she said.

This is a difficult question to have to ask - and even more difficult if you don’t have the answer.

Life began to change for Dorothy and her family when she found out they were selected as one of the recipients of a baby goat, thanks to the World Vision’s gift catalog. “The day I was told that I was selected to be one of the beneficiaries of the goats I really celebrated and I actually praised God a lot,” she remembered, with a smile.

“What used to trouble me a lot was how would my children be in the future,” she said. “My worry that was that they would not be able to complete their school.”

Today, Dorothy has 14 goats and everything is different.
“Now, I am not even worried because I’ve got goats. Whatever problem comes I am able to sell a goat and solve the problem,” she said, confidently.

Not only are goats a good means of providing for her children’s immediate needs, they are like a savings account or a retirement plan here in rural Zambia.

“The goats are a security to my family,” Dorothy explained. “I know that even if I died today, they would continue helping my children because they can still multiply and they can share and each one can have his or her own and they can keep on living and benefiting from the goats.”

Dorothy is also grateful because she knows she was not the only one who was struggling to feed their children and face the future. Thanks to the gift of these goats, she is slowly seeing her community being transformed.

“It will not only help me to solve my problems, but it will help all the people in the community to solve their problems just like me,” she reported.

The reason the goats benefit the whole community is that the first baby born by a goat that is given to someone is then passed along to another family in need in the community so that they too can start their own herd.

In this way, the benefits of a handful of goats grow exponentially until everyone in the community is reached.

“I am really grateful to the people out there who are able to give the money so that we can have these goats today. It’s something that I never expected, but I want to thank them so much,” said Dorothy.