Young people from St John’s, Malone, raised a wonderful £1,050 to send five goats to Africa.
The goats will provide milk cheese and butter, and if the goats reproduce any excess produce can be sold to allow the family to pay for food, medicine and education for their children.
The young people aimed to raise £200 during Lent to buy one goat for Africa, but their final tally meant they were actually able to send five goats.
On Sunday June 3 Bishop Edward Darling, a former Rector of St John's and a founding member of the charity Bothar, attended to receive the cheque.
He was accompanied by Roy and Mary Cullen and two young kids. At their farm at Carryduff, Roy and Mary prepare the goats until a full plane load is ready. Two television programmes recently showed the work of the charity and how the animals are prepared at Carryduff.
A dairy goat can supply up to four litres of nutritious milk per day, five times the quantity produced by a local cow. Irish pure-bred dairy goats are very well suited to East African project countries.
As well as selling the extra milk that is produced, or using it to make butter or cheese, manure collected from the goats is used as a rich fertiliser on land and helps to increase vegetable crop yields.
Dairy goats are friendly and easy to manage. They will kid each year, and, because they often produce twins, a family can quickly start to build up a small herd. Money from the sale of milk, cheese and butter means that parents can pay for food, medicine and an education for their children.
Bothar selects and trains host families and goats are carefully prepared before shipment and there is veterinary care available afterwards.
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