·
Get that fence up
around your vegetable garden or the goats will make short work of those
valuable vegetables.
·
Keep the goats
penned and away from the bushes surrounding your school!
·
Goat’s milk does
NOT have to be pasteurized but cleanliness when milking is paramount!
·
Milk must be
sieved in order to catch stray dirt, hair
etc which could be catastrophic to HIV+ women .
·
Stud goats cannot
service their own Kids so must be sold and new ones purchased.
·
Rams can be
nasty! Our ‘Bella’ wouldn’t ‘kid’ and had to be sold.
·
Drought forced
VMS to purchase grass/lucerne and pellets for winter feed.
·
Effort to rent
the land in front of the school for 2 paddocks needed for grass growing has
once again been stymied. The chief (who owns the land) has died and the new
chief has once again lost the VMS ‘request’ paperwork. ARGH!
·
Keep the goats
off of the newly cemented school addition floors.
·
Our beloved,
curious young kid ate a plastic bag…the results were not good.
·
Once the children
have named a new Kid, properly prepare them for the day when the goat must
leave or tears will abound!
BUT…the good news far
outweighs the bad and we happily report:
·
Goat’s milk is
far more nutritious than cow’s milk.
·
Daily, VMS
children enjoy fresh goat’s milk with their “morning porridge”.
·
Owning a goat
means that an HIV+ mother no longer has to purchase expensive tinned milk for
her baby.
·
The children LOVE
the goats and rush to greet them upon the children’s arrival at school. They
are allowed to play with the goats for a short time each day when the goats are
let out of their pens.
·
Currently VMS has
9 female ewes: 7 Kids and 2 grown.
·
When a female
becomes pregnant she is gifted to a needy family (usually a HIV+ Caregiver) to
help feed and sustain the family. In return, the first female baby goat must be
given to another needy family. The male is returned to VMS for stud purposes.
·
Susie has plans
to visit a project in Sibasa to learn the art of cheese making.
·
During the second
week of September VMS will be hosting a goat-farming workshop for new goat
owners.
All of this is possible
because of caring, concerned individuals like Fernando and yourselves. Please
contact us if you’d like to play a critical role in helping to sustain this
project. We are in desperate need of a RAM and for R1532 ($150 USD) we’ll
gladly name him after YOU!
