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Heifer putting focus on women in $42.8M grant for Africa projectLITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)--Heifer International, which provides cows to people in poor countries, will use a $42.8 million grant announced Jan. 25 to go beyond its traditional mission and virtually build a dairy industry in three East African countries. The grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation--more than 12 times the size of the agency's largest gift to date--will let the group expand a program designed to reduce poverty among 1 million people living on rural dairy farms in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Some 179,000 families are to receive assistance under the latest grant aimed at helping farmers produce and sell their milk in a manner that is more profitable. Heifer intends to provide 169,000 head of cattle--better livestock than cows now on the small family farms in the region--and train another 10,000 families to supply feed for the animals, said Sahr Lebbie, Heifer's vice president for its Africa Program. An important focus of the four-year effort will be bringing more women into positions of responsibility, both on family farms and in regional chilling plants for the milk. "The cow goes to the family unit. The man and the woman sign the contract," Lebbie said. "We have found out women-led cooperatives are led better than the men." Heifer will develop 30 collection points where farmers will be able to bring their milk to be chilled before it is sold. Under the system farmers use now, the quantity of milk that they can sell is small because of spoilage, Lebbie said. Farmer associations will own the chilling plants, as organized by Heifer. The project will be carried out with U.S.-based TechnoServe and the Kenya-based International Livestock Research Institute. Better animal nutrition and an artificial insemination program will help farmers breed better cows to produce more milk, and the grant will also provide training in areas that include business practices and animal agriculture. Dairy farming offers a better chance for overcoming poverty because it provides a steady income, unlike row crops that pay off at harvest time, Lebbie said. If the program is a success, Lebbie said, it will likely be expanded to Burundi, Ethiopia and Tanzania. "It could be the beginning of something much bigger," said Heifer Chief Executive Jo Luck. "All of sub-Saharan Africa has similar needs." Kristin Grote, an associate program officer with the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said the program will track the better nutrition and overall well-being of people in the program in addition to success of the dairies as businesses. The grant is easily the largest in the history of the Little Rock-based charitable organization. The next largest gift was $3.5 million from the family of Murphy Oil's founders in 2005. Traditionally, Heifer donates livestock and teaches animal husbandry to families with the goal of them becoming self-supporting. 3/3/08 Date: 2/22/08 Advertisement
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