How do you ‘recycle’ a goat?
Howard Lake | 21 November 2003 | News
Pictures & interviews available
Christian Aid is challenging young people across the UK to ‘recycle’ goats and help save the world!
The charity is launching a new fundraising and education pack for young people to use in schools, youth and student groups. It’s called Goat for it! and it will be available from January 2004. The pack will introduce young people to the idea of sustainable development work and is based on successful ‘recycling’ goat projects that Christian Aid supports in many developing countries.
The Goat for it! pack explores serious issues in a fun way. It includes loads of wacky fundraising ideas for different ages, including a ‘grow a goatee’ competition and a ‘goaty singathon’.
Goat ‘recycling’ is ingenious and can save lives. Christian Aid supports organisations in countries across the world – from Bangladesh and Bolivia, to Kosovo and Rwanda – which loan goats to poor families. In return, these families give their first born goat back to the organisation so that it can be loaned onto someone else and the whole (re)cycle begins again.
Six-year-old Najib and his four-year-old sister Washipa live in Bangladesh. Their family were desperate for a goat but couldn’t afford to buy one. Christian Aid was able to help out by lending them a goat. After a few months their goat had babies and so they could give one back to help someone else. What’s more Najib and Washipa’s family could keep all the other baby goats. Najib explained how it has changed his life: ‘We keep some goats for milk and sell some. So now there is always enough money for food.’
Details of how to order the pack are available online at www.christianaid.org.uk/learn. Christian Aid’s kids site www.globalgang.org.uk explains the whole idea of ‘recycling’ goats through an entertaining online game called Go Goat, Go!
Steve Leonard, the presenter of Vets in Practice, Vets in the Wild, and Steve Leonard’s Ultimate Killers is endorsing Christian Aid’s campaign. He said: ‘Through support from Christian Aid, goats are being loaned to some of the poorest people on earth who are using the milk and manure to make a real difference to their lives. And because goats have babies, loans can go on and on… and on!’
Daniel Sinclair, Schools Programme Manager at Christian Aid, said: ‘It’s hard for young people in the UK to imagine what life’s like for people in some of the world’s poorest countries. We hope that the Goat for it! pack will capture young people’s imagination and motivate them to help save the world!’
Ends
Notes to Editors:
1. The Goat for it! fundraising and education pack designed for teachers, students and youth leaders includes a variety of ideas for fundraising events and social gatherings based on the idea of ‘recycling’ goats. It’s aimed at primary school and secondary school age children. Full details of its content and how to obtain a pack are available at www.christianaid.org.uk/learn.
2. Christian Aid is also launching Go Goat, Go! – an online game for kids at www.globalgang.org.uk/goats . The game is set in Kenya, in a small urban settlement, and is also based on the idea of ‘recycling’ goats. Players choose to be one of the children in the settlement and start with one goat which they have to feed and milk. The overall aim of the game is to grow vegetables with the manure from the goat to help feed yourself and the other children in the settlement. In time the goats will breed and the goat kids can be given to others in the community. So by looking after this one goat it can improve the lives of the owner and the wider community.
3. Global Gang’s online educational games make learning fun. The website also features news stories from children in developing countries, which help kids in the UK and Republic of Ireland gain a unique insight into different cultures and lifestyles. Up-to-date video and audio clips mean that young surfers can see real-life situations for themselves. The site aims to encourage children to see themselves as active members of a global community and illustrates how, when it comes to poverty, there is no ‘us and them’ – we’re all part of one big Global Gang. It is for children aged approximately 8-12 and is run by Christian Aid.
4. Christian Aid is an international development agency. It works with some of the poorest communities helping people irrespective of race, religion, culture or background, exposing the scandal of poverty and injustice. Christian Aid has nearly 600 partner organisations in over 55 countries worldwide and aims to make a difference in the following areas:
* Food security – sustaining livelihoods, which includes work on issues to do with land, water, trade, the environment and emergency relief.
* Health – ensuring access to basic health care, with particular emphasis on issues around HIV/AIDS.
* Human rights – supporting poor communities to assert their civil, social, political and cultural rights.
* Peace building and reconciliation – helping communities to overcome the devastating effects of conflict.
For further information and images contact Kati Dshedshorov on 020 7523 2452 or send an email to
kd**********@ch***********.org
.
For interviews with Steve Leonard please contact John McKie on 020 7523 2417 or send an email to
jm****@ch***********.org
.
November 2003
PR 03/43
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.