We have a Cow in Africa...

One of the things that has been on my heart for some time is the loss that our Mt. Elgon Training Center staff endured due to the fighting on Mt. Elgon in 2007 and 2008. Chrispine Juma, Justus Kirui, Jonathan Aramis and Charles Chebok lost their homes, their crops and their animals. Some generous people have been helping them re-acquire land and homes. Earlier this year I had an idea about how we might help them with the loss of livestock.

I began developing the idea during my visit to Kenya in April, and after some discussion with Kathy and our cultural guide, Stephen Mairori, this is what I came up with: don't just give a cow, buy one and share ownership of it with the staff, gradually letting them earn our portion of the cow through profit sharing on the income from the cow.

We began with Chrispine Juma earlier this month. Kathy and I put up around $400 to purchase a good cow (good endurance for life on the mountain, good producer of milk). We made sure Bondet Kea, the Deputy Principal of the METC, was involved as he has good experience with cows. A bonus was that the cow we bought is pregnant and will deliver a calf later this month. We got the cow examined by a vet and given all the innoculations she needs for healthy living.

Chrispine then arranged to have the cow transported to Kopsiro, where she is temporarily residing and grazing while he finishes constructin of a shed for her on his proerty. He has planted Napier grass on a portion of his land to provide good food for the cow. On a recent trip to Mt. Elgon we visited "our" cow at the training center.

Chrispine has promised to give 10% of the profits from milk sales to Mt. Elgon Training Center, and Kathy and I will have our share of the profits from the cow and her offspring go to the METC as well. As we increase our herd(s), this should provide a reliable income stream for both the staff and the training center.

Next month we'll add another cow to our "herd" by working with Justus Kirui to accomplish the same objectives. We hope that by the end of the year we'll have five cows in place, hopefully with a few offspring.