Helping people to help themselves!

Bóthar does remarkable work in developing countries. Their innovative scheme sends Irish dairy cows and goats to needy families in Africa and the Middle East. The animals flourish there, in regions that have a temperate climate not unlike our own. There they provide far more milk than local breeds of cattle: the cows Bóthar sends out give an average of 20 litres per day. Some cows are so well cared-for by the recipients that they give over 40 litres per day.

Each animal can supply a complete solution to a family's poverty. The milk provides nourishment, and the excess can be made into butter or yoghurt and sold, providing an income to pay for the family's education. The dung provides fertiliser as well as a source of power, in the form of methane gas, which is collected from it.

The Bóthar project operates a form of Microcredit. Bóthar considers the animals it sends to be 'living loans'. A recipient family repays their loan by passing on the first female offspring of their animal to another needy family. Only then does the animal they were lent become their property.

Bóthar is affiliated to Heifer Project International, a large American organisation that provides a support structure in the host countries.

Originally, Bóthar focused on sending only dairy cows abroad. Less than two years ago they began to send dairy goats abroad also, and have had great success with this. Due to over-population, some families had not sufficient land to keep a cow. Goats need less land and are therefore suitable for those people.

It costs £250 to transport a goat to Africa. This cost covers veterinary certification, freight costs, relocation in the host country, building a shelter for the animal and training the recipient family to care for their goat. The cost for a cow is £800. With friends and colleagues, why not sponsor a goat, or a cow? Why not sponsor a meitheal, a whole herd of goats? Bóthar also appreciates donations of live animals. If you would like to donate a cow or a goat please contact Peter Ireton, General Secretary of Bóthar.

See also Bóthar's own web page at www.bothar.ie