The Mongol Rally 2006

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                         MAD

Send a cow in short:-
In East Africa 85 per cent of the people depend on small-scale farming to survive. Land is often scarce and native cows give only 1-2 litres of milk per day. Send a Cow provides families with a cross-bred cow whose milk yield is very high - up to 14 litres a day. Livestock provided by Send a Cow provide a lasting solution for desperately poor farmers in Africa, enabling them to combat malnutrition with protein-rich milk and earn an income from the sale of the surplus milk. Manure from cows and other livestock can also double and even treble milk yields, making a real difference to families dependent on tiny plots of exhausted soil for their living. They use their animals' manure to fertilise their small plots of often exhausted soil - many now harvest three or four times more than they used to. Families are able to improve their diets with milk, eggs, meat and honey, and sell the surplus to bring in desperately needed income. Many families invest some of this money in other money-earning ventures, such as more land and livestock or a small shop. Most use it to keep their children in school.

How they work
Send a Cow work closely with local organisations to identify the most needy people in the community - usually women, disabled people or the teenage heads of families orphaned by war or sickness. They strive to ensure that recipients make a success of rearing the livestock they are given. It's not just cows though, very poor people, with little land and few resources who find it difficult to manage dairy cows, receive smaller stock, such as goats, pigs or poultry. They can then begin to rear livestock even though they cannot provide the full shelter or fodder needed for a cow. Each gift - whether it's a cow, goats, pigs, poultry, bees or even fruit trees - is chosen to fit the circumstances of the individual family. Training is provided beforehand in animal rearing and sustainable organic farming, and low-cost veterinary services are provided afterwards.

The initial gifts go on multiplying indefinitely, as each person who receives livestock passes on the animal's first female offspring to another poor farmer, who will do the same in turn. Send a Cow are now working in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Lesotho.