Ask Africa anything
This September FW’s Rachel Jones will be visiting rural Uganda to see first-hand how a group of British farmers have helped thousands of African families farm their way out of poverty.
In 1987 a group of forward-thinking dairy farmers from Devon to Leicester came up with the idea of sending cows to some of the poorest families in rural Uganda. Twenty three years on and “Send A Cow” has grown to become a thriving international development charity with the power to influence the policies of African governments.
In the charity’s early days founding members sent cattle from their own herds and appealed to other farmers they knew to donate livestock.
“One of our founders would call up farmers and ask how many cows they had,” recalls programme co-ordinator and fellow founder David Bragg. “If they couldn’t give him an exact number he’d say, well give one to us then!”
Nowadays the charity works with local livestock instead of transporting them from overseas, and trains thousands of people every year in animal welfare, organic farming methods, nutrition, hygiene, water harvesting, environmental conservation and simple records and business management.
The charity has produced so many success stories that organic farmer and Send A Cow trustee Gerald Osborne describes it as “one of the best kept secrets in British farming”.
Rachel will be meeting a variety of African farmers who have benefited from the work of Send A Cow including farming households that are headed up by entirely by children and young people, orphaned by civil war and disease.
If there is something you want to know about farming in Uganda or the work that Send A Cow carries out, email Rachel on rachel.jones@rbi.co.uk before she leaves on 27 September. Questions can be about anything – livestock breeds, organic techniques, farmers’ biggest bugbears, or what they love most about working the land.