Around the world, we see creative, industrious men and women committed to providing for their families and serving their communities through meaningful work. In this year’s gift catalog, we’ve included some of the tools HOPE International-network clients use in some of the most common jobs in the developing world: animal rearing, farming, tailoring, and store ownership. In this series, we’ll dive into some of the challenges faced by those in that profession.
For many families in the communities where HOPE serves, their dream is to own livestock—a goat, cow, chicken, or pig.
Owning livestock is a key component of food security, providing families with their own supply of milk, meat, and eggs. And since animal products can add greater nutritional and caloric value to a family’s diet, owning livestock can increase a family’s overall health.
Livestock owners can also use manure to fertilize their crops, cutting down the cost of purchasing fertilizer and increasing their yields. Many families also use smaller animals like sheep or goats as a means of investing their savings—it’s often a safer and more productive way to safeguard built-up sums of money.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization advocates that if more families have access to livestock ownership, global food security will drastically increase.
That’s why HOPE invests in animal breeders.
When Margueritte Maniragumije, or Maggy as she’s better known, joined a HOPE Burundi savings group through her local church in 2014, she was living off of her small teacher’s salary and the smallholder farming that the majority of Burundians participate in.
With a loan from her savings group, Maggy purchased a male cow that she’s used as an additional source of income by renting it to farmers to help increase their own livestock supply.
Today, Maggy’s family has cows, goats, pigs, and chickens. As they’ve grown both their livestock and farming efforts, Maggy and her husband have been able to improve their home, making it a safer place to live.
Remembering how much she and her husband used to fight over their financial troubles, Maggy says, “When there is hunger, there is fighting.” They have peace in their home today as their income has stabilized.
“Now I have been transformed,” Maggy says. “I learned to save and to do business. … My kids have more than enough food—and more than that, they drink milk because of the cow we possess.”
Join hands with animal breeders like Maggy around the world through a Gift of HOPE this Christmas season.
Research from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and The Guardian
