Give a Goat to Help Pakistani Christian Farmers
Giving Tuesday is here and we are thrilled to say that our Give a Goat campaign is back for a third year running.
Thanks to your amazing generosity, over the last two years we sent 2,400 (female) goats to help Christian South Sudanese refugees living in Camp Rhino, Uganda to become self-sufficient again. God willing, with your help this year, we can send goats to Christian farmers in Pakistan to help them diversify and become self-supporting for many years to come.
Your gifts to our Give a Goat campaign will enable us to provide goats for poor Christian farmers growing only wheat or vegetables on small plots of land, and struggling to support their families. Recent successive years of low crop yields have made their plight even worse.
Each farmer will be trained on how to care for goats and their veterinary costs will be covered for a year. The goats will provide nutritious milk for the family to drink, and valuable income from the sale of the offspring or meat.
Farmers will be encouraged to share their goats’ offspring with their Christian brothers and sisters so that they too can become more self-sufficient.
By diversifying their skills and reducing reliance on one source of income, i.e. crops, the farmers will become more resilient to seasonal weather variations and pest attacks – including locust swarms.
A donation of $76 will cover the cost of one goat for a struggling Pakistani Christian farming family, allowing them to become self-sufficient for years to come.
Naseem and Ribqa’s story
Pakistani Christian farmers, “Naseem” and “Ribqa", were on the verge of giving up the small plot of land they rent to grow crops before Barnabas offered to help them. In February 2020, their wheat crop was ruined by heavy rains just before harvest. The couple borrowed money to invest in a cash crop of cotton. But, just a month after sowing, that crop too was destroyed – by locusts.
Thanks to Barnabas, the stricken family received wheat seed, which Naseem has sown on his land. Now, together with their 16-year-old son, the family are excitedly looking forward to receiving their goats.
Ribqa said that, for poor people, goats are as good as having money in the bank. “You have opened our bank account and deposited goats in this,” she said. “They will multiply and through this bank balance [of goats] we will pay for the education of our son.”
Another Christian farmer added, “Distribution of goats is a long term support with one time donation. We will keep benefiting them for next five, ten and more years. They will meet the need of milk, meat and cash.”
