Children of the Sahara Foundation

As part of Sahara Children’s animal banking initiative, on New Year’s Day 2011, Sahara delivered five goats to Issa, a nomad woman without a husband but with four young children. Issa and her family live a simple life in a simple wool tent surrounded by stones on the desert floor. Her two oldest children take turns to attend the local nomad tent school where they are learning to read and write in Arabic and French. However, schooling suffers due to the daily chores that must be done including collecting water, washing, cooking, looking after the two younger children and taking care of the goats, i.e. walking them out each day and watching over them as they forage for food. The future of the family depends on them being able to support themselves in this harsh environment. Their small herd of goats, as it grows, will enable them to more easily deal with the challenges they face on a daily basis.

Our colleague Liz Williams reports of the delivery of the goats:

We set off across the hammada (desert plateau) with three vehicles in search of a herd of goats belonging to a nomad family living in the region of the Erg Chegaga dunes. Mohammed, our desert guide, had already negotiated the purchase of five goats of mixed gender and on arrival the five animals were quickly identified and loaded on top of the Land Cruisers. Bleating as we carefully drove to our destination, the goats were not to know they were not destined for the tagine pot, instead were heading for a new life with a nomad woman and her children. We arrived at Issa’s small brown tent and unloaded the goats that were presented to her as part of our program to support the local nomads living in this region. Issa was visibly moved by the arrival of five new goats thanks to the donations received through our Give A Goat micro-finance program.

Goats in Erg Chegaga (Jan 14, 2011)
Photo by Liz Williams