Ahmed Shaami
Bill Gates recently announced his foundation’s partnership with Heifer International which is a charity that is focused on donating livestock to the needy families all around the world. Bill Gates has thought of poultry as an antidote to poverty and for this purpose he has given a donation of 100,000 to the organization.
He made the announcement on the Gates Notes blog that outlined the major benefits that the poultry can offer to needy individuals. He pointed out that families that keep the birds can either consume or sell them and live chickens can also serve as a currency to pay for their everyday expenses. As keeping chickens is easier than most of the other tasks, therefore, Gates suggest that this can become an entire women’s profession and they can take active entrepreneurial roles in their community.
Gates studied the process and suggested that a typical owner of ten chickens can yield a flock of 40 chickens after a period of three months. The senior program officer of agricultural development, Donald Nkrumah, at the Gates Foundation states that chickens are a good way to supplement the seasonal sources of income such as crops.
Many farmers in East Africa use the income generated to purchase different livestock such as a cow. This proved them with milk and meat and makes up to 30 to 40 per cent of the income in the household.
The CEO of the Heifer International, Pierre Ferrari, stated that Gates and Heifer have chosen almost a dozen states where they think that donating chicken will be most beneficial. Many of the countries that are included are located in Africa, Central America, and Asia. But according to Ferrari, there are some obstacles in selecting the locations for the new coops. The biggest one is to ensure that the local farmers are actually trained to handle a flock as small as that of eight or nine chickens. It is because there is no point in delivering chickens where they cannot survive.
But Gates think that the recent partnership will help lift poor people by teaching them how to support themselves and their families.
Via: Business Insider
