< 

Safaricom Foundation Hands Over Dairy Goat Farming Initiative

---

Nairobi, August 20, 2012… Safaricom Foundation has given a boost to the 21 families livelihoods’ through a dairy project in the Maua area of Meru District.

The Foundation has officially handed over 21 dairy goats that to the Maua Self Help Group, with a view to helping them boost their respective household revenues through the sale of milk from the dairy goats.

The group has a membership of 21 with a third raising orphans and a quarter being single mother. The members aim is to improve the desperate economic conditions the members have found themselves in through the co-operation among the members and economies of scale.

Handing over the goats that are valued at Shs. 262,500, Safaricom Foundation’s Senior Project Officer, Eunice Kibathi said the project is one of the initiatives taken by the Foundation with the desire of helping create lasting impact on people living in the communities that the leading integrated telecommunications provider operates in.

“One of the outstanding attributes of this particular project is that it is self-sustainable because the goats will over the years increase, thereby enabling families meet their other financial needs”, Ms Kibathi explained.
She/ He added that the households in the project will also benefit from the sharing of knowledge in dairy goat farming, paving way for the adoption of best practices over the coming years.

Speaking during the ceremony, the Chairlady of the Maua Self Help Group Mrs Kigari said they settled on dairy goat farming project after doing extensive research into its viability in the area. She/he said the members also visited a farm run by the Ministry of Agriculture for the breeding of dairy goats, where they gained useful insights into the project.

Mrs Kagiri explained, “We have over the years been pondering on the best initiative that we could undertake to improve our respective household incomes. Given that goats are easy to keep and do not require a lot of inputs, we are convinced that this initiative will provide the much needed step change in our lives”.

The focus now, she/ he added will now be for each of the 21 households to growing their herd and using the revenues from this project to divest into other viable initiatives that will eradicate poverty from their midst.
The members thanked Safaricom Foundation for the donation of the seed capital that saw each of the households start keeping a goat.
Ends…

Notes to the editors:

About Safaricom Foundation
The Safaricom Foundation is a registered charitable trust, and is the Corporate Social Investment arm of Safaricom Limited. The Foundation supports projects that provide sustainable solutions to the most pressing social challenges. Its focus areas are Education; Health; Economic Empowerment; Environmental Conservation; Arts and Culture and Sports. 

The Foundation also responds to disasters and humanitarian emergencies as they arise. Safaricom Foundation’s strategic directions contribute towards Kenya's development agenda and the Millennium Development Goals. Website: www.safaricomfoundation.org

For more information, kindly contact:
Eunice Kibathi,
Safaricom Foundation Officer,
E: ekibathi@safaricom.co.ke
M: 0722852985

---