HN Issue 14: Goats Giving Poverty The "Butt" In Haiti

When Timer LaVenture heard that two international FH workers were visiting his community, he ran to track them down. The 45-year-old father wanted to show them his goat.

"This is the first time I've ever owned an animal!" he explained. "Now I am able to generate an income and things are getting better for my family."

Timer received a female goat from FH, and it had since given birth to a kid. As part of the agreement to receive a goat from FH, he gave the first offspring to another family in need. Now his goat was pregnant again, and he had the freedom to choose whether to keep or sell this second goat.

Before FH started working in the community, Timer couldn't send his children to school and there wasn’t always food on the table. He had little hope that anything would change because extreme poverty was all he had ever known.   

But this wasn’t evident in the face of the man who rushed to talk to the foreign visitors. His goat is helping him earn an income through milk, manure, and—eventually—more offspring.  But more than that, his goat is giving him hope.

Want to help a farmer like Timer get a goat? Visit www.GiveAGoat.ca, and sponsor the gift of a goat and agricultural training today!