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Emergency Trust Fund for Africa
News article23 June 2020

Supporting female-headed households in Sudan: Amgoumash is a mother of seven whose life became easier after she received goats as part of a restocking programme

Amgoumash is a mother of seven whose life became easier after she received goats as part of a restocking programme
EU

North Darfur, a region that was plagued by two decades of civil war, also faces the adverse effects of climate change and of the El Nino. Local communities struggled to meet basic needs, having to travel long distances to markets, often without enough income to buy products. In order to support them, the “Mitigate the Effect of El Niño for host and IDP population in North Darfur” programme, funded by the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), provided goats to female-headed households. Goats are easy to rear; rich in both milk and meat production and can multiply easily. This restocking also gives communities better access to local markets and provides income. Especially in a deserted area like Um baru, the benefits have been felt fast.

In Hamee Village, the distribution of goats took place at the end of 2018. Amgoumash, a mother of seven, received five goats and all the necessary instructions on how to tend to them. In February of this year, she said: “I used to walk with my donkey to Um Baru, three hours away from my village, hoping to find milk and to have enough money to pay it. Often I couldn’t buy as much as we needed, because of the high price. (…) I was very happy to be chosen by the local committee to receive these goats. I have been selected because I was alone with seven children, some of them were clearly malnourished and I did not know how to face that problem. I was interested in rearing goats and I had no income generating activities. After receiving these goats, a lot of daily challenges became easier; nowadays I have 17 goats.”

Kaltouma Abdalla, a woman from the same community, said that thanks to the goats she received, none of her children are malnourished. She also feels more reassured about her finances, because she knows that she has the possibility to sell the goats in case of emergency: “Once we needed other supplies, so I went to the market and I sold 2 of my goats, it solved my difficulties.”

When the goats were distributed, all women received information on how to rear them. This programme is also connected to the the Livestock health service, vaccination and treatment programme, making it easy to seek vaccination and treatment for goats.

Finally, thanks to the new offspring, the numbers of goats increased a lot and the entire community is benefitting from this. Najza, another woman in the community, explains that the problem of lack of milk has almost been fully solved, because a part of the production is shared with the poorest families of the village. Consequently, children and elderly people are now in better health.

Background

Through funding from the EUTF, COOPI - Cooperazione Internazionale and the local NGO SANABI are supporting vulnerable households in North Darfur to improve their resilience with the implementation of fundamental activities linked to the Food Security and Livelihood.

Thanks to the “Mitigate the effect of El Niño for the host and IDP population in Red Sea, White Nile and North Darfur, Sudan” more than 2,800 people have been supported to develop income-generating activities in the Red Sea, White Nile and North Darfur regions. Find out more about our work in Sudan.

The European Union, together with Germany, the United Nations and alongside the civilian-led Transitional Government of Sudan, will host a virtual High-Level Sudan Partnership Conference on the 25th of June to mobilize the international community to support Sudan in building peace, democratic governance and economic recovery. Throughout this week we will be sharing several stories of the EU's work in Sudan.

Details

Publication date
23 June 2020
Region and Country
Sudan
Thematic
Strengthening resilience of communities
Partner
COOPI Cooperazione Internazionale

Programmes in the region