7 New Kids Born in El Salvador! (the baby goat kind)

 7 New Baby Goats!

Exciting news this week! Our first goats that we delivered in June are now having their babies, which means milk for the families!!!

Some you may know about the GOT GOAT project here in ES.  In the beginning we wanted to deliver one goat at a time to the families in need as we received the goats.  We were finding that a lot of adults, children and babies had anemia, and there was a real lack of vitamins and nutrients in their diets.  Goat's milk  is the closest to that of a mother's milk.  Because their diets are so poor, women  loose their milk quickly and end up giving their babies sugar water!  The goat's milk is full of vitamins A and B-6, niacin and other nutrients like the vitally important potassium.  It is easy to digest, less allergenic and easy to keep.

After such an wonderful response of many family and friends back home, we found that we needed to spend more time thinking about who to give the next goats to and how do we ensure that they were taking care of the goats properly?  We are not in the business of just handing things out and moving on to the next!  We really want to equip people in the long run.  How to make what they have go the farthest it can, and think ahead about the days to come.

  

Pimpa and her 2 kids

Jake & Nicole with Esmeralda & Miguel and family

This is when we met Armando.   We got to talking about how the project could grow and be more effective. Armando has been working for awhile on a 'Co-operative Goat Farm' project and has had a lot of interest from various NGO's but no one wants to stop giving goats and focus on the farm idea. His idea is to have a farm of 25 goats, barn and enclosed area for feeding. One family would live and operate the farm with 9 other families living close by, who would all take turns caring for the goats. These 10 families together would be educated by Armando, how to properly care for and run a business of raising and breeding a better milking goat.

Carolina and her 2 kids

So we decided we would try out these goats.... We delivered 3 new goats to families in Las Brisas (that were already giving milk and due to have babies again soon).  When our friends Jake & Nicole Fluker came to visit with their kids, they brought with them $ from friends back home in Okotoks to buy goats for families in need of milk.  It was exciting for us because this time we had an expert goat farmer with us who was able to spend time with each of the families, showing them how to milk, feed and take care of their goats to ensure good production of milk!  This is what he would do as part of the farm, educating the families.

Learning to milk the goat

 The goats typically give around 1-2 bottles of milk per day. When given proper nutrition, vaccines and care, a well bred goat can give up to 5-6 bottles per day! Times that by 25 and all of a sudden you have a lot of milk for a lot of families! Once these goats start to have babies, we then can take some of the goats for future breeding and give some as gifts to other families.

We love the idea and would like to take his idea and make it a reality. What does that mean for us? We are hoping to start 2 of these farms. One up in the Victoria area, where some groups are building and 1 down here in the San Vicente area.  Each farm would cost $5000.00 That is including material for a small raised goat shelter, 25 goats, food, vaccines and education.  We are already getting close to having enough goats for 1 farm.

For those who have already bought a goat or donated towards the goat project, this just means that we would purchase 1 of these 25 goats on your behalf. Families will still be getting the milk, we just want to ensure that goats are not wasted and given to families who are not able to care for them. People can still purchase goats, t-shirts or give a general donation to the 'Goat Project'.  The goats we would like to purchase for these farms are $150.

Thank you to everyone who has donated, you are making a difference in so many ways! We are really excited to see communities join together in this project along with those of you at home. Together we are able to reach a much larger group of people.  

For now, enjoy the pictures and the smiles you have put on their faces!!

Much love,
kerrie-lynn

It's good, try some!

Mom & Dad McDougall holding new twins

We were fortunate to visit the family who is making the 'Got Goat' T-shirts for us.  We were able to see the shirts being made and the process it takes to put the logo on each shirt!  If you are interested in purchasing a shirt, please let us know at either kerrie@berstad.org or csmcalli@gmail.com.

Shirts being made

Silk Screening process