Africa visit for ambassador
SEND A COW ambassador Wendy Martin has visited Africa to see how the charity’s work is improving people’s lives.
Former headteacher Wendy, who lives in Hinckley, funded the trip to Lesotho herself to see first hand how people’s donations are being used to benefit some of the poorest rural communities in Africa.
The international development charity, which was founded by Christian farmers in 1988, provides practical training and on-going support to ensure that some of the country’s most marginalised people are better equipped to help themselves.
Wendy said: “Send a Cow doesn’t put cows on planes anymore but it has already lifted more than 1.3 million people out of poverty and it has big plans to give millions more the hope and the means to secure their own futures from the land.”
Lesotho is a landlocked, mountainous country, about the size of Belgium, separated from South Africa by the Drakensberg and Maluti mountain ranges.
Challenging terrain and two years without significant rainfall have compounded their problems but with help from Send a Cow, communities are surviving and and setting up schemes such as selling eggs, embroidery, and handmade jewellery to raise money.
Donating large livestock would not be appropriate there but chickens, bees, rabbits and young fruit trees have all been provided by the charity.
Wendy was among a group of Send a Cow ambassadors who travelled to the north west of the country, where they visited family farms, a jewellery making group, and a community that had been self sufficient for a year after their Send a Cow training ended.
She said “I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity to meet all these determined individuals, and to be part of such an effective organisation.”
To find out more about the charity visit www.sendacow.org or email Wendy at wendytmartin@tiscali.co.uk if you would like to arrange a talk about its work.