» Goats=money makers for the blind in Uganda.

Christine Carlson (Gulu Disabled Persons Union): Christine received her BA from The Evergreen State College. She went on to work for Planned Parenthood in Seattle, advocating for reproductive health strategies; co-manage a project on HIV-AIDS with PATH (the Northwest Microbicides Campaign Bill) funded by the Gates Foundation; and worked as an associate producer for Bill Nye’s series “The Eyes of Nye.” Christine was pursuing a Master’s in International Public Administration at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) at the time of her fellowship. After her fellowship, Christine wrote: “I was extremely lucky to have such a wonderful group of people to work with. They are highly social and welcomed me eagerly. They tried to put my desk in an outside office, but I insisted on being put in the main office. I often bought sodas and fruit for the whole office, took photos constantly (which they loved) and was always available to lend a hand or an ear.”

23 Jul

Blind man with his new goats! Yum!

Today was a wonderful day for several blind persons in Gulu! GOATS! Due to the efforts of the board of GDPU, The Ministry of Labor, Gender and Development of Uganda gave a small grant to develop livelihood projects for the blind. The member agency of GDPU, Gulu Handcraft Society of the Blind were the fortunate recipients.

Santos Okot and Patrick Okello look at the new goats.

In the morning a truck drove into the courtyard of GDPU full of whining goats. Three minutes later the drivers were tying the 20 unruly animals to the fence. “OK, I thought just another weird, unexplainable occurrence in Africa…” No, it was a carefully planned donation to generate income for the blind. In the next few hours I learned a lot of about goats. I agreed that it was funny that it costs 50,000 Uganda shillings for female goat, but males are free! A female goat can produce several kids a year who can then be sold for income and boy goats only purpose is to impregnate them! Ugandans love their goat meat so there is always a market for it.

Taking new goats home on a "boda" motor cycle taxi.

Even I enjoyed some goat meat on a stick purchased through a bus window on my way up to Gulu from Kampala. I’m please to know I was supporting the local economy. It was delicious.

Blind women wait for goats.

Goats wait for their new home.

Posted By Christine Marie Carlson

Posted Jul 23rd, 2010

Goats=money makers for the blind in Uganda.

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