Hi everyone,

I agree that we need a project plan with budget and that we should start working on it already in June, as soon as the learning farm starts (which should be in 3-4 weeks as agreed). My idea is to start working on general towards detailes and to enter some results from the field as they start happening. Our neighbours are ready to start working on the plan. Trinto will be of a great help since he's very experienced in writing business plans.

As for the milk breeds, since community expressed their wish to try with that and since there's no harm for anyone to try, I believe that's an excellent way to start and to try with learning farm and to see whether they like it or not.
I spoke to Trinto yesterday and he agrees to proceed with the plan if that's what community wants and he thinks we should start as soon as possible.

As for the breeds available, if Guillaume says he has no more possibilities to check the info (there's no milk breeds in area, he found out only about one in Uganda), then I see no reason why I would doubt. I believe we should do our best to help and to try to find info.

Thank you everyone for excellent contributions and keep up good work :-)

Goodmorning all,
I just read a very interesting article about a dairygoat project in Burundi, which could provide us with a lot of good ideas about our own project. Check it out:
http://burundigoats.tripod.com/Tropical_Emphasis/Dairy___Cheese/dairy___...
Nico

Hi Nico,

That's a great link, Diana also found it a couple weeks ago. There are the contacts both for that project and their German partners, I'll contact them this weekend.

Everyone - we have contacted almost all organizations in the wiki (the rest to be contacted in next 1-2 days) plus some more found by Tanja and Raul. We got several replies, mainly with some additional contacts that we will also email asap.

Diana and I will keep researching for training in the next few days and after that we'll probably start making a manual out of those we found. Anyone interested to help out with that?

I have been trying to add a table with info about breeds found and their prices, but it keeps disappearing :(

So, what we have for now is:

Rwanda - Alpine, Swiss and French, cost 50$ - 100$
Uganda and DRC - Guillaume should find out about the breed name - cost 80$ Uganda, 150$ DRC
Kenya - Toggenburg - 95$

Thank you all for your excellent contributions and keep up good work.

Don't forget about the manual that is coming from South Africa.

Yes, thanks Tanja, there's also a manual that should arrive to Rolph's address from South Africa. I think that manual together with the summary we make out of the manuals in electronic form that we have should be quite good :-)

Dear Sonja,

Glad to see what hapen in Walungu village and if neighbour would like to send things in my postal adress in Burundi they may rwite this.

Guillaume K ( Fuul names)
C/O: Menga Rodolphe
B.P : 402 Bujumbura Burundi

with this I'll send to Guillaume whan i'll have it.

Yours

Rolph

Goodmorning all,
I am not sure if this was mentionned before, but several people I talked to, said that the absolute top milkgoat is the Saane goat. Maybe we can get a couple of those.
And I had another, pretty wild idea: as we, the neighbours, seem to be so commited to Walungu and want to be so for a longer period, why don't we borrow a micro-credit to the project ? Instead of donating goats.
Have a nice weekend,
Nico

Hello everyone,

Rolph, thanks a lot, goat manuals are already sent.

Nico, did you mean that we lend them our money for the project? I like the idea, but would like to hear from other neighbours, how they feel about it. Especially those who could not participate in that, if they feel it's ok that we others do that?

Maybe we could ask for the principal to be payed back and for interest to be accumulated on one account, and used for buying more goats?

Guys? Let us know what you think.

In my reasearch I didn't come accross Saane goat in Central Africa. This weekend I'm going to contact some organizations in the area to ask about breeds and prices.

Take care,
Sonja

Dear Walungu team,

I got this reply from Heart of Africa Burundi Goat Rehabilitation Project

http://burundigoats.tripod.com/Tropical_Emphasis/Dairy___Cheese/dairy___...

"Dear Sonja Marjanovic -

Thank you for your letter, and for your kind remarks regarding our webpage and project.

I've just reviewed your project profile and goals on the Nabuur.com site, and as you say - you've goals very similar to ours.

We do not have direct email/internet links - but have to go into bujumbura to download - which I've now done with your letter, and will send you a more detailed response tomorrow or Sunday that will have been composed from where we are located towards the Congo border.

Training is a key feature of our work - we do provide training in goat management and husbandry, and have recently completed such a course with Caritas-Burundi, and prior to that with several other NGOs here in Burundi. So we'd be very pleased to work with you to develop such a training program for your project.

More later -

Best regards,

Diana de Treville [a.k.a. 'DianaBuja']
National Director,
Burundigoats Project - Burundi"

:-)

Great to see we are coming back to a great speed. Thanks Sonja for your hard work and for keeping us motivated :-)

I will contact more organisations while I prepare for dinner.

Talk soon,

Raul

Hi guys,

Guillaume informed me that Manu (the volunteer in Walungu, livestock specialist) held the meeting with the community - since Guillaume is in Kinshasa waiting for the seeds from the States - and told them about our plan for setting up learning farm. They agreed with it and decided about first 10 families to start with trainig. They also unanimously decided about the family which will take the owneship of the first goats once the training is over.

Furthermore, they discussed about fencing and sheds and decided to use Pine and Eucaliptus for the natural fencing and also have been deciding on the materials for the housing of the goats. So if they manage to build the sheds out of local materials, they might be able to buy some more goats of the money that will be sent in June.

I'm very excited to know that we are working hard on both sides, and I'm sure we will achieve very good results.

Let's keep up good work neighbours.
Sonja

Great stuff.

Many thanks for the update Sonja.

Raul

Hi Nico,Trinto,Sonja,Raoul,
very glad to hear from you all .I'd like to highlight about local material as mentinned by sonja.it's pinus,eucalyptus and some penissetum.

The discussion had been productive since neighbourgs started to give their point of vew.The project got orientation and explanation that had be done before discussion.

what would ask is to have a common point of vew of all our neighbours about strategy.
By the way I thank trinto for his help and consellings from his experience and expect he will continue to help.

I hartly pass my knowlegment to Nico for his hard participation and orientation during our discussion.to sonja and Raoul,i warmly on behalf of walungu community tell you MERCI.

I'l try to refresh that seeds from USA are arriving in Kinshasa this afternoon 28th may 2008.
I beg all new neighbourgs to give their opinion if they have one.

let get result to aleviate poverty around the world.

Guillaume

Hi Guillaume,

we're so excited to hear the community is prepairing for farming and the goats :-)

Let me also say a big "Merci" to Tanja, Ken and Diana who contributed a lot to the project so far. We are really a great team, I'm very proud of all of us.

You are also doing a great work mon ami. Let us know when you get the seeds and the DVDs, and let us know how the community is progressing with farming. If you need any clarification, please consult Ken about demonstration bed or anything else.

Take care,
Sonja

Thanks to Everyone for being part of the discussions. I have enjoyed being part of the discussions so far.

Talk soon,

Raul