Hello every one,
I’m very sorry to have missed such interesting discussion because of less access on the internet.
I here welcome Marlies Kooi first and others newcomers in walungu village. I can update about the project going on in walungu any way to offert a basical understanding to all of us.
The shed constructions had been achieved and lock putting on the door as required by Sonja to avoid thiefs.
The Question pending is every one could construct his shed while waiting for the training .Other thing our shed had been roofed with local material (paille in french).

I here inform that I’m fearing that as planned the received seeds can’t be used as seeds next season because of the big rain with hail fallen in walungu last week. Congo is facing floods and rain as usual in the period of ( sept-december).

Secondly I here ensure all of us that security in walungu continue to improve while war is stopped in North Kivu.
Most of us are fearing about the situation in walungu as I can remark reading postings, situation is ok and community is ordinarily conducting his activity.

I’m available to reply to any question further.

Guillaume kahomboshi

Tanja thank you for the question,
the way and the distance from where goat are buyed could not permit to buy a pregnant goat avoiding aborition.
We are focusing on milking goat tanja.
regards

Guillaume

hey every one,
I thank Tanja for the question and clarifie the situation.As goat are transported from where they are buyed and where they are delivered the condition of transportation is not very safe and can let a goat for an aborition.

Guillaume

Hi there,

I will not be available for chat before the end of the year ( I will not have Internet access). Looking forward to reading your discussions.

Sonja,

May be you should change the name of the task to help Marlies to make SWOT analysis :)

Happy holidays!

Tanja

hi everyone

I read that miscommunication is a threat, but what do you mean by miscommunication?

We also looked for possible goatdiseases, I found a lot but I still have to translate them. More about this in my next post.

Do we already know something about the dangerous plants? I thought I read something about a link, but i can't open it.

I hope to hear from you soon

Marlies

Hi Marlies and all,

For a better insight in the situation I think it would be good to read at least several last postings in defining project plan discussion - there is some more info; and in other discussions and shared documents as well. I will do my best to make a summary as soon as possible, to make it easier for you.

I am sure that by April there will be some good results from the field to make a good swot. I feel that at the moment we still don't have enough to make a decent swot that we can use in the plan later, but I believe that the discussion can bring lots of benefit.

To answer your questions - the number of kids shouldn't make a problem. As I already said, the evacuation is not an urgent issue, but it's great to have an evacuation plan, so we'll talk to Guillaume about that. However, I would prefer not to distract him now when he has a lot to do with solar cookers, training, water purification and other stuff. As soon as we solve the most urgent problems, we will organize a swot related chat. Hope it's ok for you?

The goats will be vaccinated, and the community will have a training as well as manuals, to learn basics about health care. They also have a vet there. However, it's always good to have more info about the topic.

Not sure where you read about miscommunication as a threat? I guess it might be between online neighbours and the community...

Thank you for your contributions by now, and talk soon.
Sonja

hi everyone,

We were working on our recommendation, but we have one important question:
we are very sorry to ask, because we think that maybe it is already posted, but we cannot find it.
- With which kind of goats do you want to crossbreed? We have read something about pygmy- and domestic goats.

We have also looked for goatdiseases, because we think this is a possible threat to the goatfarm.

- Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis
- Caseous Lymphadenitis
- Chlamydophila abortion - vaccination
- Scrapie
- Goat pox - vaccination

these five diseases are the only specific diseases for goats, the rest following below)are for sheep as well.

- bluetongue - vaccination
- fasciolosis
- Anthrax
- Lumpskin disease - vaccination
- Johne's disease

As you can see there are vaccinations for some of the diseases. In January of 2009 I can get on my schoolcomputer, then it is possible for me to send you also the symptomes. Because there is no vaccination for some diseases it is very important to prevent them.

merry christmas and a happy new year
marlies

Hi Marlies,

Thanks for the info!

As a matter of fact, we coulnd't choose the breed, since it was extremely difficult to locate any dairy goat sellers in the broader area (domestic goats don't give milk). So we found a seller of Alpine goats and ordered a couple, but the seller suddenly raised the price more than 60%. I have been talking to Guillaume about that recenlty - he was enquiring around and found out about another seller that offered goats at the old price. I'm waiting to hear from Guillaume if those are Alpine or some other breed. As soon as I know you will know :o)

The domestic goats will of course be crossbred with dairy ones we buy finally :o)

Take care,
Sonja

Hi Sonja,
the new seller is talking about goat produce in Burundi project and they are hybride alpine.
Then the training is mooved for soon january 09 as soon as we get Goat.Shed is ready and people are motivate to attend the training.

We here thanks all the neigbours for the support.the village received seeds from the prof ken and advice from you all .Our facilitator continue to make her best to advice and orientation.
The Fondamu Leader in conco continue too to advice in case of needs.

Happy neaw year to all

Guillaume
Walungu L.R

hi Sonja,

Today it was possible for me to work from my schoolaccount. I have find out what the symptoms are from the diseases we have posted in December.

Possible goat diseases:
 Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis - a lentiviral infection of goats which may lead to chronic disease of the joints and on rare occasions encephalitis. It is a disease that affects the longs.
 Caseous lymphadenitis – It’s a bacterial infection. Possible infections to the lymph glands.
 Chlamydophila abortion - is a species in Chlamydiae that causes abortion and fetal death in mammals, including humans. Infected females shed bacteria near the time of ovulation, so C. abortion is transmitted orally and sexually among mammals. It is possible to vaccinate animals with a living vaccine. This leads to lower risk on contamination with Chlamydophila. This vaccination must take place at least four weeks for the insemination and it is necessary to vaccinate a few more times. If the goats are already infected it is very hard to get rid of the disease, it is better to let the infected goats die.
 Scrapie - is a fatal, degenerative disease that affects the nervous systems of sheep and goats.
The name scrapie is derived from one of the symptoms of:
- the condition
- wherein affected animals will compulsively scrape off their fleece against rocks, trees or fences. The disease apparently causes an itching sensation in the animals.
Other symptoms include:
- excessive lip-smacking
- strange gaits
- and convulsive collapse.
Scrapie is infectious and transmissible among similar animals, and so one of the most common ways to contain scrapie (since it is incurable) is to quarantine and destroy those affected. However, scrapie tends to persist in flocks and can also arise apparently spontaneously in flocks that have not previously had cases of the disease.
 Sheeppox and goatpox - are diseases caused by separate viruses of the genus Capripoxvirus.
Symptoms:
- Fever
- Depression
- Anorexia
- Diarrhea
- Arched back
- Lymphadenopathy (enlargement of lymph nodes up to 8 times normal size)
- Cutaneous eruptions (erythmatous areas).
Vaccinations are available in the form a live attenuated or inactivated vaccines. In enzootic regions, annual vaccination with the live attenuated vaccine is recommended.

These five diseases are most threatening to goats. The five diseases who are following below are also a threat to sheep.

 Bluetongue disease or catarrhal fever
- Major signs are high fever
- excessive salivation
- swelling of the face and tongue
- cyanosis of the tongue.
- Swelling of the lips and tongue gives the tongue its typical blue appearance, though this sign is confined to a minority of the animals.
Vaccination is possible.
 Fasciolosis – Ruminants contaminate themselves mainly on wet pasture. The presence of freshwater snails is necessary for closing the cycle. Risk on goats is low.
 Anthrax - is an acute disease in humans and animals caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which is highly lethal in some forms.
- Symptoms which appear strongly differing and varying pneumonia and an increased and infected spleen.
 Lumpy skin disease - is a disease caused by a virus of the family Poxviridae.
Symptoms include:
- fever
- discharge from the eyes and nose
- nodular
- necrotic skin lesions
- edema of the limbs
- swollen lymph nodes.
The disease can be easily confused in its early stages with pseudo-lumpyskin disease. Two vaccines are available, one a live attenuated version of the Neethling virus, the other a live attenuated version of the sheeppox virus.
 Johne's disease - (pronounced "yo-knees") is a contagious, chronic and sometimes fatal infection that affects primarily the small intestine of ruminants. In cattle,
the main symptoms of paratuberculosis are:
- diarrhoea and wasting.
Most cases are seen in 2 to 6 year old animals.
The initial symptoms can be subtle and may be limited:
- to weight loss
- decreased milk production
- or roughening of the hair coat.

We don't know for sure what to do with goats who are infected with diseases that don't have a vaccination. What do you think about it?
we still have to find out if it is possible to cure the goats if they are infected, but is there a possibility to let a vet get over to?

I hope to hear from you soon

take care
Marlies

Hi Marlies,

Thanks a lot for this info, it's very useful. I will pass this to Guillaume. I know that the goats will be vaccinated, but don't know the details. I will see with Guillaume if he can provide any info about it soon.
There is a vet available in Walungu who can act if any problem arises. I think that a trainer will also provide some info about diseases and how to deal with it. Hope to get some details after the training.

Have a nice day,
Sonja

Hi sonja,

We have a lot of info at the moment, but there is one question left. We have to know something about the finance of the farm. We have to add a finacial paragraph in our recommendation. We waited as long as possible to ask you this, because we feel a bit uncomfortable by this subject.

Is there a finacial plan, or is there no money for starting the project?

If there is no financial plan, we have thought about micro-kredit.

take care
Marlies

Hi Marlies,

Not sure why you feel uncomfortable? Our work here is transparent and you are welcome to ask whatever you think you need.

Like with other projects on Nabuur, the funding issue is one of the hardest ones. That's why we decided to start small, 2-3 goats, and to grow from there by breeding. We had long discussions about the way the project should be funded and that is still to be discussed in detail before we start to seriously search for funds.

We thought that a combination of donations and microloans would be good since both have pros and cons. Donations did not show good results in similar projects in terms of care and motivation by the communities. Microloans, on the other hand, can cause dependency and futher empoverish the people in case that something unpredicted happens. In addition to that, we believe that a contribution from the community would be very important, and that the people should start saving for buying goats, no matter how little money that can be. As soon as Guillaume has some more time I would start discussions to see how that could be done.

Also, if they do the breeding well, they will be able to get more and more goats with time without additional funding, which would then require less money to be found outside. So we'll see how it will go.

Your ideas are more than welcome. And do not hesitate to ask for the info you think you should have :o)

Best,
Sonja

Hi Sonja,

Do you know what a male goat cost at the market in DR Congo or burundi perhaps?

And about the natural fence, will there be planted trees to prevent the goats from escaping? We are worried, because we know only trees will not keep them in the pasture. in holland they plant sometimes blackbarry bush.

best,
Marlies

Hi Marlies,
I'm very happy to join this discussion and first word thank you for your interrest in the project.Repplying to your question about male coast milking goat in Burundi is(200$ US)and in DRC 250 $.
This concernes goat without anny transport coast and taxe cost.
best
Guillaume