Joys of 2011: Good Goats

2011 saw the continued progress of one of our major projects while in Kenya, the Kajiado Goat Restocking project.  In total it empowered 61 self help groups, representing approximately 14,000 people to buy a total of 10,000 goats.  While the goats were what catch people's eye, it is the formation of self help groups that has had a truly trans-formative effect on the community.  Here is a link to an article I wrote about this project for MCC
http://www.mcc.org/stories/news/kenya-goat-project-demonstrates-group-power.

Throughout the year Matt had the opportunity to train and interact with groups from both the MFSDP and MIDI operational area.  The groups that impressed me the most were ones that had dreams.  You rarely hear a community-member dreaming about the future, but by teaching people to recognize and solve their own problems you create a culture of dreaming.  People dream of having water, of good schools, plenty of food and no more food aid.

So one of our great joys this year was seeing this project transform lives and communities.  It revealed how our small efforts can bring about God's Kingdom when we remain faithful to His calling.