30 Nov 2016
<em>Congress Times</em> editor Rebecca Hubbard talks to Send A Cow's Ritchie Alford about the charity's mission of sending cows to Africa, and how cattle vets can get involved.
Rebecca Hubbard
Job Title
While we all know the true value of a herd lies in the cows it contains, I think it’s fair to say we can get a bit carried away with the “bigger picture” at times.
However, once you take a step back, or maybe look at how cows are viewed in other countries, the value of just one can be surprising – and it is rarely just monetary, too.
Send A Cow (SAC) is a charity with one major aim – to support Africa’s farming families to help them escape poverty. In its early days, it did precisely what its name suggests; it sent cows – roughly 300, in fact – to Uganda. Today, through forming and working with self-help groups, SAC contributes to building leadership in Africa’s farming communities so farmers can become drivers of their own development and feed themselves efficiently.
Ritchie Alford, SAC’s director of research and impact, spoke at this year’s BCVA Congress, so Congress Times discovered more about how one sends livestock across the world.
Q What is SAC and how did it come to be?
Ritchie Alford: In 1988, West Country dairy farmer Anthony Bush hosted a Ugandan bishop. For more than 20 years, the bishop had seen Uganda devastated by war and he mentioned something to Anthony.
While the British dairy industry was having quotas imposed on it because of overproduction, children in Uganda were suffering from malnutrition because their national cattle herd had been decimated by the troubles.
SAC was formed in response by Anthony and a group of fellow dairy farmers, including my father, Gerald Alford.
We started by sending cows and, until the BSE crisis stopped all livestock exports, had managed to send 300 cattle to Uganda.
Today, we contribute to building leadership so farmers are empowered to advocate for change.
The legacy of our work is long lasting and has a big impact. In Uganda, for example, we collected data from 313 families in 10 districts who began their training with us in 2000 and received their livestock in 2004. The data showed a significant increase in:
Before the projects, the average daily income was measured at US$1 (77p) – this increased to an average of US$6 (£4.62). The number of families who considered their housing to be in “good” condition also increased 62 per cent.
It is remarkable how transformation can be achieved from minimal material input – rather, the change comes from within. SAC is about achieving unrealised potential; a lesson from which we can all learn.
Q How can cattle vets get involved with SAC?
RA: Our extension workers provide technical and medical support to our farmers, ensuring the welfare of their livestock.
Their role is vital in enabling learning and understanding, and equipping farmers with the knowledge to keep their animals healthy, and the money raised by veterinary practices could support even more extension workers to provide this vital training and strengthen our farming communities.
We also encourage practices to raise awareness of SAC’s work among their clients, encouraging them to support our programmes. If clients set up a regular donation, we can support more families and communities, and provide more livestock.
What has the charity achieved since its beginnings?
RA: Growth was slow and steady. We worked with more than a million people in our first 25 years, helping them to lift themselves out of poverty. Over the past five years, however, we’ve picked up the pace and are able to work with more households every year.
Last year, for example, we worked with 21,000 families and supported 4,000 new families in our programmes.
SAC has an annual income of £7 million and 200 staff, in seven African countries, providing a holistic package of support to families.
We are a year into our five-year “Enterprising Africa” strategy, which aims to work with a million people every year by 2020.
How did the BCVA get involved, and what did you discuss at congress?
RA: SAC has strengthened its relationship with more vets in the past couple of years and Andrew Cobner [BCVA president] invited us to speak this year.
My aim was to share some reflective insights and learnings from Africa that may benefit the UK cattle sector, particularly following Brexit.
We have learned changing mindset is the key to effecting change – it’s about helping someone to capture a new vision and feeling able to live it out.
These principles help us get the best results from the communities we work in and create a sustainable model of development.
Where does SAC see itself in the future?
RA: Our goal is to deepen our impact at household level in each country by constantly improving the effectiveness of our programmes. Our strategy focuses on five key pillars:
Through these, we aim to broaden our community engagement to include marginalised people and improve gender relations.
We also want to encourage the young to see the opportunities of rural life and identify business opportunities, reducing migration to cities or other countries, and demonstrating a hand up works better than a hand out.
We also want to continue encouraging small businesses so people have diversified and varied incomes to help secure their futures, and we want to enable members of rural communities to address the issues affecting the land they live on.
In short, we want farmers to become owners of their own future.
