A Zambian proverb says, “If you don’t have family or friends, you better at least have animals.” Here, animals aren’t just pets — they are key investments for a family’s livelihood and a community’s development.

March 2010

By Heidi Isaza, World Vision U.S.

“I had a lot of challenges finding food for the children to eat,” remembers Dorothy Chapanga, a widow and mother of six. “We used to eat sometimes once a day, or sometimes the whole day we would go without eating anything.”

It was painful to see her children hungry and not have anything to give them. “How do I look after these children?” she wondered.

When everything changed

Life began to change when she found out they would receive a baby goat, thanks to World Vision’s Gift Catalog. “The day I was told that I was selected to be one of the beneficiaries of the goats, I really celebrated,” she says. “I actually praised God a lot.”

“What used to trouble me a lot was how my children would be in the future,” she remembers. “My worry that was that they would not be able to complete their school.”

Today, that one goat has given birth multiple times, and Dorothy owns 14 goats. “Now, I am not even worried because I’ve got goats,” she says confidently. “Whatever problem comes, I am able to sell a goat and solve the problem.”

Food today, security for a lifetime

Goats provide nourishing milk and cheese for children’s immediate nutritional needs. In the long term, their offspring are like a savings account or a retirement plan here in rural Zambia.

“The goats are a security to my family,” says Dorothy. “I know that even if I died today, they would continue helping my children because they can still multiply… each one can have his or her own and they can keep on living and benefiting from the goats.”

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Helping an entire community

When World Vision gives a goat to a family, the family agrees to pass on the first baby born to each goat to another family in need in the community. Other families then start their own herd — and give their first baby goat to another family. From a handful of goats, everyone in the community is reached.

Dorothy is grateful because she knows she was not the only one who was struggling to feed her children. Thanks to the gift of these goats, she is slowly seeing her community being transformed. “It will not only help me to solve my problems, but it will help all the people in the community to solve their problems just like me,” she says.

“I am really grateful to the people out there who are able to give the money so that we can have these goats today. It’s something that I never expected, but I want to thank them so much,” says Dorothy.