Wickford Rotary supports Send a Cow

The charity Send a Cow started as exactly that; in 1988, when malnourishment was rife in certain parts of Africa, in the European Union there existed milk lakes, butter mountains, and the need to destroy cattle herds as a result of overproduction of dairy products. A group of farmers in the UK decided that they would send cows to Africa, which would alleviate the problems there. The Send a Cow charity was born, and as well as sourcing animals the charity provided funding and education for the population to make the cow more than simply a source of milk.

The BSE crisis in the late 90’s prevented further animals being exported, but by that time the local stock of dairy cattle was sufficient to self propagate.

Send a Cow provides a family with a cow, after training family members in how to maximise the benefit they have been given. So, they get vtraining in high yield farming techniques, they can sell the excess milk to pay for goods, they can use the manure to propagate arable farming, alongside many other initiatives.

Wickford Rotary recently raised money through a series of events and invited Martin Reid from Rotary Dunmow to come and talk to us about the project. At the end of the evening President Ralph was able to present a cheque for just over £300 to go towards the work of the charity