While Kagame’s much-heralded “one laptop per child” initiative is well known, it’s arguably less impactful than Rwanda’s lesser-known “one cow per poor family” initiative.
Once the logistical problem of how to deliver hundreds of thousands of cows across rural Rwanda was solved, the longer term challenge was how to train up those families to look after their animals.
The “Gir’inka project” aimed to give every poor family a dairy cow. Dairy cows are less sturdy than the local zebu cattle: they need to be reared in a pen; farmers need to grow grasses and legumes to feed them; they need to understand how to look after the animals; and how to breed them.
Since it began in 2006, milk production has increased 9 times, accompanied by a 3-fold increase in milk consumption: with remarkable impacts both on livelihoods and nutrition.
Together with Send a Cow, we produced a series of posters for farmers covering these key topics. They were originally produced in Kinrwanda for Rwanda, with later editions in Kirundi for Burundi, and English for Kenya. The clear line illustrations were created by Okudi Deogratius and Sam Rich.
