The Arusha based Heifer Project International - Tanzania Branch has one main objective: Assisting poor families in rural areas to fight poverty through providing them with domestic livestock. So far more than 19,000 families have benefitted. Country Director, Erwin Kinsey recently had a chat with Nyamanoko Bwire about the project.

Answer: Heifer Project is an international mission aimed at assisting local communities in fighting poverty, ending hunger and also to care for the earth, through sharing of livestock and knowledge.

A: HPI was founded in 1944 in the United States but in Tanzania it was established in 1974 at Kitulo village of Iringa region. This was during the reign of Socialism and the program faced some difficulties because the government demanded that each village in the area should be included, this was rather difficult for us.

A: We tried to explain the situation to the government and somehow we got understood in1981 when we restarted the project and Arusha was the first region we moved into next. The Diocese

of Arusha (ELCT) was our first partner.

A: I can say Socialism hindered the development of small scale farmers who were subjected into working in communal farms neglecting their own pieces of land and this could be the reason why the government then did not like HPI very much, as we focus on individual families. Anyway, I wouldn’t like to talk about Socialism issues now.

A: It is very prospering, people like it and HPI has helped many rural residents especially poor peasants who have benefitted from the program. So far, more than 19,380 families in various parts of Tanzania have been benefitting from animals from HPI. The program has branches in all mainland regions of the country and is in its 7^th phase of relationship with the Ministry of Agriculture. There are 24 active regional HPI projects and about 92 district projects, 90 per cent of them being run by the churches, HPI however has none of its own projects.

A: We normally work with churches, the government and NGOs. For persons to be considered, they actually have to be needy with the first priority given to rural residents. People who live in town have very little chance. Secondly, anybody who need livestock help from HPI must be fully prepared, if one needs fish then a pond should be ready as for larger animals we demand good shelter and recipients should be able to feed them, we encourage zero grazing as environment conservation is also our priority.

A: We are very much aware of this, but before taking the animals the whole family that is the husband and wife get to sign the contract together. Again, we usually train people who get livestock assistance from HPI plus having the village committees to check up on them regularly.

A: We have milk goat projects, dairy cattle, camels and fish projects. Our other areas of focus right now is to encourage Tanzanians to take milk, imagine the country consumes only 24,000 litres per year, while their Kenyan counterparts drink 80,000 litres. In America and European countries milk consumption is 200,000 litres per year.

A: We shall be receiving over 305 milk goats in a few days, we plan to distribute the animals in a total of 30 different villages.