Caroline is an energetic woman in the Arusha region of Tanzania who has received special training from BRAC to become a poultry and livestock vaccinator. She is a type of para-Vet who provides affordable timely services to her neighbors in the surrounding community to where she lives. Last Tuesday morning, I went with Caroline as she was serving a client, Ndensongosiyo, who needed her chickens vaccinated. Ndensongsiyo is a BRAC Key Rearer who had had 3 days special training and now has 28 birds with a modern feeder and water dish. She was paying Caroline 50schillings a bird for this service. Caroline was inside the poultry shed catching a bird, one at a time, and carefully putting eye drops into the chicken's eyes to vaccinate them. She'd then hand the excited bird out the door to her client (or a BRAC staff member who was nearby given my visit) so that they could be put in another pen to keep them sorted. And before you ask, no, I did not try to take one of the chickens in hand!
I did however accept Ndensongosiyo's invitation to visit another small shed attached to her house and see another source of income for this enterprising women: Gouda cheese! She used part of her 200,000 schilling loan from BRAC to buy more raw materials for cheese making as well as more chickens. She proudly uncovered about 20round Gouda cheeses which she was going to sell for 3,000 each.
Cheese and chickens keep her and her large family going. And a lovely esthetic sense. Her simple wooden home was beautifully landscaped with colorful plants and flowers. You could tell that each thing she undertook, she did with love.
Susan
Arusha
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