Livestock Re-stocking Project

Refugees returning from camps often come back with very little or no material wealth. Women, children and the elderly are expecially vulnerable, since they have little means of generating income. Even after long-awaited rains start, many pastoralists slide into destitution in the post-drought period as they have lost so many of their livestock that they can no longer sustain their livelihoods.

We are enablling destitute pastoralists to rebuild their herds so that they do not end up settling in shanty settlements on the outskirts of villages and towns, depending on begging and other forms of hand outs for survival.

A pastoralist family needs a large herd of sheep / goats to meet its needs, several dairy animals to provide income, and a minimum of two pack camels to enable opportunistic movement in search of pasture and water. To ensure that the herd can be rebuilt to an economically viable level reasonably quickly, good seed-animals with the appropriate combination must be provided to the beneficiary families.

VETAID is therefore re-distributing small ruminants, pack camels and donkeys to 350 destitute families living in Borama and Zeila districts of Awdal region, where the largest back of returnees arrived.

Activities:

· Setting up Pastoralist Committees (PCs).

· Identifying actual beneficiaries and deciding with PCs the number of animals each family is getting.

· Buying animals from the market and transporting to the site of distribution.

· Provision of water, fodder, penning, and veterinary services to livestock before handing over to the end beneficiaries.