Initially, funds were raised for 5 cows to be purchased and distributed to individual families in need. Soon after, Upton Junior School got involved and more cows were bought. 

Now there now about  40 cows. They are beef cattle and provide some milk after calving- important for healthy children!  Cows are also used for ploughing to boost food production, particularly the bulls.  Calves are passed to others and the number of beneficiaries is steadily increasing.

A vet in Soroti  gives free advice when cows are purchased. Recipients have to come and collect them and walk them home- sometimes quite a distance, but they do not mind! 

The vet also visits the cows in the villages when needed. His advice is free but medicines have to be paid for by the communities.

More mature heifers, capable of producing a calf within a shorter period, are bought. Once a calf is produced it is passed on to another family.

One of the recipients, Alfred, cycled the 18km back to his village with the cow walking behind!

In October 2011, Emmanuel Ayru took Trustees John and Janet Rew out to some villages to visit two of the recipient families and their cows. Emmanuel looks after the project on behalf of Global Challenge. The cow at the first village was grazing with many others, all owned by different communities, on land about half a mile away, and looked after by a young Karamajong boy. Communities now have decided to pay the Karamajong to care for the cows rather than risk them being stolen by the tribe!  Although the land is owned by others, as long as it is not arable, anyone is  allowed to graze their cattle.

The cactus hege stops the cows grazing on the arable land. At night the cows are returned to the villages and tethered.

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 The community at the second village we visited owned one of the priginal project cows and  one of its calves- they went off to collect them from the field.

They werre clearly very poor, but took pride in welcoming us with sodas and biscuits. The children all played happily together- they had no toys but seemed very content. They were peeling Cassava, a carbohydrate root crop widely grown in the area. Once peeled, it would be dried in the sun and then taken into town to be milled and perhaps sold.

Villagers are desperate for more cows- and therefore more calves. They see them as an investment- rather than having money in the bank. Although we do not encourage it, in times of real unplanned hardship, they can be sold to pay for medical expenses or school fees.