-Farmers to supply orphanage with milk for elephants
Elephant Havens Foundation this week made a donation of 100 goats to 10 farmers from Ghabamochaa and Nxanxana settlements.
The donation will see the ten farmers supplying the elephant sanctuary with milk that will feed the orphaned elephants. Haven is an Elephant Orphanage that rehabilitates young elephants, before releasing them into the wild.
Director of Elephant Havens Poloko Boago, has revealed that the orphanage spends a lot of money buying formula milk to feed the elephants.He said while the donation was the orphanage’s way of giving back to the community they operate in, they will in turn benefit from same arrangement.
Under the arrangement, each of the farmers will provide the orphanage with goat milk to the value of the goats they received and after reaching the amount, the sanctuary will start buying from them.
Boago has warned farmers to only supply them with goat milk, and not that from cattle as that one is poisonous to the elephants.
The District Animal Production Officer Eric Mesho encouraged farmers to take extra care of the goats as they are very important and can create wealth for them.
For his part, area Councillor for Sankoyo, Shorobe, Matsaudi, Oabilwe Chombo, also reiterated that taking care of the goats would be a great way of showing appreciation of the donation. Chombo appreciated the donations expressing hope that it will improve the socio-economic livelihoods of his community. “We wish to get more goats and grow as Ghabamochaa and Nxanxana farmers,” he said.
One of the recipients,Ketshotse Maenga also appreciated Elephant Havens for the donation assuring that they will work very hard to ensure that the goats are well taken care of and also supply enough milk to feed the elephants.
The donation has added to other projects that have been donated to the community by the orphanage, among them boreholes, school bus, a bridge and the elephant dung paper making project.
The school combi driver is currently under the employ of elephant havens which also takes care of the fuel and maintenance of the vehicle.
