I have recently returned from The Gambia where I talked to many of the owners about their animals. One had a pony called Jibby, who can be seen trotting around the villages delivering goods, or people, to their various destinations. He looks well and works happily in his new bit and harness. I asked Jibby's owner what difference the pony had made to him. He told me that Jibby earned money daily running errands and providing a taxi service to surrounding villages. When the farming season started, his farm was five times bigger than it used to be because Jibby did the ploughing. He also hired the pony out to others to help them with their farms. With the money he made, he was able to buy some sheep and these had bred and produced many lambs. He was able to sell them at Toubaski, which is the Muslim equivalent of Christmas where the Gambians all eat mutton. With the proceeds of the lambs, he had just bought two cows and he now considered himself quite wealthy. He had money to send the children to school and if they were sick, he had the money to find treatment for them and that was all due to one little pony. Jibby is highly prized and I was thrilled to see that some of the money he had earned had gone to build him a lovely little mosquito proofed stable.

Surely this is one way to make poverty history?