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? |
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