More than 70 people heard how small can be beautiful at a special event organised by Bath-based international development charity Send a Cow.
Guests – made up of local charity supporters and members of Bath’s business community – were invited to learn more about the power of smallholding farming in Africa and the benefits of charity/corporate partnerships at the gathering in the city’s new Boston Tea Party café.
Send a Cow patron and founder of Riverford Organic Farms, Guy Watson, spoke from his own experience as a farmer and businessman.
“Entrepreneurial zeal and drive is absolutely there in Africa,” he said. “People won’t need our help for long. All they need is a bit of a hand up, not a hand out…handouts are not a good idea. But give people half a chance and they will help themselves and that is what I absolutely saw Send a Cow achieving.’
He also spoke about Riverford’s four-year partnership with Send a Cow – which has raised more than £100,000 – and urged other business leaders to consider the advantages of charity partnerships.
‘‘I employ 600 people and becoming a destination employee where people really want to work is incredibly important especially with the new generation who tend to be quite idealistic and want to feel they are contributing to the world,” he said.
“Working with Send a Cow has worked really well for Riverford and a lot of our staff really identify with the work that we do.”
Based in Newton St Loe, Send a Cow has been working in Africa for almost 30 years providing some of the continent’s poorest people with training, tools, seeds and livestock to lift themselves out of poverty. The charity currently works in seven countries in Africa and works with 300,000 people a year.
Send a Cow country director of Lesotho Manthethe Monethi spoke passionately about the charity’s work with poor smallholder farmers as well as the challenges that they face. Lesotho is a mountainous landlocked country completely surrounded by South Africa. It recently declared a state of emergency after experiencing a drought which the World Food Programme warns could leave hundreds of thousands of people reliant on food aid in the coming year.
She said: ‘‘Many people don’t even know where Lesotho is… It is characterised by high levels of poverty and due to the topography of the country, we have a lack of good arable land. We have drought and at the end of drought we have torrent rains which strip off fertile soil…lots of people depend on aid.’’
She went on to describe Send a Cow’s work with 3,500 households in Lesotho and told the story of 49-year-old farmer Mamoeleli Shea who, with Send a Cow training, has transformed her life.
After years living in extreme poverty, Mamoeleli now has a smallholding which produces enough vegetables to feed her family and provide an income. Despite the drought, Mamoeleli’s land is flourishing – a testament to the training and support that Send a Cow provides.
During the evening guests were also treated to live music from professional kora player Mamadou Cissokho and organic canapés courtesy of the café.
To find out more about Send a Cow’ work and its business partnerships, contact Sophie in Send a Cow’s Partnership Team on 01225 876916 or email sophie.porfirio@sendacow.org
Pictured, from left: Send a Cow chief executive Simon Barnes, Manthethe Monethi and Guy Watson of Riverford
