Pass on and on and on ...

 



This is Buke with her Sauti Moja donkey.  
 "This is not a donkey, it is my back."
 

No, I am not talking about re-gifting but about giving a valuable asset that multiplies and helps many others.

After a single mother or widow receives her female donkey, the first female off-spring will be ‘passed on’ to another poor single mother who, in turn, will pass on to the next.

This practice of pass-on is founded within Sauti Moja’s initiative called Community Livestock Banking (CLB). 

 

Banking? Yes. Livestock is given on loan, and the loan is not paid until the first female off-spring is passed-on.

 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if the financial banking sector operated from the perspective of raising up community members.

 

In our CLBs, the good fortune of a single mother receiving livestock strengthens the whole community, because the benefit spreads throughout. 

 

Buke's debt has been cleared as she passes
on her donkey's first female offspring to the

 next poor widow. 

The moment of pass-on is celebrated, and it represents a significant change in social status for a once poor, single mother.

 

She is empowered by give back to the community that had previously considered her a burden.

What is this – social change or social justice - when the poor are no longer invisible or when a beneficiary says, “This is not a donkey; it is called my back.”?

 

You decide, but either way, a burden is relieved and a widow uplifted. All is good when a life of hardship finds some relief.

 

 

 

For additional information on the Livestock for Sustainable Livelihoods program go to www.sautimoja.org.