The joy of raising goats

Mr. Sung (far right) with his family and their goats. His son Nang is holding one of the babies.

Mr. Sung from Vietnam tells his story:

“My family had become very poor over the years. We didn’t have enough rice to feed our children and we only had a few chickens. Two of our children had to leave school. We were very ashamed of this situation.

As we were one of the poorest households in my village, World Vision encouraged us to join the Savings for Transformation (S4T) group in 2018. At first, we didn’t know what the S4T programme was; we were afraid to join and contribute our savings as we thought we might not get our money back. But after training and explanations from World Vision, we decided to become members.

Then in 2019, World Vision staff members and local facilitators paid our family a visit and convinced us to join the village’s Ultra Poor Graduation group. As members, we had a chance to participate in the goat raising programme, where we were trained to build goat huts and select breeding goats, among other things.

The most remarkable time for our family was in 2020, when we were supported with two breeding goats. With most of the budget covered by World Vison, I convinced my wife that we should contribute some extra funds to get bigger, pregnant goats; this would generate income in a shorter time. After we received the goats, the S4T group gave my family a loan of 1 million Vietnamese Dong (around RM193), which we used to buy more supplies for raising goats and chickens.

After three months, one of my goats bore a kid, which made me very happy. I decided to stay home and focus on raising animals rather than going to Hanoi for work. This gives me more time to care for and educate my children. Our meals are more nutritious as well. Goats are our most valuable assets, and raising them will help my family escape poverty over the next few years. As our economic situation has improved, we even decided to send our children back to school. If needed, we’ll ask for loans from the S4T group and pay them back as soon as we sell more goats.

Thank you World Vision for bringing joy to my family!”