What is Send a Cow? Send a Cow is a charity that helps people in Africa to grow their own food, so that they can feed themselves and their families. When Send a Cow first started they sent cows from England to Uganda. Now they find cows in Africa, rather than flying them there on planes! Send a Cow works in 7 Africa countries; Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia and Lesotho A lot of people who live in the countryside in Africa have to grow all of their own food, as they don’t have money to buy food (and there aren’t supermarkets in a lot of rural areas!). The climate can be very different in each African country, from the dry hillsides of Lesotho, the green and lush forests of Rwanda, the drought-stricken plains of Ethiopia or the grasslands of Uganda. The different climates, and natural disasters like droughts and floods, and a lack of training and resources can make it very hard to grow enough to eat.

The importance of harvests! Unfortunately, finding enough to eat is a real struggle for a lot of families in Africa. Sometimes they only have enough food to eat once a day. However, when they are supported to grow a range of crops that can feed them all year, families can thrive. Send a Cow helps families to make the most of their farms by providing seeds, tools and training. With these things families can grow enough food, sell their vegetables at market and make money to buy medicines and send their children to school.

Celebrating Harvest with Send a Cow This is Nabila, she lives with her family in Uganda. Nabila is profoundly deaf and goes to a school which supports her with her additional needs. Her family has been struggling to pay her school fees but are hopeful that, when they can grow their own harvest, they will have enough to sell at market and raise money. Harvest festival is all about celebrating the food we are lucky enough to have and sharing our good fortune with others. This Harvest we will be looking at why it’s important for people in Africa to grow their own vegetables and how we can help.

Nabila’s story We’ll watch this video about a family in Uganda and then we can talk about what the video has taught us. (Just click on the photo to watch the video. If it doesn’t play, open an internet window and use this link https://vimeo.com/276875404) What happened when Nabila’s parents were taught how to grow more vegetables? [answer: they were able to eat more healthily and sell the extra vegetables at market, which gave them enough money to send Nabila to school].

Did you know? Send a Cow trains families how to make the most of their land so that their vegetables will grow well and they will have enough to eat, as well as enough left over to sell. Here are a few examples of what the families will learn to do:   1. They don’t plant their seeds in seed trays, but into raised beds, with lots of rich soil for their vegetables to grow in. 2. Using compost will help the vegetables grow better and help the soil to retain moisture. This is especially important where the land is infertile and dry. Do you know what compost is? [answer] Compost can be made from saving vegetable peelings and animal manure. 4. Attaching a drainpipe from their rooves, leading to a water butt, will help provide lots of water for the plants. 5. Covering the seedlings with straw or banana leaves will help stop the seedlings from drying out and getting eaten by bugs

How you can help! You can help families like Nabila’s to grow enough food to eat, to be healthy and to send their children to school. Lots of schools like yours have helped Send a Cow to support families in Africa. There are lots of ways that you can get involved and raise money to provide seeds, tools and training. Here are a few ideas: 1. Could your school fete, sports day or inset day raise money for Send a Cow? You could have bake sales, a cow show jumping obstacle course, welly wanging or a barn dance! 2. This is an own clothes day with a difference – come in cowmooflage! Have a competition for the best dressed cow. 3. Will you class be the first to fill your cash collection cow? [Print off the pattern that you can find on our resources page] Help make a moo-sive difference for Send a Cow!

Thank you! Thanks to people like you Nabila will be able to keep attending school, her family will be able to grow in confidence and become small business people and they will be happy and thriving! We hope your Harvest celebrations are lots of fun. When we share what we have, we can all be happier!