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Lingira Island

possible project

Pastor Paul Mutaasa enjoying a cup of tea with some visitors in 1997History

The people of Lingira Island are predominantly fishermen, but a few of them keep some sheep and goats and do a little agriculture.

Pastor Paul Mutaasa has been on the island since 1990, and now oversees a group of churches on Lingira and neighbouring islands. We had not planned to set up a goat project there, but when David Dowdy was visiting the island as part of a preaching team the conversation came round to his main activity. Within an hour, a meeting of some of the local goat breeders quickly assembled around him, and the request was made to bring the programme to the islands.

We are still at the exploratory stage, and it is by no means certain that a project will be set up - see the ‘opportunities’ and ‘challenges’ below.

Opportunities

• Connections are strong - the churches on the islands are affiliated to our own parent organisation, Deliverance Church. Paul Mutaasa himself is committed to continuing to work on Lingira.

• The initiative for introducing dairy goats came from the people of the island themselves, so their interest is clear.

• The Island has no other local source of milk.


Challenges

• The goats here are not zero-grazed but are tethered or even let loose on the hillside. So:

• Control of breeding will be impossible unless there is agreement among all goat keepers on the Island.

• Disease control is also difficult.

• Although there is no milk on the Island, the diet is not as deficient in fat and protein as elsewhere in Uganda - the ready supply of fish sees to that.


The small boat gets close to shore, the porter takes over from there The promontry opposite mirrors Lingira's rocky hill