Beatrice’s Goat

By shortk | Published: March 14, 2007

beatricesGoatMore than anything, Beatrice longs to be a schoolgirl. But in her small African village, only children who can afford uniforms and books can go to school. Beatrice knows that with six children to care for, her family is much too poor. But then Beatrice receives a wonderful gift from some people far away — a goat! Fat and sleek as a ripe mango, Mugisa (which means “luck”) gives milk that Beatrice can sell. With Mugisa’s help, it looks as if Beatrice’s dream may come true after all. Based on a true story about the work of Project Heifer.

This entry was posted in Africa, Fiction, Primary (Gr. K-3), Uganda and tagged , , Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

One Comment

  1. Barbara Thompson Book
    Posted July 31, 2010 at 10:45 pm | Permalink

    Beatrice’s Goat is a wonderful example of microfinance in practice. Through the loan granted by Heeifer International, Beatrice is able to help her mother build a pen for her “loan” of a goat.
    the terms of the loan demand that when her goat produces offspring, they are donated to another family in the communnity–thus the loan is paid back and actually grows.

    In the interim, Beatrice’s family has enough goat milk to feed her own family and to sell excess milk to members of the community.

    Through this she is able to attend the local school and eventually college in the USA. Check out the http://www.heiferinternational.org website for more information on Beatrice. There is also a 60 Minutes DVD featuring Beatrice and her experience available from Amazon.com and other websites.

    This book is a good begining place for the beginning discussion of microfinance and how we as small supporters can have a big impact on the lives of others in places in the world of which we’ve only dreamed.

One Trackback

  1. By WOW Currents » Windows to the World — Part 4 on January 25, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    [...] associated with a book One Hen, which really belongs in the Africa portion of my blog along with Beatrice’s Goat. This Web site explains the concept of microfinance in relation to the book. There are also lesson [...]

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