NGO communication: MRA Africa & the Goat Hope project
During the weekend I was working with MRA Africa, an New York based NGO, serving people in Kenya with medical supplies and other projects in rural areas in Kenya, on an application for the NGO fellowship grant Focus for Humanity is offering for underfunded NGOs to hire photographers to fulfill their needs in visual documentation. But I don’t want to talk about that, but about one of the projects they have as a great example for the possibilities to communicate the need to the donors. First, have a look at this great animation that will give you an overview, what the Goat Hope project is about.
Pretty easy to get the value of the donation, the impact it has and how it works on a sustainable level and supports the community on the long run as well, isn’t it? It’s a pretty simple idea, based on a understanding for the situation and background knowledge about how goat milk could help here, what comes from the general medical background of the organisation. But this is first of all the impact on the beneficiaries. What makes the project brilliant for communication in my opinion is it’s really easy structure. Everyone can directly understand how it helps, not only in a short term perspective, but also as a sustainable long-term impact on the situation. Also it is really easy to get the impact your donation is doing. With your 25 Dollars you donate you can exactly track the impact it will have. In times where there are so many NGOs are advertising for so many different causes, but it’s quite often not directly understandable  what impact your donation has, this is a huge benefit as it could directly gain trust of the donor.
So, where is the problem then? MRA is a volunteer run organisation, so capacities are limited, and they put a great focus to serve the people ‘in need’ with both the ‘Medical Supplies & Equipment Relief Program’ and the ‘Goat Hope project’, but very poorly documented the impact they have. They put all their efforts into the programs and working together with the local communities that this important part fell short. The major problem in this is that the pretty clear structure the Goat Project has and all it’s benefits, miss a major link here for the donors that would like to know what happened with the money. As clear as it might be and how much they trust the NGO, to see the impact, hear the people and see the actual difference is an important part of the communication when you want to build long term relationships with your donors.
So, to close this gap, we plan a concentrated effort to document their efforts and at the same time also showing the lives of the people, both the beneficiaries and the whole community. This should not only show the impact the projects have, but also give a deeper understanding for the livelihoods to bring a deeper connection between donors and the beneficiaries in Kenya. This will be the major part of a new developed communication strategy to make also this effort as sustainable as possible.
(This is the first of a lose series I will do in the future, analysing different NGO campaigns and projects on their communication.)
7 Comments on "NGO communication: MRA Africa & the Goat Hope project"
Drinking goat milk can redress the impacts of HIV??? Sounds really strange and suspect. Are there any reliable sources for this assertion?
The protein lactoferrin in the milk is _maybe_ helpful against HIV (there are some studies, espacially some in vitro studies). But if you drink the milk, the lactoferrin will be simply broken down in the stomach and can’t help against the impacts of HIV
I can’t give you an answer on that as I’m not an expert at all for this topic (actually have no knowledge about it…), but i’ll re-adress it to the staff of MRA, maybe they could make this more clear. Maybe even more important, as far as I see it, is the impact it has on the long-run, for strengthening the immune system and also financially for the family and the community as it allows them an income that many of them don’t have, can’t have. But anyway, thanks for your reply, I think it is important to discuss those topics and how valuable it is what is done in a lot of development projects, even when I can’t give you a profound answer on that.
Goat Milk is indeed redressing the economic and health impacts of HIV/AIDS…economic impact is being redressed when the beneficiary families sell surplus goat milk (as we gift high quality dairy goats (Toggenburg) that produce more milk per capita when compared to the Kenyan (Galla and Nubian) local goats.
In terms of the epidemiological benefits of goat milk in redressing HIV/AIDS, Goat Milk, unlike cow milk, does not suppress the immune system. Among other benefits including goat milk being non allergenic, containing less fat; goat milk also contains twice the healthful medium chain fatty acids in comparison to cow milk. The healthful medium fatty acids include capric and caprylic acids. These fatty acids are highly antimicrobial and are extremely powerful in pushing back opportunistic infections that are characteristic of HIV patients.
Unarguably, the benefits of goat milk have significant promise in ultimately contributing in managing the health impact of HIV/AIDS. Therefore, the economic, health and more importantly cultural tenets of goat milk make it almost a super food for folks infected with HIV/AIDS in rural Sub-Sahara Africa.
Thanks, Beatrice. Hope that could bring a little bit of light to the reasons behind the goat hope project.
Thanks for the answers. In the past there where lots of crazy or dubious people and firms in Africa with claims like “vitamins will cure AIDS” or “Beetroot can heal AIDS”. Not really better then the traditional belief in some areas, that sex with a virgin can heal AIDS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manto_Tshabalala-Msimang#AIDS_policies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Rath#Illegal_AIDS_trials_in_South_Africa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_and_AIDS_misconceptions#Sexual_intercourse_with_a_virgin_will_cure_AIDS
Goat milk against milk sounds also a little bit strange. So I was sceptical. Maybe you can reference some studies for the impact of capric and caprylic acids on your website in the future.
Ya, can fully understand that. There are a lot of dubious development projects out there, not only in the health sector and I think it is good to stay critical. Thanks for your replies! My site might not be the spot for further scientific information on that, but maybe the MRA can put some studies on their site that underlines their efforts.
Cheers, Simon
Well Simon, your work is contributing that little piece to the puzzle. Not bound by the limits of magazines, your visual media is certainly captivating and enthusing me.
In response to Guido. I agree that the assertion appears on face value a little suspect. I think ‘redress’ is perhaps the wrong term!? Just because the milk benefits the immune system, it might be misleading use of the word. However I poked around a little bit and found this paper about the effects of Niacin in HIV patients,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8651223?dopt=Abstract
Personally I agree with Simon, the economic and health benefits, in terms of the immune system boost cannot be underestimated. Especially since its clear that HIV severely undermines the immune system, ultimately weakening the patient and shortening life-span of the individual.
Cheers,
Luke.