Avonbourne School

A Business & Enterprise College

Farm Africa

Helping to reduce poverty in eastern and South Africa

DIG deep into your purses and pockets at Avonbourne School on May 2, and give a goat and an African community a rosier future.

Pupils at the school plan to sell Fairtrade foodstuffs and other goodies during lunchtime to raise money for the goat, under the Farm Africa scheme.

Farm Africa is a British charity and international non-government organisation (NGO), which works to reduce poverty in eastern and South Africa. It does this by working in partnership with farmers and herders to help them manage their natural resources more effectively and build sustainable livelihoods on their land. A dairy goat, which costs £30, is just one way of doing this because its milk can be drunk or sold to help pay for medicine and schoolbooks. Plus, the goats' manure is a great fertiliser for crops.

“Our students have been looking at Farm Africa as part of a module on globalisation; how the global economy works and how it is a major disadvantage to many people in the world, said teacher, Victoria Hall.

“We looked at Farm Africa as a small scale sustainable may of helping people in poverty and the students have formed small 'charities'/ NGO's to raise money for Africa. Many of them have decided to sell Fairtrade food. However, we will wait to see in the next few weeks what other stalls there will be.

Click here for more information on the scheme.