We are nearing the halfway point for our three year “Small Animals, Big Changes” project in Bolivia. I recently returned from an excellent week in Bolivia, in which I worked with our partners, CENDA, on reviewing progress and making plans for the next 20 months. In the project we are working with rural families to improve the production of sheep and chickens in order to increase the nutritional quality of their diet.

(Initially we were working with chickens and guinea pigs - hence the “small animals” in the project title. But for various reasons, guinea pigs wouldn’t work and so we are instead focusing on chickens and sheep. “Small and Medium Animals, Big Changes”, just doesn’t have the same ring to it.)

The families already raise sheep and have for many years, but we see scope for improvement. The farmers like to maintain a large herd size and are reluctant to harvest too many of them, as the sheep represent their “bank account”. Due to high lamb death rates, and low rates of lambing (ewes having lambs) it is hard for them to replace harvested sheep. So we are working with them to increase lambing and increase survival rates by helping to build improved, roofed corrals to keep the sheep warmer, and providing training on improved pest control practices. When there is a confidence that the harvested sheep can be replaced by surviving lambs, we believe that they will harvest more of the sheep. We talk of this as increasing the farm “meat flow” (which sounds a little gross. The Spanish “flujo de carne” sounds much better). Higher flow will lead to increased consumption of meat and improved health.

Some of the families, living in a different ecological zone, have only a few sheep with little scope for improving “flow”. With these families we are introducing chickens for egg production. We are supporting the construction of chicken coops – which keeps the birds warm and improves their growth, and protects them from predators which would otherwise devastate the flock. Also, inspired by chapter 10 of The Omnivores Dilemma, we are introducing vermiculture – earthworms are raised in a bed of sheep manure, and the worms are fed to the chickens.

We are told it takes eight worms consumed by the hen to produce one egg. When the production system is working and stabilized each family will produce about five eggs per day – approximately one per person in the household, which would make a great addition to their diet.

To build a sheep corral costs about $100 in materials (plus local materials and labor). Similarly, it costs about $100 to build a chicken coop and provide a starter flock and starter worms. So here is my attempt at “HealthBridge Christmas Gift Catalogue”: For $100 you can build a sheep corral or a chicken starter kit to help improve the diet and livelihood of rural farmers. While the project is 75% funded by CIDA, we do need to raise 25% of the funds. So please click here if you would like to help.

Finally, I developed a few flow charts that demonstrate how our project is expected to lead to positive health outcomes for the families. Immediately below is the clip art version. Further below are slightly more technical versions of “chicken flow” and “sheep flow”. Please contact me if you would like to see the full-size version of any of these flowcharts.