Needs Identified by Local Communities

The communities we support have identified Goats, like every other gift listed in our Best Gift Ever catalogue, as being vitally important to ensure children’s health and well-being. Canadian Feed The Children along with our local partners provide goats, school supplies, water taps, fish farms, etc as part of our broader programming initiatives.

Beyond the Gifts

When you purchase a Best Gift Ever, funds go towards the range of development programs in the communities we support. The projects go beyond the simple provision of items; they also include training, project monitoring and evaluation, local expertise and support – everything needed to deliver effective, sustainable, high-impact and meaningful change in a community.

Goat gifts, or any gift you purchase, will benefit the communities we support in our countries of operation: Bolivia, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda.

Goats purchased locally

Rest assured that when you give a goat it won’t be put in the cargo hold on Air Canada to be shipped from HERE to THERE. That’s not only cost prohibitive, inefficient and inhumane, but it also prevents local, sustainable economic development from happening. That’s the last thing we want to do.

Goat gifts are sourced and distributed through CFTC’s local partners in communities that are running agricultural income generation programs. That means goats will be bought locally and delivered to communities in Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda.

Goat Meat is a Staple of East and West African Diets

The value of goats is sometimes questioned based on the assumption that their primary value is for the milk they produce. People quite correctly raise the issue of high lactose-intolerance levels among Africans. In fact, goat meat is a staple in both East and West African diets. Therefore, goats are primarily used for their meat, not for their milk (at least, not in Canadian Feed The Children’s programs).

Training and Support is Included

Small family farms and individual families receive the goats we distribute. These goats are part of agricultural training and livelihoods programs that offer broad-based support. Goat gifts are distributed through Self-Help Groups and Village Savings and Loans Associations – microfinance programs that teach women effective animal care, raising, and breeding techniques as part of overall literacy and numeracy, business and marketing knowledge.

Community agricultural agents work with women and men to ensure that they have what they need to feed, house and sell their livestock. No one benefits if the recipient doesn’t know how to care for her goats and to grow her herd into a sustainable source of family income.

Printed cards sent within 48hrs, eCards sent instantly

You have three choices for cards: email, PDF (for printing at home), or print. If you choose a printed card, we can send the card by post to you or to your honouree, whichever you prefer.

While we can’t guarantee delivery time, your card will be processed and sent by mail within 48 hours of purchase and by email within one hour. Note that if you send an eCard you will be able to schedule its delivery for sometime in the future, e.g. on Christmas day or the card recipient’s birthday.

Includes a tax receipt

When you order a Christmas goat online, you will receive an immediate charitable tax receipt in PDF format by email. When you order a goat gift by phone, you can choose to receive an electronic receipt or have one mailed to you, usually within two weeks. Canadian Feed The Children’s charitable registration number is 11883 0983 RR0001. See the Government of Canada’s policy statement for charitable tax receipts for more information about charity tax receipts.

HST isn’t charged

When you give a goat it is considered a donation to Canadian Feed The Children, so no taxes are charged.