The Amazing and Empowering Impact of Chickens and Goats

It’s that time of year again when Gospel for Asia (GFA) and many other faith-based organizations (FBO) publish their Christmas gift catalogs. Two of the seemingly ubiquitous gifts available are chickens and goats.

I know what you are thinking. “Chickens and goats? How can chickens and goats really have any impact?” Altruistically speaking, we tend to see more value in things like Bibles, blankets, sewing machines, pull carts or rickshaws. I know this because I had thought that way for years. I was wrong.

My mistake was that I was perceiving the value of chickens and goats from a Western worldview. A chicken has little value to me, and my neighbors would not appreciate me owning a goat (nor would the Home Owners Association by-laws permit it).


Consider, however, the value of chickens or goats for a family living in generational poverty in Asia. When you have absolutely nothing, a couple of chickens or goats is a big deal. They are gifts that can be life-altering.

GFA’s Christmas Gift Catalog says:

“The gift of chickens supplements a family’s income and often helps a family get on its feet financially. Families can eat or sell the nutritious eggs, or they can hatch chicks to increase their flock and later have more eggs and chicks to sell. These birds of a feather multiply quickly, taste just like chicken and are really ‘cheep!'”

Another FBO says:

“With a pair of chickens and a goat, you’ll provide a steady supply of eggs, milk, and protein to feed children and help families . . . Chickens are equally easy to raise and will naturally multiply to impact generations of children.”

If this sounds like marketing propaganda, think again. The Population Council is an international, not-for-profit NGO that was established in 1952 by John D. Rockefeller III with funds primarily from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The Council conducts programs to the most vulnerable people in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. It conducts detailed research to ensure the effectiveness of their programs.

“Because our objective is to transform one community at a time… We help them to realize that there is hope for every man, woman and child in that community.”

Would you believe that the Population Council conducted a study that demonstrated the impact of chickens and goats?

They did.

In addition to addressing the overarching issue of poverty, the project focused specifically on developing sustainable approaches to help delay childhood marriage.

That raises another question. How can giving chickens and goats help reduce childhood marriages?

The plan was to offer chickens or goats to families as the significant, empowering element of the program. It had already been apparent that education alone was inadequate to change the cultural mindset or the dilemma faced by families with insufficient resources that, therefore, would sell their daughters into a forced marriage.

The empowerment to effectively reduce childhood marriage was the gifting of chickens and goats.


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