Samaritan’s Purse livelihoods programs remind refugees displaced by violence that God sees them, loves them, and is working through His people to restore their hope and future.
Ismail guides his five whining goats to a post where he ties them up. He then walks his garden rows in peace, without fear the beasts will destroy his crops in a hungry frenzy. There is wire fence on three sides of the garden and on a fourth side a tall wall built of large bricks made of red clay.
The goats help the garden and the garden helps the goats. They provide him with a source of rich fertilizer for his plants.
Inside the garden, Ismail smiles as he points out highlights of his plot, including mango trees, okra, and kale. While still hitched to the post, the goats begin eating garden scraps that their owner has placed at their hooves. There is relative quiet as bleating turns to chewing sounds.
The garden clippings are an easy way of feeding his prized animals with nutritive food. In turn, goat droppings create powerful fertilizer for Ismail’s garden.
Ismail and other refugees from Sudan are benefiting from Samaritan’s Purse programming in Ajuong Thok, South Sudan, that teaches them about both goats and gardens. They are learning how to care for the goats and encourage them to reproduce. They also learn how to harvest the goats’ milk as a rich source of protein and other nutrients without depriving the kid goats.
In addition, Samaritan’s Purse has also provided the families with seeds and equipment, a shared training plot, and instruction in planting and growing practices for growing and sustaining a kitchen garden. This gives participants all they need to grow their gardens, feed their families (and a little for the goats, too), and sell the rest for income.
Ismail is watching his garden flourish in the arid sahel land of Ajuong Thok refugee camp in the far north of South Sudan.
Last year, we started Ismail out with only two young goats. Those now grown goats have given him three more, and the male of his young herd has given other families some goat offspring as well. Turning to the garden, seedlings have already burst into flourishing crops of okra and other vegetables.
The region’s climate makes it possible to plant and harvest year-round. The natural compost and fertilizer produced by the goats are an integral part of preparing and replenishing the soil for each planting-harvest cycle.
“The goats eat everything,” Ismail says. “But they also feed the garden with their droppings, so in that way they give back what they have eaten.”
The soil health on his small growing plot is of vital importance for planting fruit trees, which Samaritan’s Purse also provided last year. The fruit offers a complex of vitamins and other nutrients to supplement the diets of developing brains, like those of Ismail’s children.
Fleeing War, Finding Hope
Though not that far from Sudan’s southern border, it takes days to walk to Ajuong Thok from the Nuba Mountains, Ismail’s homeland, where communities have, sadly, been targeted for decades by brutal militias, government forces, and other armed groups.
The goats that Samaritan’s Purse provided to Ismail have also helped neighboring families flourish. His male goat helped nearby neighbor Sarah’s goats multiply as well.
Rough-made barrel bombs were rolled out of cargo doors. Cluster bombs dropped from military jets. Artillery rounds screamed across miles of hills. Some bombs had parachutes attached for slow precision. Many people died instantly, but some did not.
Fleeing a spate of violence in 2013, Ismail traveled with a small caravan of 15 family members–parents, aunts, uncles, cousins.
Ten years isn’t long enough to forget the horrors, of course, but Ismail is learning how to create a different experience with more joyful memories now that he has children of his own. He holds them close but is also able to consider the future.
He wants them to learn the way people live when they’re at peace, and being able to provide this gift for his children is one of the greatest gifts he’s ever received. The thriving goats, garden, and trees provided by Samaritan’s Purse all serve as a practical beginning to build toward a better future.
Through the work of Samaritan’s Purse in Ajuong Thok, fathers like Ismail and their families are also learning of the ultimate hope found only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our staff are able to remind still hurting people that they aren’t left to suffer and survive on their own. As we serve them in Jesus’ Name to provide for basic needs, we remind them that God has not forgotten them.
Then our staff are able to walk alongside them with long-term programs that offer them a glimpse of a future of promise.
“We have found safety here, so we have goats,” Ismail said. “We grow okra and kale and also fruit trees. I want my children to grow up learning about agrarian practices. I want them to watch the mango tree grow.
“I want them to eat the fruit for good nutrition. I want them to be able to sit in its shade if we are still here years from now. I want to send them to school with the money I get from the goats and the garden. I want them to have these things that are only possible during a time of peace. I did not grow up in peace like this.”
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Psalm 23:5).
