Aid agency Bóthar recommended as best practice by Rwandan Embassy

Bóthar model to be researched by joint Trinity College and UCD Masters programme

Aid agency dispatches another 30 in-calf heifers to Rwanda (30 Jan 2014) thanks to generosity of Irish donors

Aid agency Bóthar, who are greatly supported in Mayo, in one of their most ambitious programmes to date - the development of a €300,000 creamery in the impoverished Rusizi community in Rwanda - will be part of a major Trinity College and UCD study, it was announced on Tuesday January 28th.

Under their joint Masters in Development Practice programme, Trinity College and University College Dublin scholars will travel to Rusizi, Rwanda, on the Congolese border, to begin evaluating the impact of the Bóthar creamery. The joint Trinity and UCD Masters in Development Practice is part of a global association of Masters in Development Practice (MDP) headquartered at Columbia University in New York.

The study has come about after the Rwandan Government cited Bóthar as a ‘best practice' model in terms of development programmes to Course Coordinator of the MDP programme Dr. Susan Murphy.

Speaking from Roscrea Mart, Co. Tipperary where a €100,000 consignment of Irish in-calf dairy heifers left for Rwanda today, Dr Murphy said that while the formal analysis has yet to be done, all the indications are that the Bóthar development model is a huge success.

"When visiting the Rwandan Embassy last year, they suggested that Bóthar's model was an excellent example of development practice. They recommended we work with Bóthar in our research and here we are.

"We have yet to compile a formal impact evaluation but our feeling is that the Bóthar model may offer longer term benefits to the wider community than the short-term transfer of cash. Whether it is the placement of livestock with families or development of creamery projects, what Bóthar does seems to be a really good example of development aid.

"Such models can have multiplier effects on the wider community. They can encourage community links through engagement, develop social confidence, and support economic development. It also seems to work very well for those donating as it connects them with the project and the recipient community on a different human level. We are delighted that Masters students from TCD and UCD will have the opportunity to document and evaluate the success of the project with an independent eye."

The 30 in-calf Holstein Friesian heifers that departed Roscrea mart today will be sent to Rwamagana in Eastern Rwanda, which Bóthar is already earmarking for one of its future creamery projects. The creamery in Rusizi, Western Rwanda, set to be opened in March, was made possible through a €250,000 private commitment to Bóthar.

Said Bóthar founder and CEO Peter Ireton, "Together with our partners, we have spent the last three months providing the necessary animal husbandry training to the recipient families. There is huge excitement there now as this is the greatest gift these families will ever get.

"One of the real strengths of what we do is that recipient families agree to pass on the first born female calf so within the space of a few months of these in-calf heifers arriving, a host of new families will also benefit from the generosity of the Irish people."

While the local community does have some of its own cattle breeds, the milk yield from the Irish cows will be 20 times better, Ireton said.

Such has been the success of the Bóthar project in Rusizi that the creamery will become an export industry by selling milk and milk products into the Congelese city of Bukavu, across the Rusizi River.

"Congo has diamonds, gold, all sorts of minerals, but what they are crying out for is the white gold -milk. And the community of Rusizi, thanks to the creamery and the Irish cows supplying it, will be happy to export it to them. We believe this type of success can be replicated elsewhere. It's all about empowering the communities," Ireton added.