Over the past two years the famous goats of Fairview in Paarl have started moving into Africa. The latest batch is heading for the Caprivi border town of Katima Mulilo, to help start a stud to sustain HIV-AIDS orphans and children orphaned by the pandemic.

This follows a protracted operation over several months to get the necessary permits and licenses from the Namibian and South African authorities and organise transport for the 2 800km overland journey.

A plea from an independent missionary couple, who are in the process of setting up a village to house 50 of these children, triggered this exercise.

Rebecca Mink, who together with her husband Gary and their two children whom they adopted while working in Ghana for seven years sent letters to 20 farmers and organisations and the only response she received was from Charles Back, who owns the leading cheese and wine farm in the Cape.

A British Alpine billy, five British Alpine does and two Saanen does have just been safely delivered to their new home in the far reaches of Namibia.

Fairview farm manager, Donald Mouton, set the wheels in motion organising all the permits, inoculations and other red tape, while a local transport company, Besfeld Transport, contributed by safely ferrying the goats as far as Windhoek for free.

Gary Mink collected them for the second half of the journey to their new home, attracting comments whenever he stopped for fuel along the way from locals marvelling at the size of the imported animals.

It was also a learning experience for the 12 toddlers and children of employees who daily attend a crèche on Fairview. They were taught about where the goats were going to and how they would be helping the children who needed the milk from the goats.

The Minks, who have been operating in Katima Mulilo for nearly 2 years, already have 24 children in the their Children of Zion Village and are expecting another three or four in the next week. They have unfortunately also lost two to Aids already and feel the problems were exacerbated by malnutrition.

They also provide a meal a day for 100 children in Katima Mulilo, which is a drop in the ocean. There are an estimated 4 000 orphaned children in the Caprivi as a result of this AIDS/HIV pandemic.

Establishing a good goat milk herd is a major priority in the attempts to overcome malnutrition.

Rebecca, who bred Angora goats in the USA, said they started a similar exercise in Ghana with goats imported from the USA and had learned a great deal about operating in primitive tropical conditions.

"It was not like raising goats back home, here you have a whole range of different problems to consider such as inoculating against diseases we would not have dreamed about, as well as goats dying from snake bites and scorpion stings.

"We want to use these goats as part of a breeding programme using the hardy local goats, together with these high production animals to create a viable herd started, said Rebecca.

During the past two years about 140 goats from Fairview, which has the largest Saanen herd outside of Switzerland, have also been sold to commercial farming operations in Uganda and Zambia.

For further information regarding the Children of Zion Village, please contact Rebecca at gmink@mweb.com.na or telephone 09264 (0)66 252438.