A goat park at Darbonne hands out one pregnant doe at a time

Global Health Action, a small American organisation, has run a goat programme in the countryside around Leogane since the late 1980s. Its Haitian staff buy local creole does and breed them to an improved buck, usually a pure Boer, on the theory that the crossed kids are hardier, wean earlier and grow bigger. Every four to six weeks zone leaders pick new participants, who come to the goat park at Darbonne for two days of instruction in feeding, grooming and basic veterinary care. At the end each person draws a numbered tag and takes home the pregnant doe that matches it. The one firm condition is that the household own no goats already. Zone leaders keep bucks and can deworm and vaccinate. Participants are meant to build a herd, sell animals for school fees, food or medicine, and give one kid back. Over twenty five years the programme reached about four thousand households.