Rotarian Wilma Best, centre, with husband Bruce and the widow with her family.By Melissa Donchi
IN AUSTRALIA a cow is just another animal but in Uganda it can signify wealth, prosperity and long-term security.
So when The Rotary Club of Healesville donated a milking cow to a needy widow and her family in the small village of Munyonyo it was a life changing gift.
Rotarian Wilma Best was in Uganda as guest of honour at the Golden Jubilee of the Rotary Club of Kampala and to personally hand over the cow on behalf of the Rotary Club of Healesville as part of their International Humanitarian commitment.
“This was a very rewarding experience, to see the joy on the faces of the entire family,” Ms Best said.
“This lady lost her husband and six of her children to AIDS and now has to care for the 11 young ones including her orphaned grandchildren.”
Ms Best said as small as the gift may seem in Australian terms, it would actually provide a future for these people in Uganda.
“The people of the village of Munyonyo are deprived and the Rotary gift of a milking cow to this one family is making an enormous difference to their lives, giving a supply of milk, the excess of which may be sold providing a small income for food or other uses such as schooling for children,” she said.
The Rotary Club of Healesville worked in partnership with the Rotary Club of Kampala and other international and community committees on the difficult task of selecting just one family from a long list of needy people.
“An ideal objective would be to work towards providing a herd of cows for the village,” Ms Best said.
“But we are working one cow at a time for now.”
