The Healesville Rotary Club raised funds for Kenyan Rotarian Father Jason Micheni to receive a Friesian cow as part of the club’s Milking Cow Project. Fr Jason is shown with Healesville Rotarian Wilma Best.
By Monique Ebrington
A DEPRIVED village in Kenya has become the latest community to benefit from the Healesville Rotary Club’s Milking Cow Project.
Club volunteers were busy over the festive season, raising money to send the Kenyan village a Friesian cow, in calf, and the materials need to build a cow shelter.
Rotarian Wilma Best said the cow was in the care of Kenyan Rotarian Father Jason Micheni, a village local who helps clothe and feed 50 orphans as well as 25 families in the village.
She said the cow provided roughly 15 litres of milk a day, enough to feed many orphans, and would allow Father Micheni to trade any surplus milk for other goods such as fresh vegetables.
Mrs Best has been in correspondence with Father Micheni and said that he was very appreciative of the donation from Healesville Rotary, individuals and the wider community.
“The public was very generous, there was almost as much money in donations as there was in ticket sales,” Mrs Best said.
“I have emailed Jason and he said their cow was giving them very good milk and that it would be a very big benefit to their community.”
While this is the first cow to Kenya, the Healesville club has been working with the Kampala Rotary Club in Uganda for four years as part of the Milking Cow Project.
Mrs Best said it’s the most needy widow in Kampala, who is caring for orphans, that receives a Friesian-cross cow that is in calf.
The Rotary Club of Healesville will be running a fundraising stall for the Milking Cow Project at the Healesville Racecourse harvest and craft market on Sunday 7 March.
