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Bill Whitmore and friend

Simple Gifts

Plenty of ways exist to help the struggling people of the world. But the best involve sustainability and self-reliance. Dairy goats and corrective treatment for clubfoot hardly belong in the same sentence. But this unlikely pairing has become a passionate mission for one St. Paul retired couple.

Bill and Kay Whitmore are just back from a visit to our congregation’s companion parish in Tanzania, East Africa. They have witnessed firsthand what happens with simple gifts: two dozen goats, an Iowa-born method for correcting clubfoot abnormalities, and sustainable training in animal care and healthcare.

Every person deserves the dignity of providing for themselves and their families. Goats mean a sustainable source of food and income. Some skill, patience, and plaster mean normal-functioning feet.

First the goats. In June 2007, the people of St. Paul pooled $10,555 in special giving to start a goat project in Tanzania through Heifer International. Bill Whitmore, a retired orthopedic surgeon who knows far more about bones than animal husbandry, became something of an expert on goats. We dubbed him our resident “goat-ologist.”

Our goat gifts eventually purchased 20 Nubian milk goats and four rams, plus the supervisory services of Stephen Kihoko from Heifer International.

And now 18 kids have been born, and they’re waiting to be matched with new farmers! The gift keeps giving.

Goats are just right for Tanzania. They thrive on the poor, dry land of Africa by eating grass and leaves. They can supply a family up to two quarts of nutritious milk a day. The extra can be sold or used to make cheese, butter, or yogurt. Families can use goat manure to fertilize gardens.

“The farmers learned to construct bandas (shelters), how to feed the goats, and care for them,” reports Bill. “Two of the farmers were sent to Arusha for two weeks of paravet (basic veterinary) training. We gave them a ride there. They assist the farmers in healthcare for the goats.”

The goat farmers all live in the Pare Mountains of the Bombo Lutheran Parish in the Pare Diocese of Tanzania. It’s rocky, steep terrain. Bill and Kay know, because they rode up the mountain, covered with dense green vegetation, with Todd Byerly to visit the Gonja Lutheran Hospital at the top. They stayed overnight in the guesthouse, known as the “Iowa House.”

In their visit to our sister parish at Bombo, Bill and Kay were warmly welcomed by Pastor Peter Nzalla. After a nearly-four-hour worship service, they met with the goat farmers and hiked up the mountain to visit two farms. “The goat bandas were hanging off the edge of the mountain,” recalls Kay. “They were tidy, with pigs and chickens running around. Most of the farmers are women” who are committed to this sustainable livelihood for their families. The project “is working beautifully.”

Their mountain hike convinced Bill and Kay that bicycles would help the paravets get from farm to farm. Some remaining St. Paul “goat funds” will make possible two bikes — along with continued vet training and goat medicine.

Now the clubfoot care. It’s sustainable too. And equally surprising in its simplicity and success. Fifty years ago at the University of Iowa, Bill learned from his professor, Dr. Ignacio Ponseti, a non-surgical method for correcting a congenital abnormality called clubfoot. In recent years, the Ponseti Method has become the “gold standard” in world health.

For children with clubfeet — some 200,000 born every year — this method involves stretching ligaments, applying a succession of plaster casts, and severing the Achilles tendon. In-country technicians can easily learn the several-week process. And when the final cast comes off, a child’s foot — and life — is on the path toward normal.

Bill has been part of clubfoot workshops in Tanzania, Rwanda, and soon Romania. By training local people, children benefit long after the American doctors depart. And a small industry of casts and braces benefits the local economy.

Kay and Bill shake their heads. “We’re on sensory overload,” says Kay of their African mission. But they have seen what happens with faith and simple gifts, goats and plaster casts.

Photos of Bill & Kay’s encounter with African goats>>

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"Pray for me that I do not loosen my grip on the hands of Jesus even under the guise of ministering to the poor." ~Mother Theresa