Last week I got to visit a Dairy Cooperative, and had a great chance to talk with the board of this group of 300 women who have been able to improve their livelihoods and lives through the cooperative system that Land O'Lakes has introduced over the past few years. The women have a tank (made in Wisconsin) that stores 1400 liters of milk, and so every morning and evening they bring their milk to the center and every night it is sent on to the processing facility in town. I was quite impressed with the record keeping and business sense and how these women were doing so much to provide for their families. The men work more on coffee in this region, but it has not been nearly as profitable or predictable in price in comparison to dairy.
We also made a stop to see Josephine who was recently widowed, but has been able to provide for her family through the three cows and one calf that she keeps. It was wonderful to get to see in person the kind of work that USDA is supporting through the Tanzanian Dairy Development Program (see my blog post on launching this program).
SWAHILI WORD OF THE DAY: dairy and milk are both translated as "maziwa"
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