Dark Past Giving Way to Bright Future
Blind Heifer participant forges new life for herself, large family
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| Monica Mulongoti, 42 poses with her large family outside of her home in Zambia. Having lost her sight as a child, Monica was forced to beg on the streets for survival. But now her life has improved greatly thanks to a Heifer gift. |
Copperbelt Province, Zambia – The man wouldn’t give the blind beggar woman any money or food. He told her begging would never really help because she would just need more the next day. She would be wise, he said, to ask one of farmers in the area to give her a few animals so she could earn her own living.
And earn her own living is exactly what Monica Mulongoti did.
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Monica, 42, wasn’t born blind. An untreated case of measles caused her to slowly lose her sight during childhood.
For much of her life, Monica lived at the Fisenge Blind Center outside the city of Luanshya. Conditions were very poor there; malnutrition was common, and Monica worried how she and her husband, Jackson, who is also blind would feed their 10 children.
Monica would often leave the center and travel from town to town, begging for money and food. But Monica says her stomach and heart were never satisfied. She yearned for a home of her own, a place where she could raise animals and grow crops.
Then one day a man on street gave her some life-changing advice. He said that instead of begging she should ask a farmer for some livestock. With an animal or two, the man said, Monica would have a good supply or milk and way to grow her own food.
Next to the blind center lived a fairly wealthy woman named Effatah Jele. Monica knew that Jele was a nurse, a dairy farmer and a caring person. Jele had recently given ten of her own cows to help the community start a Heifer project.
Feeling she had nothing to lose, Monica decided to do as the man said and as Jele for support, but, since Monica was notorious for begging, Jele refused. “If I give you something now you will always be troubling me,” she said.
But Monica wouldn’t give up.
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In 1999, Monica, joined by other families from the Fisenge Blind Center, asked Jele for assistance again. This time she listened to their stories and wept. Most of them had ten to twelve children and had buried two to three. After the meeting, Jele contacted Heifer, and it was soon decided to start a dairy goat project.
While awaiting their new animals, Monica and the other participants received training in animal husbandry, disease prevention and Heifer Cornerstones among others. The families also began building raised goat pens. These pens help keep the animals clean and healthy, and it allows farmers to collect the manure for use on their crops.
Though he was blind, Jackson has now designed and built several goat pens and cow sheds for his family and others.
People outside of the Heifer community were shocked that an organization would give blind families animals, but Monica had never doubted that her family would succeed. Since receiving their goats, the family members have established their own farm. They now grow their own crops and the goats provide enough income for the whole family to eat three meals a day.
Before this project, many villagers ignored the blind and made them feel like they didn’t exist, Monica said.
“They looked down on me before. Now they admire us a lot,” she said. “I am very happy and proud. I feel like ‘Yes, I exist.’”
Because of your support, Heifer can equip families like Monica’s with the tools they need to succeed. Heifer wants all those facing hunger and poverty to one day hold their heads up high and proudly proclaim “Yes, I exist.”
Find out how you can help struggling families lift themselves out of poverty
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