Living in Livestock Legacies

If you’re a regular reader of e:Link, you’ll know that our Links Africa Hub is based at the Peacemakers site in Kenya. The legacy of Peacemakers continues to shape the community around the hub and inspire the people who work there.

For more than 20 years, Peacemakers has pioneered creative and impactful community projects. One of the very first initiatives Links partnered on was memorably named Cows for Kenya! Families in need were given an inseminated cow along with training in animal husbandry. The results were transformative: households gained access to fresh milk, while calves or bulls could be reared, sold, or even gifted back to the site to restart the cycle.

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Projects like these—often called “Two for One” initiatives—are now common practice in community development worldwide. And in 2024, Links began expanding this vision of community and site-based projects designed to empower, equip, and generate income. Which brings us to the exciting news: Cows for Kenya is back!

This time, the focus is on high-yielding dairy cows. At the end of September, we welcomed the beautiful Pauline the 3rd, who marks the beginning of our dairy production at the site. But this project is about far more than milk—it’s about innovation in farming. By combining modern techniques with sustainable practices, we aim to create a model that generates income while caring for both people and the environment.

Some of the innovations include:

• 🌱 Sustainable feeds using miracle moss (Azolla), which regenerates on ponds every 7 days
• ☀️ Solar-powered milking pumps to standardise and maximise milk production
• ♻️ Organic compost manure from cow byproducts
• 🌾 Collective community fodder growing to reduce environmental strain on land use

And in the near future, we plan to add:

• 🔥 Biogas production to fuel the site kitchen
• 🧀 Value-added dairy products such as yogurt and cheese

These practices will not only benefit the site but will also be shared with surrounding farmers, offering training in sustainable livestock management.

We are thrilled to see this project take shape alongside our dedicated team and community-based partners. The potential legacy of this initiative is enormous—not just for the site, but for the wider community and our African partners who will learn from it and build a livestock legacy of their own in more communities.