Animal Health Promotion

The Mdukatshani Rural Development Project in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has been providing farmer support and training for more than 50 years. Children and young people play an important role in livestock care and Mdukatshani has developed programmes to facilitate their involvement.

These started with story-telling to enable children to document their knowledge, ideas and experiences of caring for chicken, goats and cows.

Over several years, bi-lingual (English and Zulu) illustrated books were co-created with the children to share these stories. The books are used in several schools in Animal Health Promotion Clubs. They support a range of learning outcomes and affirm children’s expertise in agriculture .

The image shows one of two sets of books produced by the project for Grade 5 and Grade 6 learners. Deborah co-facilitated the story-telling workshops, wrote the storylines and activities in consultation with the children and staff, and edited the English stories.

The ebooks are available free. More information  www.mdukatshani.com