Congo Animal Traction Initiative - CATI

At the invitation of community leaders in Congo, CATI (Congo Animal Traction Initiative) is working to re-introduce ox powered farming to Congo's Equateur province. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a Country located in central of Africa. Congo has seen a tremendous growth of poverty since the devastation of second Congo war in 1996-2003. Previous efforts to introduce ox-powered farmin

g to the area were destroyed by the war. The average person in this region depends on agriculture,
but poverty has increased to the point that people live without adequate food or clothing. Malnutrition is common in most families. Agriculture today in Equateur is done by hand and does not produce enough for the farmers to lift their families out of back-breaking poverty. Animal traction, when fully established, would produce an agricultural and economic revolution for the province, providing a way out of poverty, greatly improving people's health and well being. CATI is working in partnership with Tillers International (tillersinternational.org) to establish a Congolese ox powered farming program. Based in the US, Tillers operates successful animal traction training centers in Mozambique and Uganda. May Sanguma is traveling to DRC in January 2014 to begin laying the foundations for a Congolese program. He will meet with funding organizations, farmers and local authorities to discuss this program. As part of this trip he will be visiting a similar successful program run by Tillers International in Uganda to learn from that program.