Children ridding a Donkey Cart somewhere in South Sudan - courtesy

A Swiss-based Vètèrinaires Sans Frontiéres has donated donkeys to young South Sudanese working in small scale transport and water sector to improve their living standard.

In some parts of South Sudan, donkeys and horses provide alternative labor-serving solutions, transportation of agricultural produces, general merchandise and water for marketing and household use.

Currently, the agency is supporting improved food security, livelihoods, donkey and horse Welfare, their health and management in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State and Juba County.

This is part of the BROOKE East Africa-funded project, also known as “Improving Equine welfare and health care systems, livelihoods and resilience of equine dependent communities in South Sudan”.

However, it is not clear how many donkeys the agency has distributed to young people in the project locations.

Dr. Kevin Miheso, the VSF-S Country Programme Manager says they are also supporting donkeys and Horses get access to healthcare in the country.

“We do support people who depends on these animals by supporting these animals get access to healthcare,” Dr. Kevin told Eye Radio on Wednesday.

“Also messaging around information dissemination particularly on how they are supposed to take care of these animals and ensure that the welfare, well-being and husbandry practices are ensured,

“We do support some beneficiaries with donkeys and usually this is part of our program whereby we support people for example the youth who usually work in the water sector or in transport of goods,

“We give them some donkeys and also some donkey …… which can be a critical income generating activity for them but also train them on how they can be able to take care of these animals as well.”

VSF-S is an international NGOs that fights hunger, poverty, illness and destitution among the vulnerable populations whose livelihoods are dependent on livestock in South Sudan.