Bekelu's Journey with Project Mercy's Dairy Program

Bekelu, a member of the community, was selected as one of the beneficiaries to acquire a Jersey breed cow through Project Mercy's program. She purchased the cow from Project Mercy for a price of 4,000 Birr. Bekelu received the cow when it was three months pregnant, and it has given birth to a male calf.

While Bekelu is grateful for the birth of the calf, she expresses that she would have benefited more if it had been a female calf. Female calves would have allowed her to engage in selling dairy products. Despite this, Bekelu diligently cares for her cow and feeds it frushka, a type of grass in the Yetebon region. Currently, the cow is able to produce a modest amount of milk, providing around five liters per day. While this output doesn't reach the nine liters a day yielded by the Jersey breed, the cow does give several times more than the 1.5-liter daily output from native Ethiopian breeds.