I wanted to give everyone an update on the funds going towards the victims of Agent Orange.

In December Bruce Montgomery and an Australian contingent made the trip to Vietnam….and David’s commentary can be found below

On December 1 2011 the Trust handed over another 35 cows to families in the Hong Trung commune in A Luoi district west of Hue. It brings to 150 the number of cows that we have bought with money raised since 2007. Before that, we had delivered 30 wheelchairs to Agent Orange victims in and around A Luoi. Altogether now we have helped people in five communes.
Twelve donors travelled from Australia for the latest handover ceremony. We were joined by researchers from the School of Agricultural Science at the University of Tasmania and the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Hue. They have a joint interest in the breed of cattle that the Trust uses, yellow cattle (but which we refer to as Orange Cows).
This time the cattle arrived in three small trucks, which was better logistically in terms of getting them offloaded than one big truck as in the past. Usually we have sourced cattle from North Vietnam and that has involved a long drive to the communes. These were locally sourced.
As usual, the local people’s commune, this time at Hong Trung, selected the families to receive cows. At 9.30 am, when we arrived from Hue and after a round of speeches, the recipients drew lots to determine which of the 35 cows they received. The cows were then offloaded, one by one. It is less than perfect. The cows are tense after the truck journey; there is no cattle ramp; the villagers have only a halter to try to control their animal. It would be preferable for the cattle to arrive ahead of time, be corralled together and then distributed. The infrastructure for doing that does not exist in any of the communes so far, but it is one of the many issues on which we will take advice, particularly from Professor Ba at the University of Hue and Dr David Parsons from the University of Tasmania.
We also have to ensure that the training the recipients receive beforehand is comprehensive and Professor Ba has offered his help with that.
It is appropriate that we evaluate the success of the program to date. We will do that by surveying the communes where we have delivered the cows over the past years, using animal science students to interview recipients to find out what has happened since the arrival of their cows. We want a clear picture of the success and any issues. Weather here is an issue and it is vital that the cattle have ongoing clean, dry shelter and that they have the right fodder, access to water, etc.
We hope to be able to start the survey sometime after March. We will use the findings to optimise the way we manage and monitor projects in the future.