Bill Gates launches chicken plan to help Africa poor | Animals

Bill Gates launches chicken plan to help Africa poor

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9 Jun ’16 - 9:07 am

Wonder how this is going to work out, article brings up some valid concerns

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has launched a campaign to help extremely poor families in sub-Saharan Africa by giving them chickens.

The billionaire and philanthropist says raising and selling the birds can be efficient to tackle extreme poverty.

He has promised to donate 100,000 chickens, and the project's page has already been shared thousands of times.

The UN estimates that 41% of people in sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme poverty.

Mr Gates said a farmer breeding five hens could earn more than $1,000 (£690) a year. The poverty line is about $700 (£484).

more http://www.bbc.com/n.....a-36487536

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18 Jun ’16 - 7:34 am

lol, Bolivia mad

Bill Gates has done a lot of good for the world since stepping down as CEO of Microsoft. The Gates Foundation, a charitable organization he founded with his wife Melinda, brings portions of their massive fortune to worthwhile causes, like fighting AIDS and malaria, and creating access to clean drinking water and financial services. But one recent initiative hasn’t gone down so well.

On June 7, Gates announced that he would donate 100,000 chickens to impoverished nations worldwide, a gesture that was quickly greeted with derision by at least one country. According to The Financial Times(paywall), the government of Bolivia is calling Gates’s donation “offensive”:

On June 15, César Cocarico, the country’s minister of land and rural development, told journalists:

[Gates] does not know Bolivia’s reality to think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce. Respectfully, he should stop talking about Bolivia, and once he knows more, apologize to us.

Gates introduced his chicken-distribution idea in a blog post, explaining that chickens are a renewable source of protein useful to people in extreme poverty. His post focused on sub-Saharan Africa, and did not specifically mention Bolivia as a recipient nation, so it’s unclear how Bolivia found itself ear-marked for free poultry. Quartz has reached out to Gates’s team and will update this post with any relevant information.

more http://qz.com/709506/bill-gates-tries-to-give-away-chickens-bolivia-says-it-already-has-a-lot-of-chickens/