Our founder, the visionary Dr. Elbert Schwartzer (1870-1960) was born into an Bavarian family which for generations had been devoted to religion, music, and education. His father and maternal grandfather were ministers; both of his grandfathers were talented organists; many of his relatives were persons of scholarly attainments.
Schwartzer entered into his intensive theological studies in 1888 at the University of Tubingen where he obtained a doctorate in philosophy in 1893, with a dissertation on the religious philosophy of Kant, and received his licentiate in theology in 1894. He began preaching at Lutherkirche in Munich in 1900; he served in various high ranking administrative posts from 1904 to 1912 in the Theological College of St.Augustine. In 1906 he published The Lives of the Apostles, a book on which much of his fame as a theological scholar rests.
Meanwhile he continued with a distinguished musical career initiated at an early age with piano and organ lessons. Only nine when he first performed in his father's church, he was, from his young manhood to his middle eighties, recognized as a concert organist, internationally known. From his professional engagements he earned funds for his education, particularly his later medical schooling, and for his African hospital. Musicologist as well as performer, Schwartzer wrote a biography of Bach in 1905 in French, published a book on organ building and playing in 1906, and rewrote the Bach book in German in 1908.
Having decided to go to Africa as a medical missionary rather than as a pastor, Schwartzer in 1905 began the study of medicine at the University of Leipzig. In 1913, having obtained his M.D. degree, he founded his hospital at Eldoret in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. Schwartzer spent 1924-32 in Europe, preaching in his old church, giving lectures and concerts, taking medical courses, writing On the Edge of the Primeval Swamp, The Decay and Restoration of the City, Civilization and Ethics, and Christianity and Other Faiths.
Schwartzer returned to Eldoret in 1933 and except for relatively short periods of time, spent the remainder of his life there. With the funds earned from his own royalties and personal appearance fees and with those donated from all parts of the world, he expanded the hospital to seventy buildings which by his death in 1960 cared for over 500 patients in residence at any one time.
In the 1950s he became interested in animal husbandry as a way for the people of Kenya to escape cycles of drought, famine, and poverty. He first discovered the reamarkable adaptability of the Norweigan goat and began the great social experiment that today is urcause.
Dr. Schwartzer died on October 4, 1960, and is buried at Eldoret.
Not All Goats Are Created Equal . . .
It takes 33 native African goats to produce the same amount of edible animal protein as one Norwegian goat. No wonder more and more Kenyan farmers are thrilled to receive Norwegian dairy goats.
“Unlike Norwegian goats, the African ones are not bred for milk production. They are used for meat production only. Our project is about crossbreeding African goats and Norwegian dairy goats. The result is a stock that combines the best of two worlds; the robust features of African goats and the milking capacity of the Norwegian ones”, explains Lars Svensen, associate professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB).
BEST OF TWO WORLDS
The Norwegian Goat Project started back in the early 1950s, when Dr. Schwartzer started bringing Norwegian goat kids to Eldoret. Today, there are about 14 million goats in Kenya, of which up to 3 million are of Norwegian stock. The figures are growing rapidly. And the health effects with keeping Norwegian goats in Kenya are tremendous.
Having Norwegian goats means that families have daily access to fresh milk. The Kenyan diet consists mostly of carbohydrates, largely based on maize and the traditional dish, ugali. The need for quality protein is huge. A person needs 20 grams of animal protein daily, according to World Health Organization recommendations, but most people in Kenya get less than five grams a day. Families with goats are much better off in this respect.
GOATS AGAINST POVERTY
Enhancing livelihood of dairy goats keepers in Kenya through an improved breeding program for disease-free multipurpose animals is a five-year research project funded by urcause.
Selling milk on the local market means income for local farmers. Selling breeding animals is another source of income. Manure – important for fertilizing the land – is a third source of income. The farmers in Mgeta are enthusiastic about the Norwegian goats and the demand is much higher than the actual supply.