Beatrice Birra
Praise for the goat that changed a life
A YOUNG African woman whose success story became the subject of a best-selling children’s book and who also featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show travelled to Ireland yesterday to thank a Co Limerick goat farmer who made it all possible.
Beatrice Birra was born 20 years ago into one of the poorest families in the Ugandan village of Kissinga.
CBS photo
Beatrice always dreamed of going to school but her family simply couldn’t afford it.
But in 1992 the family’s fortunes changed after they received an Irish dairy goat as part of a shipment sent to Africa by Bothar, the Third World development organisation.
Catherine Sheehan, a goat farmer from Hospital in Co Limerick helped organise Bothar’s first ever shipment.
Beatrice’s mother was able to sell enough goat’s milk to finally send Beatrice, then 10, to school.
From there, Beatrice won a scholarship to a high school in Kampala before studying in New England. She is now on a scholarship at Connecticut College. She met Catherine Sheehan on her farm yesterday. “It’s really nice to come to Ireland to thank the woman who helped make it all possible for me,” she said. .
Beatrice was invited on to the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2002, and her story is featured in the best-selling children’s book ‘Beatrice’s Goat’ by Page McBrier.
Kathryn Hayes
