Bill Gates launches chicken plan to help Africa poor

The World Richest Man, Bill Gates

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

At the launch of the campaign in New York, Mr Gates said: "These chickens are multiplying on an ongoing basis so there's no investment that has a return percentage anything like being able to breed chickens."

The UN has the report that some 800 people are living in abject poverty wordwild and 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).

He added that the goal was to help 30% of the rural families in sub-Saharan Africa raise improved breeds of vaccinated chickens, up from the current 5%.

What else has Bill Gates done?

• The Bill and and Melinda Gates Foundation has given $36bn to fund health, development and education projects.

• Has contributed to numerous projects in research about Aids, Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis, among others.

• Has supported technology projects including an initiative to provide clean water from human faeces and another to create high-tech toilets in poor areas.

• But it has seen failures too, as with InBloom, an educational project aimed at recording students' data, which shut down in 2014.

• Critics also say some of the foundation's projects are of difficult large-scale implementation or have faced local rejection.

Credit: BBC News

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