As Bóthar looks to its plans for 2025, its interim CEO Áilish O’Reilly said that Bóthar has to own its history, the good and the bad.

Last year was “about finding out what people want. When the project first started in 1991, it grew out of the idea that this would be a great thing to do, and it was. It didn’t grow out of an identified need”.

“We’ve spent time in 2024 looking to see what is the identified need among our partners, and can we continue to meet it, and do people want to continue to meet that?

And the feedback has been ‘Yes’. We have engaged with stakeholders, both in Ireland and overseas, and we’ve moved into that space now where it’s felt, yes, we should continue. Yes, there is a need for the work that we do, and there is a desire for us to keep doing the work that we do”.

“The question of the name of Bóthar, it fits the work that we do, and that’s why we’ve stayed with it. It’s better that Bóthar owns its history, the good and the bad. By changing the name, we might lose an awful lot, and the good far outweighs the bad,” she told the Irish Farmers Journal.

What steps have been taken to reassure the farming community that Bóthar can be trusted? “In April 2024, we declared 100% compliance to the governance code.

Within the farming community, people are very positive, and they understand that change has happened. We will hear negative stories because it’s easy to put them out there.

"And we have our strategic plan, we have our operational plan. We changed account auditors, and the accounts are on our website, up to date, and will be posted on the website again at the end our financial year end in June.

“We have made a concerted effort to be more present on social media and more generally in the media, to let people know what’s happening in Bóthar.

We’re currently undergoing an independent evaluation of the organisation’s governance and compliance.

“There is a criminal case ongoing, so we don’t comment on the particulars of matters before the courts. Within the farming community, people are very positive, and they understand that change has happened. We will hear negative stories because it’s easy to put them out there.

“But when people see what impact they’ve had by something that you did back in 2019, where a family in Rwanda was put on their economic feet.

They’ve been able to send people to school, they’ve started a business, they can buy food, they can pay for health. It’s wonderful to think that through an organisation like Bóthar, you can have that impact on many people.

“That’s the impact Bothar is having, in Rwanda, in Kosovo, and everywhere we operate countries. To come into someone’s life and say, ‘Here, I’m going to give you this gift that’s going to, you know, change your whole outlook’.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the problems in the world, but I would say, ‘look at what you’ve done here’.

“So it impacts positively for the families receiving cows from Ireland, but also on the people who support that gift,” O’Reilly said.

How can people help?

There are a huge number of ways farmers can get involved, O’Reilly said.

“They can donate a heifer calf or yearling they can rear a calf. They can donate an in-calf heifer, or they can financially assist the rearing of any of those animals and the transportation of them.

“We shipped 61 in-calf heifers in October 2024, it would be great to ship another 60 in October 2025.

“At the moment, we have funding capacity for 30. If we get the funding, we’ll be able to ship, it costs about €900 to ship each in-calf heifer.

“People can go to Facebook and see the video and photos demonstrating the high quality of the conditions the animals enjoy in transit, the whole process is very transparent.

Precious cargo

“These are very precious animals to the families receiving them, and to the family donating them.

“Maybe that family has spent two years raising the animal, we’re not letting it fall down at the last stage.

“We’re going to make sure they arrive in the best possible condition.

“It costs €1,900 to sponsor an in-calf heifer, when you add the cost of rearing to the cost of transportation.”

What are the plans for the year ahead?

This year Bóthar is planning projects in Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda Zambia, and Kosovo.

“It can start with a calf. Some people raise a calf, some donate a calf. We have capacity to take in 10 calves in our Open Prison project.

“But we’re also doing a new thing this year, because we talked to Loughan House (the open prison in Cavan) about the challenges of feeding and keeping animals over the winter, so they haven’t and now we have space to take in 10 yearling heifers.

“If somebody wants to give an animal but didn’t have the capacity to raise it, we could take that animal and raise it for them.

“Or if they wanted to sponsor an animal, we could source and buy an animal and raise it. So we’re trying to give more options.

“That project we have with the Irish Prison Service also has a lot of value, it brings back a certain amount of self-esteem to the people that participate in that project, so we’d like to keep that going.”