“When the leaders of my village nominated me to participate in the ECHO training, I was excited. I haul and sell water to my fellow villagers using my two pairs of donkeys and oxen for the business, so I was needing this training.

Before the training I had already had a few ideas to develop an improved donkey cart. The training has put me in a right way. My farmland is small — about 1 acre, and I plant different crops: maize, beans and elephant grass. I use my pair of oxen to till my farm and also reach out to my fellow farmers who usually pay me for tilling their land. All technologies that were developed during the training, such as ox yokes, harnesses, and donkey carts, are going to support my livelihood significantly. 

The donkey cart can be pulled by only one donkey with such great efficiency; this was really amazing to me. Before the training I thought that donkeys have strong necks but through the training I learned that their strength is in their chest, and they should not bear yokes but should wear collars.

I have determined that after this training I am going to use the skills I gained to make my own technologies. I can make these collars and yokes for my animals and also sell them to my fellow farmers."