Beatrice's Goat Fed A Dream

Bob Simon Reports On A Girl From Uganda Who Made It To A Prep School In America

(CBS)  Along with the goats, Heifer sent a cameraman to Kisinga to shoot film of young Beatrice’s life. At 9, she was performing adult chores, and yearning desperately to attend school. But her family, one of the poorest in Kisinga, just couldn't afford it.

It seemed as though Beatrice would always be on the outside looking in. But she says she kept bugging her parents: "I was very impassioned. Want to go to school. I really wanted to go to school."

Enter her goat. The Heifer goats are bred to produce prodigious amounts of milk. After struggling for years just to feed her kids, Beatrice’s mother was able to sell enough goat’s milk to finally send Beatrice, then 10, to the local school.

From there, she won a scholarship to a high school in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Then, she went on to prep school in New England, where it turns out, her biggest adjustment was winter.

"[It was] ridiculously cold. It was really cold. Like negative 30 degrees," recalls Beatrice. "And 20 inches of snow. That has never occurred to me in my life."

But seasons change, and for the first time in her life, Beatrice learned how to play tennis. She might never make it to Wimbledon, but she’s pretty smart and won an award for general excellence. Not bad for a kid who grew up with her parents and seven brothers and sisters in a tin-roofed shack in Africa, with an outhouse nearby.

Did the American kids have any idea where she was from? Or what kind of life she lived before going to school?

"No, they didn't know. Most of them actually look at me and maybe thought I was African-American. So, I started to tell them my story. I didn't tell all of it, but I told them I grew up in a very, very poor village. And, I'm trying to transition from that kind of life to this one," says Beatrice.

"They were very good. But most of them were amazed, really amazed at my story."

Beatrice took 60 Minutes to her old school, the one she couldn’t afford to attend until that goat came into her life. She says the school hasn’t changed much since she went there.

In fact, it looks as though it hasn’t changed in a century. There are hardly any books or pencils. And they still teach kids how to weave straw mats. It’s a skill that Beatrice is still pretty good at. But then again, she was a natural at everything in school.

She says it didn't take long for her to catch up with other kids her age. "I was very eager to go to school," recalls Beatrice. "Even when I got there, I made sure that I did extra work, extra homework, extra help, how to read, how to write. And I made it pretty quick."

Beatrice made it all the way to Connecticut College on a scholarship.

Having tasted the good life at prep school in America, Beatrice remains grateful, but not seduced. Despite her success in this country, she says she’ll never abandon Africa.

"There's so much poverty here. There's AIDS. There are so many wars. And you're in a position to escape it. Do you want to escape it," asks Simon. "To escape all the hardship of Africa?"

"I'm not trying to run away from all of these hardships," says Beatrice. "What I'm talking about is having the necessary things that you would need to live comfortably and survive. That's what matters to me."

In Beatrice’s world, goats are for sharing. You get a goat, and you share your goat’s offspring with one of your neighbors. It’s done in a ritual called “Passing on the Gift.”

60 Minutes witnessed that ritual in Kisinga. The descendants of Heifer’s original 12 goats were being passed from families lucky enough to have had them to other families in desperate need.

Once, Beatrice was on the receiving end of this charity, and she’s not about to forget it. What is her dream 10 years from now?

"I would love to see myself forming maybe a school for children who are disadvantaged," says Beatrice.

"Or maybe an orphanage, and maybe a farm with cows or goats, and giving those children milk. And I'd love to see them get healthier, all by my work."

With all the money donated to help fight famine around the world, with all the grandiose plans conceived to conquer poverty, sometimes all it takes to save a child is a goat. If you don’t believe that, come to Kisinga.