Heifer International was recently announced as a winner in the first round of Best Practices and Innovations Initiative from InterAction, a coalition of more than 150 humanitarian organizations. A Heifer Zambia project received the award for Livestock Production and Gender Integration. The project, Women Farmers Building Community Resilience through Harnessing Crops and Livestock, seeks “to overcome gender-based discrimination and gender stereoptyping in terms of access to resources and ownership of livestock.” (Read the full project brief.)

Bess Mutelo, right, is a Heifer Zambia project member in Mika village who received draft cows. “We were very excited because we know these animals are very useful. They have given us so many benefits: manure, plowing and increased crop production,” she said. “Anything that previously required pulling or carrying our draft cattle can do. This saves us a lot of labor.” Here, Mutelo stands the beneath “Gender and Family Focus,” one of Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development and a favorite of women in Zambia. (Photo by Jake Lyell.) Read more about Bess Mutelo in the Jan./Feb. 2009 issue of World Ark magazine.

Other InterAction award winners included World Vision, Mercy Corps, Helen Keller International and ADRA International.