You’ve probably met Flat Stanley. He’s a loveable character who has been traipsing across the globe since he was first introduced into children’s literature in 1964. In 1995, a Canadian schoolteacher by the name of Dale Hubert developed the Flat Stanley Project and soon paper Stanleys were being mailed from school to school and their travels being recorded in journals by engaged students. Last year, Stanley even made it to the White House. Now Flat Stanley has entered the digital world and Heifer International is joining him in that space.

The Flat Stanley iPhone and iPad app (available for free) offers new ways for you or your kids to learn about what Heifer does. The way that the app works, kids (or kids at heart) can design a Flat Stanley or Flat Stella. After you design a Flat character, you can start taking pictures in your community and the character will be super imposed. Heifer will have a special character costume available for purchase in the game with a portion of the proceeds going to support our work in developing countries. 

The Flat Heifer costume

But that is just one way you can interact with Heifer through the app. The other option is to pull up the map of the world and find places to send your Flat character. There will be eight different Heifer adventures: Haiti, Malawi, Kenya, India, Cambodia, Armenia, Peru and Romania. You will have the opportunity to receive pictures of your character exploring Heifer projects along with tidbits about our work. At the end of the tour, you will get a journal entry that recounts everything your character did and a fun description of what Heifer is doing in that country. We can’t wait to hear all about your adventures, so please come back and share them with us!