Author Archives: Annie Bergman

About Annie Bergman

As Senior Writer for Heifer International, Annie Bergman is the primary travel writer for the nonprofit organization’s World Ark magazine. Bergman has interviewed survivors of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, beekeepers in Honduras, women’s groups in India and war widows in Kosovo in her four years at Heifer. Bergman received her bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and a master’s degree in Australian Aboriginal Studies from the University of Melbourne in Australia. Her hobbies include hiking, golfing, cooking, reading and walking her dogs.

Why Water Buffalo?

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It is truly astounding how each gift of livestock can change the lives of Heifer participants all around the world. I’ve seen it each time I’ve traveled for work. But I’ve never been more impressed than when I saw some water buffalo projects on my trip to Cambodia in 2010.

San Pheap, 12, Sok Phong, 7, and Sieng Hai, 6, on a water buffalo in Chrey Krem, Cambodia.

Imposing creatures to be sure, water buffalo are actually quite gentle and patient (as you can see from the photo above as this animal allowed three little boys to ride on her back).  It was really fun to watch Seng Ouy bathe his family’s water buffalo. The animal’s reaction to the bath reminded me a lot of what my basset hound looks like when I put him in the tub to wash him down.

Water buffalo are prized in Cambodia. Often too expensive for smallholder farmers to purchase on their own, water buffalo often serve as “living tractors” for farming families in Southeast Asia. The draft animals can help families plant up to five times more crops than they would be able to plant by hand.  And rice planting is backbreaking work.

water buffalo bath

Seng Ouy, 19, washes the family's water buffalo.

The gentle giants also provide families with milk rich in calcium and protein that can transform malnourished children. Plus, the fats in buffalo milk make it ideal for processing into cheeses that also help build strong bones.

Another benefit families see from water buffalo is manure. Adult water buffalo produce about six tons of manure a year, and for families that have biogas digesters, that manure provides precious methane to power cook stoves and lamps.

Give the gift of a water buffalo today. You’ll be providing a family with a valuable tool that will give them plenty in return.

This post is part of our What to Give series, where we’re helping you choose the best Heifer gift for your loved ones. Read previous What to Give posts here, and subscribe to the What to Give series here.

Still don’t know what to give? Check out our entire online Gift Catalog.

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Giving Independence

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It’s hard not to be pleasantly overwhelmed by the kindness of others when you’re in my business. For each issue of World Ark, I get to write about donors who love Heifer’s mission so much that they go to great lengths to provide a gift of livestock to the families in need all around the world.

Meghan and Ryan Bell in June 2012

But one donor in particular has really inspired me, and I find it a true pleasure to have gotten to know him and his family over the past couple of years.

Ryan Bell was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, a disorder that causes malformations of the face. The 11-year-old from Wallingford, Conn., has endured 37 surgeries, and just last week had a tracheotomy—a device which helped him breathe—removed. But Ryan knows his birth defect is nothing compared to what some families face.

An animal lover, Ryan convinced his parents in 2009 that their annual giving should go to Heifer International, a nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger and poverty by providing gifts of livestock and training to families in need around the world. In two short years Ryan  raised nearly $9,400 for the charity. We profiled Ryan and his little sister, Meghan, in last year’s Holiday edition of the magazine when they were hoping to raise $850 for a camel.

Ryan before the surgery to lengthen his jaw (left) and after. He has since had his tracheotomy removed.

Well, Heifer donors came through for Ryan and Meghan, and the pair raised more than $8,600 last year. But this year, Ryan has upped his goal. Inspired by a surgery that helped lengthen his jaw and open his airway, Ryan has become set on raising $25,000, or Heifer’s “Gift of Transformation.”

I’ll let Ryan tell the rest, but you can read his whole story and his quest to raise the Gift of Transformation in the most recent edition of World Ark:

“I was excited when I saw the Gift of Transformation in the gift catalog because it reminds me of the transformation that I went through this year. I wasn’t excited to do this surgery and I wouldn’t have chosen it for myself. The doctor took my underdeveloped jaw and transformed my airway. It was a transformation for me,” Ryan said.

That transformation serves as his inspiration, he said.

“I want to give my own Gift of Transformation to the world. I want to send herds of heifers, llamas, and goats, flocks of sheep and chickens, a pen of pigs, a school of fish and a gaggle of geese to an underdeveloped area of the world and let a transformation take place as the gift is received, utilized and passed along. A Gift of Transformation can affect the lives of people in an entire village or community.”

“I don’t want to rely on a trach to breathe. I don’t want extra medical equipment and it would be great to not need a nurse or parent around at all times. I want my independence, just like these people want to be independent and take care of their own needs. They just need a different kind of assistance for their transformation; they need us.”

To help Ryan meet his goal, go to his Team Heifer page.

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Heifer Haiti Distributes Food to Hurricane Sandy Victims

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Last Friday we posted about emergency efforts that were underway to help the people of Haiti affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Yesterday, Heifer Haiti’s Country Director, Hervil Cherubin, let us know that the food distribution was a success. More than 400 food packages were given out to families who needed help in the wake of the storm. Cherubin said Heifer Haiti also helped provide food to Haitians who are physically challenged.

The distribution took place in Solon (a community in Saint Louis du Sud) where Heifer Haiti has a rabbit project and various communities in Les Cayes where the office is located.

It was the first of Heifer Haiti’s planned efforts to provide emergency aid. While Heifer does not specialize in short-term relief but rather in long-term sustainable solutions, our Heifer Haiti colleagues and participants need your continued help. Please consider donating to our Disaster Rehabilitation Fund so we can provide the best assistance possible and help equip families with the means to help deal with future disasters.

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Want Banana Chips With That?

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Imagine this: It’s lunch time, and you take a bite out of your juicy, delicious burger. You reach into the drive-thru bag for some of those salty, crunchy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside-french fries, but come up instead with…banana chips?

A Heifer farmer in Ecuador shows off part of his banana crop.

It could happen. But is our favorite salty side dish endangered?  Not exactly, but climate scientists are warning that as the planet’s temperatures increase, potatoes, which prefer cooler climates to grow in, might be edged out by warmer temperature crops like those from the banana family, especially in developing countries.

The scientists behind the news were asked to examine what effects a warming climate would have on the worlds most important agricultural commodities. The found that people in the developing world will likely have to adapt what they eat as crops like potatoes, but also, rice, corn and wheat—the main source of calories for many families who struggle to find enough to eat—suffer from the warmer temperatures and a decrease in land available to cultivate them.

Dr. Philip Thornton, who helped author the report, said that bananas and plantains may be a good substitute for potatoes in certain locations. “It’s not necessarily a silver bullet, but there may be places where as temperatures increase, bananas might be one option that small-holders could start to look at,” he said. 

It’s happened before, said Bruce Campbell, program director of the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security research group. He noted the adoption by Africans to eating rice, which wasn’t typical there just a few decades ago. Heifer has also helped in similar situations, providing camels to the Maasai people who lost their cattle to drought.

It may not be ideal, but it’s just one way people will have to cope with a changing world.

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It’s That Time Again

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When the newest edition of World Ark will be appearing in mailboxes around the country. Our special Holiday issue includes three country features in addition to Heifer’s Most Important Gift Catalog in the World.

Women’s empowerment is highlighted in two stories this issue. Puja Singh, Heifer Nepal’s communications and networking officer, takes a look at how projects in Bangladesh are helping women find opportunities that were once denied to them. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also weighs in on why women are key to successful development work in an expanded Asked and Answered interview.

Our Managing Editor, Donna Stokes, also writes about the USAID | Yaajeende project in Senegal, where participants received sheep as part of what will become Heifer’s largest animal distribution ever. Photographer Olivier Asselin illustrates the essay with gorgeous photos from “The Day the Sheep Came.”

The third feature story in the issue addresses habitat conservation in Malawi. Austin Bailey traveled to the project near Kasungu National Park to see a Heifer project that provides families with sustainable sources of animal protein, fuel and savings, so that they no longer need to illegally hunt in the park for food.

And if any of our faithful readers remember Ryan Bell from last year’s Holiday issue, well, he’s back. After a wildly successful campaign in which he raised $8,000 for Heifer, Ryan has launched a new effort to raise $25,000 for us. Ryan recently underwent a few surgeries to help lengthen his jaw bone and was so inspired by his own physical transformations that he wants to give his own “Gift of Transformation” to those in need, no matter how long it takes for him to raise the money.

So get out and check your mail, or check back soon at www.heifer.org/worldark for the online edition of the magazine. Happy reading!

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That Drive-Thru Isn’t Just Bad for Your Waistline

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A new study from the University of California at Riverside has even more bad news about the effects that swinging by your favorite fast-food chain to gobble up a delicious burger could have. And it’s not what you might think.

Photo credit mag3737

The study found that commercial char-broilers emit as much pollution cooking just one hamburger as an 18-wheel diesel engine truck driving 143-miles on the freeway. That seems like a lot. The crazy part is, it doesn’t really matter what the burger is made of—it all has to do with the device cooking them. Veggie patties on a commercial char-broiler are just as bad.

But that’s no reason to stop grilling up your favorite patty—of any variety—in your backyard. The study also said that grilling releases fewer particulates into the air than charbroiling.

What do you think? Can you give up the drive-thru for the sake of our air quality?

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Poverty in the U.S.: The Stories You Don’t Hear

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The home page for Bus 52 where you can keep track of where the bus is going and view the videos of where they've been.

It’s easy to become mired in hunger and poverty statistics. As people the world over struggle with economic stagnation, and more and more people slip below the poverty line, it’s not often that stories of hope and happiness make the airwaves. So I was particularly struck by a story I saw on The Huffington Post last week which highlighted the work of Bus 52. 

Bus 52 is a documentary film project led by five young people who are traveling the United States on a converted school bus. Their aim is to tell the stories of people and/or organizations who are having a positive impact in their communities. While they don’t focus solely on what’s being done to combat hunger here at home, the article in the Huffington Post focused on that subject in particular. And I have to say, it was nice to hear some positives for a change.

Take the Generous Garden Project in South Carolina, for example. Local Bo Cable started an organic garden for the folks of Greenville after he saw a need in the area and after noticing that food banks had a dearth of fresh vegetables. “We just give it away,” Cable says in the Bus 52 video. “No questions asked.”

There are a number of other projects highlighted like the free cafe for the needy run by student volunteers at The University of Kansas, or the urban farming project run by Nat Turner in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. All admirable, and all reminiscent of how Heifer is working to help achieve food security and grow agricultural jobs through our Seeds of Change initiative.

So take a minute to remind yourself that there’s a need right here at home, and another to be inspired by all the things that are being done in communities just like yours.

Is there a happy story in your community that maybe we don’t know about? Tell us!

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Drought: We’re All In This Together

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It seems like we’ve talked a lot about drought on this blog lately. Last year at this time we were calling attention to the Horn of Africa. Since then we’ve talked about the Sahel region in West Africa and even more recently about the dry conditions that have been wreaking havoc for farmers right here in the United States.

But yesterday’s op-ed by Roger Thurow over at Farmers Feeding the World serves as a reminder that, no matter where farmers are struggling to coax their seedlings out of the ground, drought affects all of us everywhere.

Thurow begins with an anecdote about a Kenyan farmer praying for rain, knowing that if the rains did not come, he could not eat. That prayer, Thurow tells us, was offered in March of 2011. He then draws the parallel that that prayer could be uttered by a number of farmers—large-scale or small—in many parts of the world. The difference is, the United States has safety nets for farmers whose yields are lower than normal whereas farmers in the developing world typically do not.

And that’s the crux of Thurow’s piece. Just like the farmer in Kenya who says he’ll pray for rain for the farmers in Texas, so should all of us support the efforts of agencies, organizations, governments, and any other entity working to expand and improve agricultural development in the places where farmers aren’t guaranteed help if their crop fails.

Like Thurow says, “we’re all in this together.”

 

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Coming To A Mailbox Near You

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It’s that time again. The latest edition of World Ark should be hitting mailboxes around the country.

The August issue is chock-full of interesting facts and figures, gorgeous photography and an article all about grasscutters. Don’t know what a grasscutter is? Check out the story about the new livestock that is making farmers in Ghana very successful.

Or dive into one of our Heifergraphics on water usage. You might be surprised to know that it takes A LOT more water to brew a gallon of coffee than it does to brew a gallon of tea, for example.

You can also visit the highlands of Peru through this issue. Writer Brooke Edwards tells how Heifer has helped diversify the alpaca population in the Andean mountains aided by some stunning photography by Dave Anderson.

So be on the lookout for your copy. If you don’t get World Ark in the mail, never fear! Our online page-turner edition can be accessed with the click of your mouse.

Happy reading!

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Can We Wait Until 2030 to See Poverty Reduced?

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I saw an Associated Press blurb on Monday that piqued my interest. Amidst the varying news reports (mentioned by Brooke here) that climate change and drought are raising the world’s food prices, and the others pointing to rising poverty and hunger rates in the United States, the National Intelligence Council says that world poverty rates could be reduced by half by 2030.

The AP article was interesting to me on a couple of levels. First, the NIC pointed to a rising middle class in the growing economies in India, Vietnam and Indonesia as the driving force behind the poverty reduction; and, second because 2030 is less than two decades from now, which doesn’t really seem all that far off.

Photo taken from the Nations Online Project

But can we, or better, should we, wait until 2030 to see those numbers drop that dramatically?  I don’t think so. Sure the article is great news, and, yes, Heifer already works in both India and Vietnam, helping turn small farmers into small businessmen and women. Plus the article says that poverty reduction in these economies will continue despite economic upheaval, too. Even better!

So if what Christopher Kojm said on Saturday is right, that, “several hundred million people, armed with the resources and education will produce new technology to meet demands for food, water and energy,” don’t you think we can help them along?

I do. Heifer is already working to help create this burgeoning population of people.  And we’re working harder and faster than ever before in areas that need it most—including the United States. Why don’t you help us?

 

 

 

 

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