Author Archives: Casey Neese

World Ark is Among the “Best of the Web”

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Heifer's World Ark magazine was named honorable mention in the Min Best of the Web awards.

Heifer’s World Ark magazine received an honorable mention in the min Best of the Web awards.

The tablet edition of World Ark magazine has received recognition from one of the publishing industry’s top awards competitions. At the min Best of the Web awards in New York City yesterday, Heifer International was awarded an honorable mention in the digital magazine category. Other finalists in this category include Ebony, Golf Digest, Golf Magazine, Popular Science and WIRED.

Heifer was one of only a handful of nonprofits at this elite industry awards event that brought together such publishing leaders as Time, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, Better Homes and Gardens, and The Huffington Post. min, short for Media Industry News, is a resource for magazine and media professionals to learn about the latest trends in the field. The Best of the Web awards are the industry’s top honor in the digital space, recognizing outstanding Web sites and digital initiatives among consumer and b2b magazines.

World Ark launched its digital tablet edition in November to much acclaim. Heifer was the first development nonprofit to launch a digital publication app, and the World Ark app has been featured as the App of the Week on the Adobe blog and on Mashable.com.

“The World Ark team is so pleased to be selected for an honorable mention in the Best of Web awards in a category with such respected and groundbreaking digital publications,” says Donna Stokes, World Ark editor. “We are hopeful that our from-the-field story-telling, cutting-edge design and professional photos and videos of Heifer’s transformational work continue to reach greater audiences. We thank the judges for recognizing our potential and encourage all to spread the word about our quarterly publication.”

The tablet app, produced with the design expertise of Bates Creative Group, is available from the App Store on your iPad or from the Google Marketplace for your Android tablet. You can also view the articles on your web browser here. The World Ark digital magazine appears quarterly in spring, summer, fall and holiday. Watch the video below for a peek into the spring issue.

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Leela Devi Continues Her Struggle for a Better Life

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Leela Devi manages food stuffs as a project management committee member during a training program of self help group members.

Leela Devi manages food stuffs as a project management committee member during a training program of self help group members.

Story by Avni Malhotra

When we last brought you an update about Leela Devi (age 37) and her family in Simariya Village, India, we saw that with Heifer International’s help their income had increased and they were beginning to dream of living in a concrete house. But when we checked in last month, we learned that their struggle for a better life is not over. Even though there has been an improvement in income from the savings with the Self Help Group, the sale of vegetables from her kitchen garden and the work as a cook for the village school, Leela and Umesh continue their struggle for a better life.

The house they dreamed of completing is stuck due to some disputes in the family. The money they invested stands as bricks and cement that they had bought for the construction. They are now hopeful that they will be able to complete their house after a delay of six months.

Leela Devi poses in front of Bricks she has bought for the construction of a concrete house for her family.

Leela Devi poses in front of Bricks she has bought for the construction of a concrete house for her family.

This is a common situation for the people living in an economy where resources are few and claims of rights are numerous. Generations go by before disputes of property are sorted, if at all. The people find it hard to continue the fight as the struggle requires resources of time, energy and money that they can ill afford. Famous epics are written around such family disputes — Mahabharata being the most famous one.

We hope that Leela’s family will soon have the security of a concrete house and move out of the bamboo and mud house they have been living in.

Leela devi enjoys tea with Laxmi Kisku (a project management committee member of Bhartiya self help group) during a committee meeting.

Leela enjoys tea with Laxmi Kisku (a project management committee member of Bhartiya self help group) during a committee meeting.

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Half the Sky Facebook Game Features Heifer and Inspires Action

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When you think of games people play on Facebook, the first one that might come to mind is FarmVille. But today marks the official launch of a new game that hopes to build on the success of such social games to raise awareness of the difficult issues that face women in the developing world.

Half the Sky: The Game

Half the Sky Movement: The Game is inspired by the book “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn and a companion PBS television series. Kristof and WuDunn have made it their mission to offer a window into the lives of women who face the threat of malnutrition, oppression and disease each day.

The book and TV series attracted attention from people who already care about women’s issues, Kristoff told Fast Company, which hosted a roundtable discussion to coincide with today’s launch. But the Facebook game is intended to reach all the people who may not know about the problems women face worldwide. “It potentially offers a way of luring people — a gateway drug, if you will, to women’s empowerment,” he says.

This game seems poised to do just that, and it also has the potential to generate support for seven NGO partners — including Heifer International — that are featured prominently in the game. There is a natural link between the scenarios presented in the game and organizations like Heifer that work to improve the lives of women and girls worldwide. At many points throughout the game, users can learn more about Heifer, share info about the organization through their own Facebook profile and even make a donation.

When I played the game, I was introduced to Radhika, “a simple woman from India who wants to make things better … for both herself and women worldwide.” The game is a series of quests, and my first quest was to help Radhika get her young daughter to a clinic to receive treatment for a serious illness. I faced a number of decisions, and I had to reason with a reluctant husband, pick and sell mangoes, haggle with a taxi company, and decide how to pay for an immunization.

When all was said and done, Radhika’s daughter was saved, and I was hooked. This game let me walk in Radhika’s shoes in a way that’s simply not possible through reading statistics. It’s safe to say that games like this represent a powerful new medium for telling some of the world’s most important stories.

To begin playing, visit the Half the Sky Movement: The Game Facebook page. Even if you’re not able to make a monetary donation to Heifer’s work, you can still help by playing. The game’s sponsors have pledged a total of $500,000 for players to unlock through a number of in-game projects.

This game was produced by Games for Change — an organization whose mission is catalyzing social impact through digital games. I had the chance to sit down with Asi Burak and Emily Treat of Games for Change last year when they came to our offices to conduct a digital games workshop, and you can read that interview here.

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This Holiday Season, Give the Gift of Animal Care

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When a family becomes a Heifer project participant, it almost always involves animals. We’re known around the globe for providing livestock and training to help smallholder farmers overcome hunger and poverty. These animals provide much-needed nutrition, but they also serve as catalysts that improve the family’s livelihood through the sale of wool, milk, honey, or the like, allowing a family to improve their living conditions and attain more education.

Animal care

Mrs. Madeline Nole Quispe of Peru at her veterinary medicine cabinet. Photo by Jake Lyell, courtesy of Heifer International.

But these small farmers cannot do it alone. To keep their livestock healthy and viable, families need access to veterinary services and expertise; but in many countries this animal care is limited or non-existent. This is where community animal health workers come in. These “para-vets” learn valuable skills like animal health, husbandry, breeding, nutrition and housing, and they can fill an important need when local professional veterinary care isn’t available.

Irene Pandosen is a community animal health worker who helps Heifer project participants in the Philippines. Right after her training concluded in 2010, she was put to the test when almost all of the swine in her community were inflicted with a viral disease that affects pregnant pigs and causes miscarriage, premature birth, or even death of the mother and piglets. Irene coordinated closely with the provincial veterinary office to control the outbreak, and as a result, only four pigs owned by the project participants died (compared to more than 50 owned by non-members).

Animal care

Irene with her family and sow. Photo by Jun Dom-oguen, courtesy of Heifer International.

“The epidemic was the turning point. [Prior to the outbreak] most of the families doubted my knowledge. They would ask me things about animal diseases and how to control them, and then go to the veterinarian and ask the same question to see if my answers and explanations were the same,” Irene said. “I take every opportunity to learn so that I can give good service. I talk to veterinarians and research every time I find an opportunity. I take learning as my responsibility to my group and to the community as well.”

Irene has gone on to become a local expert in artificial insemination. This technology means safer and more efficient breeding of pigs — farmers no longer need to transport large boars over poor roads and rugged terrain. Farmers pay Irene directly for her artificial insemination services, and she has seen her income increase about 15 fold as this enterprise has grown to include other members of her family.

This year, you can donate a Community Animal Health Worker Kit to provide quality animal care through our gift catalog. For $200 (or $20 for a share of a kit), you can honor a loved one with a gift that helps people like Irene care for livestock in the communities where Heifer works.

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.

Information for this post was contributed by Jun Dom-oguen and Karla Narcise-Rodulfo, Heifer Philippines

Animal Care Worker in the Philippines

A community animal health worker practices her trade at a Heifer project in Magupange Village, Philippines.

Community Animals Health Workers in the Philippines

Community animal health workers tend to a goat at a Heifer project in the Philippines.

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This Giving Tuesday, Give a Biogas Stove

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It’s fall, and this is my favorite time of year. One of my favorite things about this season is spending time outside by a fire. If you’ve ever cooked over a campfire, you know it can be fun for a time, but let’s be honest — no one really enjoys getting smoke in their eyes. When I get back to “civilization,” I’m always thankful for conveniences like central heating and a modern kitchen.

Biogas needed

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Now, I want to you to imagine that your only option for cooking is a fire — not an enclosed stove, but an open fire in a pit in the center of your dirt floor. You certainly grow tired of getting smoke in your eyes, but you have bigger problems: Your family begins to experience health problems after prolonged exposure to the smoke, and you live with the constant worry that one of your small children might fall into the fire.

In many of the places where Heifer International works, this is a daily reality. In addition to the health and safety concerns, there is the threat of deforestation as trees are cut for firewood. Moreover, the task of gathering firewood usually falls on women and girls. The time they spend at this chore could be better spent caring for their families or pursuing an education.

Biogas stove in action

A biogas stove in Uganda in action. Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

But thanks to an ingenious thing called biogas, this is starting to change. Through a relatively-simple process, Heifer’s project participants can capture methane gas (a byproduct of livestock manure) and use it to power stoves, lanterns and even small generators. Our biogas program in Uganda recently received recognition from InterAction, which honored the program with its Best Practice award.

Although many of us take these things for granted, safe and clean means of cooking or lighting can have a tremendous impact on a family. In this video, a young family in Cameroon shows us around their small farm’s biogas plant, sharing a first-hand account of how this innovation is helping them break out of poverty and giving them hope for the future.

Today we celebrate Giving Tuesday, a day when we look past the flurry of traditional holiday shopping and think of ways to help those who are less fortunate. This year, Heifer International is offering biogas stoves in our holiday gift catalog, and for just $50 you can honor a loved one with a gift that will help a family get clean, reliable and efficient energy. So why not give a biogas stove today? Imagine the look on the face of that special someone when they realize they got a biogas stove for their holiday gift.

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. If you’re interested in learning more about the technology behind biogas, read our previous posts, “Build Your Own Biogas Generator” and “How to Make Biogas at Home.”

 

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The Omnipresent Tortilla

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by Christian DeVries | photos and video by Russell Powell

The tortilla is an omnipresent part of all meals in Guatemala.  Warm, round, delicious, these flat breads are found on every table.

Mrs. Francisca Najera Vasquez lives in the tiny village of El Duraznito with her husband and seven children, so she has a lot of experience making tortillas. The family’s corn is husked and the kernels are boiled. After being cooked the corn is ground at a local mill. Francisca uses six pounds of masa (dough) to feed her family every day. Using a traditional piedra de moler (grinding stone) with a stone rolling pin she grinds the dough one more time.

Small handfuls of dough are patted into the appropriate size and placed on a hot piece of steel atop a clay oven. Working with her daughter (Saira) and her aunt (Felipa), the three women are a veritable tortilla machine: grinding, patting and cooking.

My mouth begins to salivate at the smell of fresh hot tortillas. The wood smoke penetrates the bread adding a subtle smoky flavor. I always have fun visiting Heifer farmers. Sitting at Francisca’s kitchen table, eating a lovingly prepared meal, I feel like one of the family. All I need is mas tortillas, por favor.

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Sopheap’s Story: A Widow Struggles for Family Life

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Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that follows the progress of specific families, starting at the beginning of their work with Heifer. Today’s post is the second in a series of  quarterly updates on the progress of Khuon Sopheap and her family. You can read the first post about Sopheap here.

by Heifer Cambodia

Ten months after joining the POG group, Ms. Khuon Sopheap has actively participated in group activities including monthly meetings, a savings program and attending literacy class. Through these technical and non-technical trainings, her knowledge and life skills have been improved while her attitude and behavior have been changed. She has shared what she learned with her family members and other villagers.

During the last four months, Sopheap and her family members keep practicing simple techniques in swine productions. With help from her daughters, Sophea and Sophort, she cleans the pen, troughs and the pigs before feeding them. She puts mosquito nets on the pen to protect the pigs from being bitten by mosquitoes that might affect the pigs’ health, which could lead to adverse weight loss. The family is happy to take good care of their pigs. So far, her family decreased buying commercial feed for feeding the pigs as its price goes up. Instead, the family increases using their local available resources including banana trees, morning glories and so forth for the pigs’ feed by applying knowledge they gained from the training. Moreover, Sophea and Sophort always spend their free time to find aquatic plants from the river as supplementary feed for the pigs. Now each pig is around 60 kilograms, and very healthy. Sopheap hopes she will receive the pigs’ offspring soon.

“Although my pigs do not yet give me income, I can see they are growing from day to day. I really hope they will become my family’s main resource of income when they produce piglets during the next few months. With the piglets I will be able to enhance my swine production,” Sopheap says.

After the flood destroyed her home garden late last year, her family now restores a plot of 15 square meters of land behind the house to grow varieties of vegetables for improving the family members’ nutrition. The family is more aware of sanitation and hygiene through keeping the household campus clean. Now all her family members regularly drink water that has first been boiled.

Sopheap is actively participating in group saving. Starting in June 2011, the total group fund increased up to 1 million Riels (US $250), of which 38,500 Riels belongs to Sopheap. Within this period, Sopheap is able to cash 18,500 Riels as voluntary savings.

“Participation in the group activities gives me huge benefits as we are able to help each other when we face any problem. We can take loans with a very low interest rate from our group to do small business or ease any difficulty in the family,” she says.

Story by: Chheang Sok Mao, Northwest Regional Program Officer
Contribution by: Prak Somathy, Communication and Networking Manager

Sopheap feeds her pigs. She puts mosquito nets on the pen to protect the pigs from being bitten by mosquitoes that might affect the pig’s health.
Shopeap works at her kitchen garden. She plants vegetables for improving her family members’ nutrition.
Her daughter Sophea boils water for the family members drinking.

 

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Wang Qinghua Passes on Her “Heifer Spirit”

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Wang Qinghua; her son, Mao Huanhuan; and her husband, Mao Jingjun (back row) and other family members

by Heifer China

It was a sunny day when we visited Wang Qinghua’s family in Deanzhuang Village, Weichang County, Chengde City, Hebei Province. But the temperature remained -15 degrees Celsius, which prevented us from exposing our hands outdoors. Even in the house, the temperature was just above freezing.

Wang Qinghua (age 38) lives with her husband, Mao Jingjun (age 42), and her son, Mao Huanhuan, who is 17 years old. The couple also cares for four elders in the family. In addition, Wang Qinghua’s elder brother and her uncle are both suffering mental illness, so she also needs to take care of them. Life is difficult for her and her husband.

Through Heifer China, Wang Qinghua received two cows and some farming materials such as vet medicine worth 500 Yuan (about US $80). Each cow gave birth to one calf per year, and in the past two years, they sold seven cows with the income totaling 21,500 Yuan, or about $3,400. Right now, two pregnant cows are still in the barn. They upgraded the cattle barn with the government’s support of 10,560 Yuan (about $1,700).

Wang Qinghua and Mao Jingiun received soil fertilization training, and they fertilized the soil with livestock manure and improved the plantation varieties to get more income. Before the project, they only planted corn, but gradually they’ve brought in melon, potato and pole beans. At present, Wang Qinghua is producing 45,000 kg (about 50 tons) of corn, 3,000 kg (about 3 tons) of potatoes and 4000 kg (about 4 tons) of pole beans.

Heifer China also brought an infrastructure upgrade to this village. The government helped them build a main road leading to the county, through which villagers can transport their crops and vegetables to the bigger market. Wang Qinghua and other self help group members had a meeting and reached an agreement to purchase a motor tricycle to do transportation. As a result, the vegetables could be sold at a higher price and the profit has been increased. In December 2010, Wang Qinghua passed on a cow to her neighbor ahead of time. In June 2011, she completed her Passing on the Gift™ requirement by sending out another cow.

“If Heifer project hadn’t arrived at our village, we couldn’t definitely experience such a huge positive change on our life,” she says. “I just want to spread Heifer spirit with my own effort.”

Wang Qinghua’s son, Mao Huanhuan, went to the senior high school in September 2011. In the past three months, the family borrowed about $3,200 and opened a small restaurant. When planning the future, Mao Huanhuan wants to go to university to study engineering and become a repair engineer. For Wang and her husband, they dreamed of having a big house.

Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that follows the progress of specific families, starting at the beginning of their work with Heifer. Initially, this series will focus on our programs in Asia/South Pacific, where our colleagues have chosen one family in each region in the countries where we work and will bring us quarterly updates.

Wang Qinghua takes part in a training session at a Heifer China-sponosred self help group

 

Mao Huanhuan feeds the family's cows

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A Turning Point in Tibet

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Qunzong at her home in Tibet

by Heifer China

As we know, Tibetans live at high altitudes. Wangdu dorjie is one of them. He is 40 years old, the father of a family and he took part in the Heifer project this year.

One day before we visited him, it snowed there so that we could see the snow-capped mountains as well as their roof covered by snow. The sky in Tibet is deep blue and the sunshine is warm and bright. Only Wangdu dorjie and his wife, Qunzong — wearing a Tibetan traditional Quba — were home because both of their children went to school.

Wangdu is the typical herdsman in the Tibetan area who does not grow any crops. His family will get two good-quality yaks from Heifer through the Tsomei Community Integrated Project. Although they already have 42 yaks and some sheep and goats, they still need Heifer’s help. Their yaks are not good-quality ones, which means they are smaller and thinner. Besides, they just feed them but do not know how to sell them and manage them, which results in poverty.

Since they became members of this self-help group, they began participating in such group activities as cutting grass and helping the village vet to distribute animal medicines.  Qunzong is very shy to talk with us. When we asked her some questions, she just said, my husband will know about it.

Now, there is a problem that worries Wangdu — his younger daughter, Ordrun Droma (age 12), doesn’t like school very much, and she wants to drop out to help the family raise sheep. Surely her parents want her to continue her schooling, but Wangdu said they would let her make her own decision. One of their dreams is that their kids could continue their education and find a job after graduation. The other is that they want to have more good-quality animals in the future.

Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that follows the progress of specific families, starting at the beginning of their work with Heifer. Initially, this series will focus on our programs in Asia/South Pacific, where our colleagues have chosen one family in each region in the countries where we work and will bring us quarterly updates.

Qunzong works at a loom while her husband, Wangdu dorjie, watches

Qunzong works with yarn at her home in Tibet

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Zhang Hui’s Hope for His Family

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Zhang Hui's two daughters

by Heifer China

Zhang Hui, his wife, and three children are living in a remote, mountainous village named Baishui in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province. The local economy is limited by a shortage of farmland, water resources and poor transportation. The whole family has only two adults who can work. What’s worse, Zhang Hui’s right leg was injured when he was a migrant worker, which prevented him doing some heavy work. Besides, they have three children who are all at primary school, a 6-year old son named Zhang Zijie and two older daughters named Zhang Ming and Zhang Yan. The low production and larger expenditures lead the family to poverty.

Before the project implementation, Zhang Hui only raised 23 natural-fed chickens and 2 pigs. After the Heifer project was implemented on April 16, 2011, he bought 314 chicks with the gift money and started his pheasant breeding industry. Then he joined the self-help group and became a leader. He accepted trainings of 12 Cornerstones and animal husbandry, and acquired skills in corn and rye planting and pheasant breeding. Moreover, the Kaili Science and Technology Bureau provided him 30,000 Yuan to purchase corn seeds as well as have an additional allowance.

“I had acquired some basic knowledge of pheasants breeding when I was in an eco-rearing base in Kaili. At that time I knew it would make money, but I was too poor then. However, Heifer China came; I have the initial capital to do this,” Zhang Hui said. “I wanted something different, so I choose pheasants instead of pigs, and I want to be professional.” With his hard work, plus the material and technical support from the local government and Heifer China, Zhang Hui had a harvest of both crops and pheasant rearing. By selling pheasants, he had an income of 20,150 Yuan.

In the past 3 months, the family has received electricity, built a bio-gas unit, and bought a refrigerator and an egg incubator. Meanwhile, they have upgraded their house into two floors, which provides another 50 square meters of space. While planning the future, Zhang Hui mentioned at present he would enlarge the chicken-rearing scale to gain more income to support his children’s schooling. The eldest daughter dreamed to be a running athlete. She has kept jogging 4 km per day from home to school for nearly one year. 3 children are top students at school. If they want to go to university, Zhang Hui stated he would definitely afford their tuition no matter how hard he and his wife should work.

Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that follows the progress of specific families, starting at the beginning of their work with Heifer. Initially, this series will focus on our programs in Asia/South Pacific, where our colleagues have chosen one family in each region in the countries where we work and will bring us quarterly updates.

The new second floor addition to Zhang Hui's house

Pheasants on Zhang Hui's family farm

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