Category Archives: Family Transformation

Happy International Day of Families

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Teghenik, Armenia — Heifer beneficiary Tsovinar Davtyan prepares cheese, the sale of which supports her children and grandchildren. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Teghenik, Armenia — Heifer beneficiary Tsovinar Davtyan prepares cheese, the sale of which supports her children and grandchildren. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

“Families hold societies together, and intergenerational relationships extend this legacy over time. This year’s International Day of Families is an occasion to celebrate connections among all members of the constellation that makes up a family. It is also an opportunity to reflect on how they are affected by social and economic trends – and what we can do to strengthen families in response.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for 2013

 

When Heifer International measures the impact of its projects and programs, it doesn’t just count individuals. Gender and Family Focus is one of Heifer’s Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development, and the family unit is central to our work. In fact, we count on strong family bonds and the cooperation that comes with them. Family members are invested in each others’ success, even when they know the fruits of that success won’t be reaped until they’re gone.

“I have seen whatever I would like to see in my life, I don’t need anything more for me. Everything is for my grandchildren,” explained Tsovinar Davtyan, 67, a grandmother of four in the Armenian village of Tekhenik. She cares for her family’s cows because she knows the benefits will last for generations.

May 15 is the United Nations International Day of Families, and this year’s focus is on fostering inter-generational solidarity. That’s a challenge for families in the Philippines, Bolivia and other places where job opportunities are few so young people set off to find opportunities elsewhere. This is where Heifer steps in, helping to build agricultural opportunities locally to keep families intact.

Click here to support a family in need through Heifer International.

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Basanti: A Changed Woman

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Basanti at the goat shed near her home

by Avni Malhotra

Basanti (23) is a simple tribal woman from a small village in Orissa. Basanti joined Heifer’s Tribal Empowerment Through Sustainable Livelihood Program in 2010 as a member of a self help group. Her family’s main source of income is labor, and they have a small plot of land that they cultivate. Since it is a joint family, the expenses keep growing as the elderly can’t contribute as much and the needs of the five year old son grow. She started working as a local health worker last year, and this increased her income. Also, she manages to sell the fruits and vegetables she cultivates as a part of the Heifer project and this also substantiates her income.

When I visited her village she was one of the eight people who was giving her gift to another woman very much like her. Basanti shines in the Heifer India program as one of the women who is an example of the Value Based Holistic Community Development Model. She gave her gift joyously along with vegetables and plants. She and her entire family; parent in-laws Kisnu and Karna, husband Hemanta and son Soumyaranajn all danced along with the gift recipient family (and me).

Following the Passing on the Gift ceremony, Basanti participated in a play she and her friends had scripted, directed and acted in. She played the role of a spoiled son who wastes his mother’s time and money.

After the ceremony was over she took us to her house — a neat mud walled hut with a thatched roof. She showed us her goat shed, which had been made in the corner of her house. The craftsmanship and the manner in which the bamboo was tied together make the goat shed very impressive. It was well ventilated.

Basanti has self-respect and does not want to be a burden on anyone. Her drive to improve her lot motivated her to take up the work of the village health worker. Today she has three pigs, three goats and eight hens. She has worked hard and demonstrated an improvement in her family income.

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 first in a series of  quarterly updates on the progress of Basanti and her family.

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Sophea’s Story: A Blossoming Business

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Story by: Sok Nom, Project Coordinator for RCSA
Contribution by: Prak Somathy, Communication and Networking Manager for Heifer Cambodia

Since 2010 after joining the self help group Stey Akphiwat Reakreay, or “Happy Development Women,” Mrs. Lang Sophea and her family members received not only physical inputs from the Heifer project, but also many trainings from which the household is able to use for increasing income and improving their standard of living. Late last December, Sophea had received another training on small business and micro-finance. After the training, Sophea has transformed this knowledge into real practice.

During last four months, Sophea sold two fattened pigs for 520,000 Riels (US $130) each. Her family allocated a part of the money, with some money loaned from the group, to start a small business — a grocery shop selling vegetables, fruits and foods. Sophea is able to earn a daily income in average of 110,000 Riels from the shop from which she receives a net profit of 50,000 Riels, or US $12, per day.

“Thank very much to Heifer Cambodia and Rural Children Saving Association (RCSA) for providing my family the knowledge on small business. Now we can get diversified incomes to support the family,” said Sophea. Last month, her family also took another part of the money from selling the pigs to buy a pumping machine which now has been used for pumping underground water to sell to villagers. Her family plans to expand this business while the villagers are more aware of using clean water.

Sophea gets up at 4:30 a.m. to cook and serve breakfast to costumers while her husband goes to a wholesale market to buy vegetables, fruits and other grocery things for sale. The breakfast is served until 8:00 a.m., and then she starts preparing lunch foods for selling. Meanwhile, with help from her children, she also sells vegetables, fruits and grocery things. Her shop is open until 6:00 in the evening.

“I had abandoned my illegal job in cutting trees and poaching wildlife at the jungle,” admitted her husband, Ein Dok. “We have created new jobs at home. We buy vegetables from market for selling at our shop. However, because now we have the pumping machine, we plan to grow vegetables to support our own shop.” Dok also plans to enhance the swine production as so far the family has two sows which are pregnant, which are expected to give birth next two months. The family also has a fattened piglet and 50 hens and chickens which remain from home consumption.

“I help feed the animals when my mom is busy at the shop because I have afternoon class. My dad cleans animals (pig) pens and troughs before we feed them,” said Sophea’s daughter, Thearom. “Besides doing household chores after school time, I do my homework, which is assigned by my teachers.”

Though Sophea is busy at her businesses, she never forgets group works and activities. She attends monthly group meetings regularly, sharing her experience in animal husbandry and participating in solving issues occurring in her community. She also pays attention to social work by contributing some money to repair her village road. During this period, because she is an active member in the group, the group members selected her as deputy leader of the group.

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 Lang Sophea and her family. You can read the first post about this family here.

Sophea holds pineapple that she sells in her shop.

 

Sophea prepares foods for selling and serving to her clients.

 

Her daughter Thearom feeds a pregnant sow with vegetable as supplementary.
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Progress Moves from Family to Community

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Ganga Ale is fast on her way to becoming a leader in her community. As the only educated member of her women’s group, Ganga feels that it is her responsibility to lead her community towards a better life. She received five goats from Heifer and trainings that boosted her
confidence.

In the past three months her family’s potato farm has raked in two quintals of produce, almost twice what she produced last year. She now was 14 goats, and she bought some more with a loan from the group fund. They need a new pen, which she and her husband will build later this month. This pen will be improved as she was taught in Heifer’s animal management trainings. Her eldest daughter, Yamuna, will be graduating from school this year. Ganga is excited about her daughter going to college. She wants her to study business so she can also learn a few things from her to implement in her farm.

There are plans to build a road connecting the village to the main highway. Ganga plans to be involved in negotiating the maximum budget from the village development committee. “This road will improve the market linkage for our produces. We have high hopes for the future,” she
said. 
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 Ganga Ale and her family. You can read the first post about this family here.
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Jariya’s Determination: Through Good Times and Bad

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It is now school vacation, so Jariya Saerum’s children are staying home and helping her and her husband do some chores. The children also helped their grandparents with cassava harvesting. After harvesting cassava, her family is now planting corn, local vegetables and coffee. They are also preparing the ground for upland rice, which they are planning to grow during the May–June season.

The family’s recent farming production was good, so Jariya’s family made some profit, and they have enough to buy a new motorcycle. The new vehicle will make their lives easier when they travel. Rice production was also good, which should be enough for their family for the whole year. the banana crop is also yielding well, so they have enough to eat and share with others families (they sometimes trade their farming products with other families). Recently, they traded bananas for fermented fish — a Northeastern Thai food cooking ingredient.

The ducks received from the project are laying three to four eggs a day, so Jariya’s family has enough protein everyday. Their poultry is not yet hatched because the rainy season is approaching. But , they are expecting to have more ducklings after the rainy season.

During the past six months, Jariya has received various trainings both from Heifer and other organizations. Recently, she received climate adaptation training by Heifer Thailand, as well as training in disaster risk deduction, homestay management, handicraft from coconuts and being a  local tourist guide.

From learning to be local tour guide as their village is located near a prominent cave, Jariya learned basic English to communicate with foreign visitors. One of the foreign tourist visited the cave led by her and visited her family. This visitor was impressed with Jariya’s determination to improve her family’s living condition, so he provided some amount of scholarship for her children. Jariya was so impressed with his kindness, and she shared this story with project staff with a trembling voice.

Being a good role model for her children and always supportive, her children are studying hard. The recent school exam resulted in Sunisa Buajarn, her oldest daughter who is studying in grade 8, getting a 3.92 GPA. Her second-oldest son, Thanapon Buajarn ( studying in grade 2) got a 3.94 GPA (out of 4.00). Moreover, Thanapon participated in a pétanque competition (a game similar to bocce) at district level, winning the runner-up prize.

Unfortunately Satian Buajarn, Jariya’s husband, has been having health problems lately.  This is because he previously used chemicals when farming his own farm and working day labor on other farms. Jariya and Satian discussed his health issues with Heifer project staff, who talked to the family about substituting organics for the chemicals. Satian has agreed to make the change.

There was also a sad story that happened to Jariya’s family when she lost her youngest brother a few months ago from an accident.  Her brother helped temple construction, and while he was working a log fell on his head, causing him to lose consciousness. He was admitted at the local hospital for many nights, but he was not getting any better. He died peacefully about a week later. Jariya as well as her parents and other relatives were so sad for their great loss.

As time goes by, the family is getting better. Jariya’s children are growing up too, so the children are helping their grandparents sometimes to lessen their burden and to encourage them during their time of great loss.

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 Jariya Saerum and her family. You can read the first post about this family here.

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Tiwah’s Hope for a Better Future

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Thai New Year (Songkran) has just ended, and after Thai and other ethnic groups living in Thailand celebrated the long holiday, life is now back to normal. Like other families, Tiwah Subsawanya’s family celebrated Thai New Year (or water festival); however, one of their sons had an accident during Songkran.

The day Heifer Thailand staff visited the family, they were organizing a blessing ceremony for their last child Nithipat Subsawanya, who is 7 years old. Nithipat fell off the car during the water festival, but he is still a cheerful boy.  His wound is getting much better day after day, and the doctor’s appointment to take out the stitches is within a few days. “We consulted with the village’s spiritual leader, he suggested we organize the blessing ceremony for our son,” says the family’s father of four children, Korla Subsawanya.

Amidst the bad luck, Tiwah’s family got a new family member.  Her first daughter gave birth to a new baby boy, who is now three months old.  They named the boy Tokipo, which means “little parrot” in the Karen ethnic language.

Also, the sow they received from Heifer gave birth to 10 piglets, but due to the sow’s health she cannot produce enough milk to feed her ten babies, resulting in one piglet’s death. For this, Tiwah and her husband Korla decided to move their sow and piglets to raise at Korla’s younger brother’s pen. They hope that by changing to a new environment and bigger pen their pigs will be healthier.

Now is summer so Tiwah’s family is preparing the ground for the upcoming cultivation season. Tiwah and Korla are clearing cabbages from the previous cultivation and will grow peanuts soon. They also prepare the rice fields for approaching rainy season. The rice crop is for their family’s consumption while cabbages and peanuts are for sale. Even though their cabbages are yielding a crop now, they decided to clear up the land because it is not worth hiring the truck to carry the cabbages to the market since their village is located on the mountain about two hours from the city. “Hiring a truck will cost about 2,000 Baht a day including gasoline, so it’s not worth selling the crop since cabbage price is very low now,” says Tiwah Subsawanya.

In terms of project activity, recently Tiwah attended an organic farming exposure trip where  she learned to make organic pesticides from local herbs. After the trip she shared this knowledge with her husband. “We haven’t started to apply the knowledge yet because it is off farming season, but we are planning to use it during the upcoming farming season. I’m sure it will help reduce cost of farming if we use herbs as the substitute of chemicals.” Korla says.

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 Tiwah Subsawanya and her family. You can read the first post about this family here.

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In India, a Mother and Daughter Learn Mutual Respect

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Story and photos by Katya Cengel

Suman Kumari was in 5th grade when her parents pulled her out of school. Her father told her she had studied enough for this lifetime.

Moti Meena, right, and her eldest daughter, Suman Kumari, in their home.

“At rebirth from the womb of some other mother, then you can study whatever you want, or to whatever standard [grade] you want,” Laxman Meena told his eldest daughter.

Suman’s mother didn’t argue. She never went to school and cannot read or write. Like her husband, Moti Meena felt it was not important for their daughters to be educated.

Then, three years ago, Moti sent Suman back to school, telling her to study hard so she could help Moti with the family’s finances. Suman adjusted well despite having been out of the classroom for four years. She is now 17 years old and in the 8th grade. Her mother relies on her to read road signs when they travel. Moti herself can now sign her name, but it was not her daughter who taught her this skill, it was the women in her self-help group. The group has transformed Moti’s future and just as importantly the future of her daughter Suman.

Female-centered self-help groups are the basis of Heifer International’s work in India, said Abhinav Gaurav, technical liaison officer for Heifer India.

“The idea is to better the situation for women in a country that does not value them in the same way it values males,” Gaurav said.

Groups of 20 to 25 women meet once or twice a month and are offered various social, educational and economic trainings in addition to a savings and loan program and the support of their peers. While Heifer does supply goats in the region, Gaurav said that development here is not so much about livestock distribution as “transforming people and producing a deeper level impact.”

Moti’s family lives in a one-room thatch-sided home with a dirt floor in the hamlet of Moradi, where Heifer has been working since 2009. Of the 25 families in the settlement, 10 are associated with Heifer. In three years she has become more accepting of the different castes and tribes that populate the region and has saved 3,500 rupees ($70), which she plans to put toward replacing her home’s walls with concrete. Although she cannot remove her savings until she leaves the group, a condition that enables the group to lend money, she can borrow money at low interest rates. It was Heifer’s training on gender issues that convinced Moti and Laxman to put Suman back in school.

“After we received the gender training the whole community put pressure on us to put our daughter back in school,” Laxman said.

Both Laxman and Moti now want their eldest daughter to complete 10th grade. Moti already believes that her daughter is more knowledgeable than she was at her age. But despite all she has learned, Suman remains impressed with her mother’s wisdom.

“I see mother as a role model nowadays because she has gained knowledge and skills,” Suman said. “I want to be like her.”

Moti Meena in her kitchen.

This Mother’s Day, celebrate your mom by helping provide for another mother in need.

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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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Family Leads Community Towards Sustainability

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Durga Koirala has been very busy in the past 3 months. She received a buffalo from Heifer and only had oxen for draft power. The income from selling buffalo’s milk this quarter helped pay the school tuition for her two sons Sushil (17) and Sudip (16). Durga’s husband is very impressed with the things she has learned from the project. He is so impressed with the group fund that the members have started and how the members of Durga’s group have been using small loans from it to invest in income generating activities, that he too formed a men’s group with his friends and started a group savings of his own. “It has been difficult to get funds when we need them. I didn’t realize that saving a few rupees every month would solve the problem,” Padam said.

Durga’s sons have been pretty busy too. Sushil and Sudip have formed a youth group. Their plan is to engage the youth in the community in creative and community building activities. Durga seems to have communicated the essence of the trainings she received through the project very well to her family.

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.

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A piece of land to live in

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Laxmi’s family is landless. The small house she and her family live on is on government land. When she received two goats from Heifer it seems like she and her husband would no longer have to struggle to put food on the table for her son Bishal (8) and daughter Trishala (1). Things were so bad for the family that Bishal had to go live with his maternal uncle as Laxmi could not feed him. But things have been better than they expected.

A steady income from goats has enabled the family to lease a plot of land and grow crops. Half of this goes to the land owners but the half that remains gives the family something to rely on. Laxmi and her husband have planted mustard and lentils. The burms of the land have fodder growing in them for the goats. In the next few months the goat kids will be old enough to sell. The family lives comfortably for now, but there is much to do. Laxmi’s dream is to buy a plot of land in the same village. With Heifer’s inputs and training, Laxmi feels she can live her dream.

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.

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A Step Closer

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Maya Rani Thau is landless. She and her husband, Gopi work day and night on a small piece of leased land for half the land’s yield. She received two goats from Heifer and trainings that taught her to get the maximum benefit out of the land and animals. Her dream is for her three sons to go to college and get reputed jobs.

Maya Rani's oxen

There is good news Maya Rani wants to share. They bought a pair of oxen with the profit from the goats and a small loan from the group fund. Now ploughing the land will not be so hard. The oxen will also produce manure that will be used to fertilize. She hopes that the next crop will be profitable enough to lease some more land.

Her husband, who used  to be an alcoholic, is now better. He helps her out a lot with the animals and the farm. Maya feels she is step closer to the life she dreams for her sons.

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