Category Archives: Cornerstones

Ending Violence Against Women Through Social Change

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In our hometown paper here in Little Rock, Ark., news of murder and rape charges against five of the men accused of gang-raping a 23-year-old woman aboard a moving bus in India made the front page today. The attack and subsequent uprising and cry for change is front and center in thousands of newspapers and online news sites around the world. If you aren’t paying attention, it’s time to start. This is an unprecedented moment in India’s history and in the cause of women’s rights around the world.

Protesters in New Delhi take part in a silent march to demand justice for the 23-year-old woman who was raped and killed. ZUMA/Rex Features/The Guardian

A report in The Guardian quotes Ranjana Kumari of the Centre for Social Research as saying “Can this grief, this anger at the brutalization and murder of a young woman result in positive change? What we are seeing on our streets is a defining moment of our democracy. … For decades, India’s endemic violence against women has been a defining issue for women’s groups and the rights movement, but for the first time the crime of sexual offense and rape has been taken up by the people themselves.”

Rapes have become frequent in India, with complaints increasing 25 percent from 2006 to 2011. More than 220,000 incidents were reported in 2011 alone, according to Indian government statistics cited in a CNN report. What’s notable is that now, finally, the issue is getting the global attention it deserves, though at the horrible cost of the brutality endured not just by the medical student who died of her injuries but also of the scores of women who bore the pain of such an attack in silence.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article cites Kishwar Desai’s opinion piece in The Indian Express that said the gang rape illustrated to some that “a certain class of men is deeply uncomfortable with women displaying their independence, receiving education and joining the workforce. The gang rape becomes a form of subduing the women, collectively, and establishing their male superiority.”

He goes on to say “the answer lies in correcting the manner in which families value men and women, and the emotional disconnect between them.”

Author Ranjana Kumari said “for decades, NGOs, women’s groups, human rights organizations have been pushing against this wall of institutional sexism; now a part of that wall has broken down and we must seize this moment.”

Heifer International includes gender equity training in its projects around the world, many of which include traditional cultures that limit the rights and freedoms of women. Special trainings just for men explain the value of women’s contributions and help them understand that working together will improve the lives of all, men, women and children. Women have their own sessions and organize in self-help groups to pool savings and start small businesses.

In Bangladesh, one of the gender equity trainings for men led Mohammad Huzzatullah, a man who had returned from work outside the country with means to make a difference, to sponsor his own women’s group. Read more about his story in World Ark here, or in our digital edition on iPad and Android tablets.

Every day, Heifer’s investment in women and training in women’s empowerment change lives. In just one example, in Nepal, Heifer participant Ganga Khanal once suffered abuse from her husband and believed herself that women and girls were not as important as men.

Ganga Khanal shows off her Heifer goats in her family’s pen in Jirouna, Nepal. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

“I used to be guilty as well in believing it was more important to educate or provide for my sons than for my daughters. But the trainings changed all that for me. Today, my daughter is in the army. She has made me realize and understand that girls are no less than boys.”

Her 17-year-old son Sudip learned that same lesson. “Looking at my mom, I have changed my view of women, and I have so much more respect for them and confidence in them. I used to laugh at them sitting in their groups and thought they would never do anything good. But just seeing them grow through the years through the project and seeing them buy land, build community buildings, form businesses, it’s just been so overwhelming.

“I have so much respect for these women who have created opportunities for people like me,” Sudip said. “The future looks bright for us because of our moms.”

Development organizations, women’s rights groups and governments should all take this moment in history at its full weight. Change is already happening. Please add your voice to the chorus and speak up for women’s rights. Write us at worldark@list.heifer.org or comment on this post. Please click here to contribute to Heifer’s women’s empowerment projects.

Today’s article in The Lancet medical journal wraps it up best, “The greatest respect we can give to the memory of the Indian student who died on Dec. 29 is by protecting and strengthening the political and social rights of women worldwide.”

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Heifer International Families Care for Elderly in India

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People in India have flocked to cities in search of better, higher paying jobs. This urbanization has led to the breakdown of the traditional practice of living with extended family. The nuclear-family-household trend has held unforeseen consequences for the country’s elderly. They are often left uncared for and have difficulty caring for themselves, especially when they fall ill. Heifer India Country Director Avni Malhotra shares how Heifer recipients are working to care for elderly residents in need in their communities.

Global Family Day India

Photo by Brigette Lacombe, courtesy of Heifer International.

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Provide Education for Girls on Universal Children’s Day

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Uneducated women live a limited life. They have few personal choices about marriage, the number of children they will have and how their family will spend its money. Education for girls is a key element in fighting hunger and poverty.

Limited Lives

Education For Girls

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Due to their marginalized status in many areas of the world, women’s movements are often restricted to the home, and they are not welcome to participate in making personal or community decisions. Their husbands dictate their lives. Their lack of education coupled with their low status severely limits income-generating opportunities. Moreover, their social subordination places them at a high risk for domestic violence, and if they become widows or their marriage ends, trafficking.

People in many places still believe spending money on sending a girl to school is pointless. And if she is lucky enough to get to go, when income is limited, the family often will stop her schooling in favor of spending the money on her brothers’ school fees. When half of the population isn’t fulfilling its potential, the entire community suffers.

Education for Girls Changes Women’s Lives

Basic education for girls changes their lives. The Strey Tbong Pich women’s group in Cambodia has learned to read and write thanks to training through a Heifer International project. They can now learn about sanitation and nutrition, keep financial records and have access to more income-generating opportunities.

“Before joining the group and attending the literacy class, our family had never drunk boiled water,” said 37-year-old Kan Nai Ky from the Strey Tbong Pich women’s group. “Our house was not hygienic, as we had never cared about waste around our house, and there was no sanitation inside the house. Since studying the literacy book on improving the environment, we know the importance of good hygiene, sanitation and the environment. Now we always boil the water before drinking.”

Imagine if these women had learned to read when they were girls. What different lives might they have led?

One of our newest items in the Heifer International Gift Catalog is Send a Girl to School. The gift provides a family in need with training and livestock so they can earn the income they need to pay for their daughter’s school fees and supplies. Education for girls is one of the surest ways to break the cycle of poverty and dependence in a community.

Universal Children’s Day is Today

Celebrate this Universal Children’s Day by changing the future for a girl. This holiday, created in 1954 by the United Nations, works to benefit the interests of children by limiting long-work hours and increasing access to education.

This Universal Children’s Day, help provide education for girls by giving now. Your holiday gift for a loved one can truly transform the lives of others.

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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Livestock Can Help End Hunger and Poverty

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Yesterday I wrote about how important measuring impact is to demonstrating Heifer’s success, as well as ensuring our projects are on track. Today, I want to share with you how Heifer’s work with livestock is managed in a way that cares for the animals without jeopardizing the well-being of our project families or their environment.

We’ve all witnessed the growing conversation about animals in agriculture, from their impact on the landscape to their appropriateness in a fast-changing world. Because livestock are at the very core of much of how Heifer works with families, these are issues we have thoroughly researched and have strong feelings for.

Here in the United States, in light of the drought that some of the country is still suffering, there’s the renewal of the livestock and feed vs. food debate. That’s been a topic in Heifer communities for years, so managing food needs for animals, family food needs and care for the environment has been critical for us to get right.

Livestock in Thailand

Photo courtesy of Heifer International

Core to our work are appropriateness and application. In the United States, where we have easy access to fuel, mechanics and spare parts, mechanization makes sense. But that is not the case in most of Africa or Asia, where a water buffalo is a living tractor. Without the draft animal, there would be fewer crops, fewer acres plowed, fewer goods to eat or market.

So, we teach farmers to grow fodder for their animals that doesn’t compete with the human food chain, and to feed animals in place through zero-grazing pens. Impact on land is minimized, and the health of the animals is protected, even enhanced. Livestock can eat foodstuffs not fit for people, so there is rarely competition as we see here.

Livestock in Thailand

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

There also is the difference that for most of our participant families, animals are part of their culture, their lifeblood. As one of our Thai farmers told us, “If I die, my family will weep for me. If my water buffalo dies, my family will starve.” There is no feed vs. food debate there—they are interdependent and lifesaving.

Animals are an integral part of the value chain for much of the world as well. In Nepal, for example, the demand for goat meat significantly exceeds the country’s current production capacity. It exceeds even the supply when it is supplemented by exports from India and Bangladesh. So the key is to help Nepali farmers produce more and better goat meat, boosting supply and the market chain.

That is behind one of our programs in Nepal, to help 148,000 families—women-led—to improve productivity, and then to help them connect to markets for the milk and goat meat. Much of the work will be done through farmer-owned co-ops that will help participants increase farm production, reach markets, access financial services and create business opportunities.

Livestock in Nepal

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International.

The goal of the work is to empower these families, as well as “pass on” families to become self-sustaining and to build small businesses. The project will help these farmers help their countrymen and women by reducing the importation of goats from foreign sources by 30 percent and importation of milk by 10 percent, building their own economies as well as the country’s economy.

But as I noted Friday, economic improvement by itself is unsustainable, so at the same time we are helping these farmers improve their production, we are providing training in the Cornerstones so that as they are securing their financial future, they are building the community development framework to provide  “collective impact.”

Come back tomorrow to the Heifer Blog to learn how collective impact is integral to the way Heifer works around the world.

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Community Development Required to Strengthen Small Farmers

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Yesterday I shared with you some thoughts about how smallholder farmers must be strengthened so they can help feed the world’s growing population. Today, I want to share with you the importance of community development.

Economic growth for its own sake is not a solution. For economic growth to make sense and to make lasting change, there has to be community development—it must contribute to a better life for the least of us just as much as it improves life for those of us with the most.

For Heifer, community development comes through training in our Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development. These values, such as gender equity, full participation, sharing and caring, accountability and training and education, are the backbone of our work.

Community Development through Heifer's Cornerstones

Community Development through Heifer's Cornerstones. Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

Embedded into a family’s life and culture, these values create significant social change. Women gain their voice and become leaders in their communities. Husbands learn respect and help their wives. Co-ops form, savings accounts are created and, in time, entire communities, entire countries change.

Community development is the foundation for market development, and building social capital and ensuring gender equity is the highest form of pro-poor development.

Without community development, market development doesn’t last. Market development typically works against the poor, so Heifer International provides the structure and tools families need to compete fairly. These include resources such as animals and training to help them achieve resilience, but we also provide them access to others in the value chain that add value and provide access to cash. These are critical needs, not nice to haves for these smallholder farm families.

We call this Heifer’s Healthy Hoofprint—and it creates material change such as increases in income and nutrition; attitudinal change in values and social norms, where farmers who once isolated themselves now collaborate and cooperate; and external change, including changes in laws and policies by governments and other NGOs.

But it’s got to be about more than income, it’s also about what that income means to them, how it helps improve their lives beyond basic needs. It’s about more than helping them grow more food. It’s about helping them grow better food—more nutritious, more diverse, providing a year-around diet that supports three protein-laden meals every day of every month. There can be no more lean months.

Community development creates individual and collective prosperity.

Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

It’s about helping them help cool and improve the planet, using more organic fertilizers like manure from their animals, implementing good sanitary practices—using latrines and protecting water supplies. It’s about empowering women to their proper place and role—equal partners in progress and profits, and as leaders. We must ensure they have a say in their education, contribute to decisions in the household, have mobility and unfettered access to services and markets—equality in all they do and seek.

There must be other intangibles—key pieces of community development—as well. There is strength in numbers, so we must help them behave collectively, for the good of the community as well as the good of the family. There must be social inclusion and trust, especially trust. We see that in our projects that continue to heal the wounds of war and conflict in Rwanda, Kosovo and Cambodia.

We, and others who support us, believe our attention to community development, alongside asset development, contributes to our success. As families use our livestock to increase food production and diversity, the Cornerstones foster change that spans generations. In some communities, we are seeing families celebrate 13 generations of Passing on the Gift.

Sheep as agents of community development.

Sheep as agents of community development. Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

Imagine that. One sheep became two, then four, then eight. After 13 generations, that is 4,096 sheep and 4,096 additional families benefitting from the original sheep and training. That’s impact!

Come back tomorrow to the Heifer Blog to learn about how measuring our impact is key to demonstrating the changes created by our work.

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Sustainability at Heifer International: Part 2

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At Heifer International, “sustainability” is much more than a buzzword. It’s at the core of everything we do. If your donation isn’t going to make a lasting difference, what’s the point of giving? As I mentioned in my blog post Thursday, Heifer’s work can be viewed through three lenses of sustainability. This post is the second in a three-part series to examine what genuine sustainability looks like at Heifer International. Read Part 1 here.

Sustainability: The capacity to endure

Heifer’s work is made possible through the contributions of individuals, families, congregations, civic groups, schools, private foundations, corporate partners, government entities and others. What a shame it would be if these generous gifts, once given, became obsolete. The beauty of our model, however, is that the original recipients of a project’s livestock, agricultural resources and training are committed to Passing on the Gift in equal quantity and quality.

Sustainability through Passing on the Gift in China

Sustainability through Passing on the Gift in China. Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

Watch Alton Brown explain how gifts to Heifer International exemplify sustainability through Passing on the Gift:

This process happens a minimum of one time per project. Would you believe that the average project’s gifts are passed on for five or six (livestock) generations? In Nepal, some projects have Passed on the Gift 13 times. These extra pass-ons aren’t at the requirement of our project staff; they happen because families and communities are so transformed by these gifts, they want to keep paying it forward. Now that’s making a donation last.

Check back on the Heifer Blog tomorrow for Part 3 of this Sustainability at Heifer series. Better yet, subscribe to the blog by email or RSS feed and keep up with Heifer every day.

Want to give the gift of genuine sustainability? Visit our online gift catalog now.

Read more Passing on the Gift stories here.

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Sustainability at Heifer International: Part 1

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At Heifer International, “sustainability” is much more than a buzzword. It’s at the core of everything we do. If you’re not setting out to do work that lasts, why bother at all? As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, Heifer’s work can be viewed through three lenses of sustainability. This post is the first in a three-part series to examine what genuine sustainability looks like at Heifer International.

Sustainability: Able to be maintained at a certain level

One of the defining factors of our work is that, when our projects are over, and direct involvement with participating families is finished, the improvements they have made in their own lives through our gifts of livestock and training are maintainable. Small farming families have the physical resources, knowledge and motivation to not only stay at their current level of improved livelihoods, but also to continue making improvements.

Sustainability in Tanzania: Kitomary Family

The Kitomarys on their 1.5 acre organic farm, nine years after receiving assistance from Heifer. Photo by Kelly MacNeil, courtesy of Heifer International.

This form of sustainability is so important, and it’s how we know our efforts truly work. Take  for example the Kitomary family of Tanzania, about whom Kelly MacNeil wrote on the Heifer Blog. They received their gifts of animals and training nine years ago, and they continue thriving on their one-and-a-half-acre farm after all these years. They are educating all six of their children, which would not be possible had they not continued applying what they learned in the Heifer trainings to make the most out of their very small plot of land. The Kitomarys are the living definition of sustainability.

Check back on the Heifer Blog tomorrow for Part 2 of this Sustainability at Heifer series. Better yet, subscribe to the blog by email or RSS feed and keep up with Heifer every day.

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International Day of the Girl Child: Little Soldier Girl

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Vanessa Chakhala, almost 2, snores away as her mother holds her.

Most of the children streaming over the packed-dirt roads and dusty orange paths of Malawi’s Mchinji region have no shoes to wear, although a few scuff around in ragged flip-flops. Shoes are a coveted commodity here, especially when the summer sun burns into the ground. Children who have only one shoe will wear it.

Vanessa has shoes to wear, making her one of the luckier children in her village.

Vanessa Chakhala, though, is luckier than most. A sturdy 22-month-old, her chubby feet are jammed into new blue jelly shoes even though her feet rarely touch the ground. The youngest in the family and the only girl, Vanessa gets heaps of special treatment. Her satiny peach-colored dress is torn but clean, and her hair is styled in short braids that match her mother’s. Mother Patricia, age 32, carries her daughter in her arms or on her back much of the time. When it’s time to nap, Vanessa snores away in Patricia’s lap.

The special treatment certainly hasn’t made Vanessa soft, though, and her mother is delighted by her only daughter’s sturdy build and stubborn personality. Patricia wants Vanessa to become a soldier so that she can be in charge of her own destiny. Unlike herself, Patricia said her daughter will have an education that extends beyond 8thgrade and a chance to shape her own future. Money for Vanessa’s education and the education of her three brothers will come from the meat goats Heifer provided. The family is also hoping that being able to add meat to their diet occasionally will make them stronger and better able to stave off malaria, diarrhea and malnourishment.

Baby Vanessa refuses to smile, which only makes her cuter.

Snapping cute photos of Chionko Village’s little princess Vanessa was no problem when she was sleeping, but the shoot shut down as soon as she woke up. Vanessa does what she wants, and she does not want to be in pictures. Her mother and the other women in her village danced for her, made faces, sang songs. But Vanessa wasn’t going to cooperate and refused to smile or pose.

It’s unlikely that a little girl in Malawi would be so fawned over or her obstinacy so celebrated 20 years ago. But today a woman is president here, and even in rural areas many girls are getting sent to school. It’s real progress.

But women and girls in Malawi are still expected to handle the majority of water fetching, cooking, gardening and tending children. These never-ending obligations cut into time girls could spend studying, and often smother their opportunity to live lives different from their mothers and grandmothers.

Today is the United Nations International Day of the Girl Child, a time to recognize the challenges girls in many developing countries face and to find ways to help them reach their potential. Gender equity is one of Heifer’s Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development, and encouraging women and girls to learn, cooperate and use their gifts is part of every project.

To learn more about International Day of the Girl Child, go here.

Nope. Still not going to smile.

Photos by Russell Powell

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Half the Sky Part 2: Talent and Opportunity

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This post is a continuation of my reflections on the documentary, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. You can read my thoughts on the first half here.

Half the Sky

During the second half of Half the Sky, there were two stories that made me realize how important education and leadership are for women globally. When woman are provided with opportunity, they do not just lift themselves out of poverty, but they also lift their entire families out of poverty as well.

The documentary travels to India, where 90 percent of sex workers’ daughters also follow in their footsteps. When a woman was asked why she didn’t send her daughter away for an education, the woman replied, “Because my daughter would be smarter than I am, and judge me.” The daughter herself was afraid of her fate because she knew that her appearance would fetch a high price in that community if she were sold. All the young girl wanted was a chance at something else in life.

After India, Half the Sky visited a female village in Kenya where they have learned to build their own school, become business leaders, and make their own decisions with what little resources they have been able to find. As we meet a woman who owns an oil business in her community she said, “What I learned, I did not keep to myself. I shared it.” Though she was not part of a Heifer project, it really stuck with me that Heifer’s Cornerstone of Passing on the Gift should be shared for all of us.

At Heifer International, we help lift women and their communities out of hunger and poverty using the our 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development, which include: Training and Education, Gender and Family Focus, and Full Participation.

The fastest way to make a difference is to invest in women globally. By providing education, leadership and resources to women in need, they will do what it takes to help their families. As Nicholas Kristoff said last night, “In this world, talent is universal but opportunity is not.”

Did you watch either or both parts of Half the Sky? Tell me in the comments section below what you thought about it.

Did you miss it but want to watch it? Watch Part I (available online until October 8).

Watch Part II (available until October 9).

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Women’s Empowerment is Key to Turning Oppression Into Opportunity

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At Heifer International we believe there is no development strategy more beneficial to society than the one that involves women as central players, and at the same time engages men to encourage a more accepting view of women’s participation. Our work, our stories, our evaluations demonstrate that when we work in partnership with women, families benefit, communities benefit—positive changes do occur.

And we know that given help, tools and training to enhance food production and the chance to build assets and income, these are the women who will feed the world’s exponentially growing population.

We recognize that women are the backbone of agriculture and the key driver of food production. Here are a handful of facts to illustrate this point:

  • Worldwide, 36 percent of the world’s farmers are women—compared with 34 percent for men.
  • In developing regions, the figure is much higher. In Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, 60 to 70 percent of farmers are women.
  • There are 650 million smallholder farmers in the world, and 50 to 80 percent of them are women!
  • They grow 70 percent of the food that is eaten every day and have the potential to feed the world.

Despite these impressive numbers, women still face significant disparity in the resources and support they can access, including land, credit and education.

This is not acceptable.

Gender equity is a basic human right and an important component of international development work. By gender equity, I mean that women and men, girls and boys are valued equally and enjoy the same opportunities to achieve their full potential. When gender equity is present, there is accountability, efficiency and sustainability. At Heifer, we know what women can accomplish, and we recognize the value of empowering them. We ensure that gender equity is present in all of our projects – it’s one of our 12 Cornerstones.

I recently traveled to Nepal and met with many women’s groups. Let me tell you about two of them. They are involved in Heifer projects that have a five-year implementation period. The first group of women, in the initial project stage, was shy and nervous. Their husbands, also in attendance, dominated the conversation.

The second group of women had been part of their project for over two years and participated in Heifer’s Value-Based Cornerstone training. Such a contrast! These women were powerful, talking about their future plans and present successes. And the men – quiet, reverent, awestruck.

For Heifer International, development is not just about offering the opportunity of a livelihood and access to basic social services; it is about creating an environment where people can realize their rights, achieve self-reliance and participate meaningfully in society.

I am proud of Heifer International’s support of the Half the Sky Movement, which is putting an end to the oppression of women and girls worldwide. I encourage you to watch Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a series on PBS tonight and tomorrow night (9pm Eastern) and join in our shared pledge to helping women and girls succeed so they can achieve their dreams of hope, happiness, opportunity and prosperity.

Editor’s note: Photos by Dave Anderson, courtesy of Heifer International.

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