Category Archives: Small Farmers

Heifer increases goat productivity in Nepal

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In January Heifer launched its dream project for Nepal, Strengthening Livestock Value Chain (SLVC). Its goals are to increase meat and milk production to substitute current imports and create a unique value chain for meat and milk that incorporates smallholder farmers not only in the production phase but also in marketing it. But there was a glitch. Over the years degradation of genetic merit in goats resulted in lower levels of productivity. In layman’s terms, they had fewer babies who did not grow as well and farmers could not sell them for good prices.

Farmers of Ladavir in the Sindhuli district in eastern foothills of Nepal are a part of a unique classroom under the Community Initiative for Genetic Improvement in Goats (CIGIG). Here they learn about how to improve production of goats through selective breeding. These farmers are not new to rearing goats but what they learn in this classroom will teach them to do so in a more scientific way through observation and intervention. To put it simply, it’s the Mendel’s Law in action. A pool of healthy genetically superior does and bucks will be produced by the end of the project and will be marketed across communities around the country to in-turn increase their production. Ladavir will be a training ground and resource village for genetically superior high productivity goats.

Heifer’s work around the world is not just limited giving animals and agricultural inputs if farmers but also extends to doing what needs to be done to bridge the gaps between the present that the future that Heifer envisioned together with the families it works with. CIGIG is one such initiative.

Participants of the first CIGIG class mull over a poster that depicts how to select a good male and female goat from physical traits for breeding.

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Heifer CEO in Nepal: First Steps into Sustainability

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On his first day in Nepal, Heifer International President and CEO Pierre Ferrari found himself among a group of withdrawn yet excited women in an unused classroom in the village of Kabilash in Chitwan district, a jostling 45-minute drive uphill on a dirt track that was patched up from recent landslides especially for his visit. The ethnic tribal women spoke of the challenges of and their aspirations for Heifer’s signature project, of which they were going to be a part. This was a first for Ferrari. Having traveled through Nepal in February 2011 and having heard about the country’s achievements in implementing transformational projects ever since he joined Heifer, Ferrari was more accustomed to strong women displaying confidence. “It validated the time and money we put into trainings to build the social capital to strengthen and transform women,” said Ferrari.

The women in Kabilash are part of a groundbreaking effort in Nepal that will scale up Heifer’s work to end poverty and hunger by increasing goat and milk production by helping women farmers increase production and enabling them to take part in the value chain through cooperatives formed and led by women. The overarching goal of the project, reducing importation of live goats and milk, will increase income for smallholder farmers through increased production and participation in the value chain, which will ensure that they get a fair share of the profits.

Heifer’s plan in this beautiful but resource-poor community is to establish sustainable partnerships with the local government, which is a co-funder of the project. “Our five-year plan consists of improving livestock and agriculture to help the people of this village escape poverty,” said Village Development Committee Secretary Pradhumna Khadka. “So when Heifer came to me with an opportunity to partner, I accepted it without any reservations.”

This is a partnership that works for all. Because after Heifer completes its work in Kabilash, it can be assured that the impacts will be exponential. “By this time, Heifer will have strengthened the farmers, the cooperative they form, and the agents of development, the government organizations, who are there to stay,” said Parbati Rawal, executive director of SRAM, a Heifer local partner NGO that will implement the project in Kabilash.

Heifer Nepal is geared up to implement similar projects in 28 districts of Nepal in the next five—an ambitious plan that has already been able to seek support in forms of resource leverage and collaborative partnerships from the national and local government and other development agencies.

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Heifer India Leads Rukkhi to a Better Life

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Rukkhi Devi with her goats.

A Heifer India project participant stands in front of her new concrete house, which was made possible through the organization's sustainable agriculture development program.

Rukkhi Devi stands in front of her new concrete house.

 

“In the last six months, the biggest change has been that from a thatched house. I have been able to build a concrete house.”  —Rukkhi Devi

Life is getting better for Rukkhi Devi. She looks at the two goats she received from Heifer India. These now have four kids. The two to be passed on are ready for the big ceremony. The goats changed her life. She got three liters of milk every day: she kept one for her family’s consumption and sold the rest at about $1 per liter to the local merchant. The family has sold two bucks for 5,000 Rupees (about US $ 100) this month. About 10 months ago, they sold a male kid male for $40. The family has earned a total of $140 that has increased their family income.

But in order to get this result, Rukkhi had to learn how to keep her livestock. She learned the benefits of keeping the goats in a shed so the hot summer sun would not burn their skin. She learned how to stall-feed them too. The fodder seeds Heifer provided also helped.

Rukkhi is also seeing the benefits of the vegetable seeds she received. Now the family has eaten green vegetables every day for the last three months. These positive results encouraged them to plant eight more trees this year.

The highlight of the project were the three import trainings Rukkhi received:

  • The nutrition & hygiene training has been very informative. Rukkhi says it has helped her learn and understand how to maintain personal hygiene and to keep the house and its surroundings clean. She understands the importance of a toilet in the house. She also understands the strong emphasis on good nutrition for good health.
  • The training on smokeless stoves has helped her understand the hazardous implications of smoke on health, especially on the health of women in the house. She says she understood how the smoke would affect her vision, her eyes and her respiratory tract. She is glad that these problems, which were deemed to be eventualities, will not affect her or her family now. She also understands that it will save on fuel and fuel costs, and also reduce the ill effects caused to the environment. She is happy that she will be able to cook twice as quickly, the utensils and dishes will not turn black from charcoal and the kitchen will not be covered with soot.
  • The training on rain water harvesting systems helped Rukkhi realize the importance of water management. She says her family would save a total of about $57 annually on water because of collecting rainwater. Given the scarcity of water and negligible amount of rain in the region, the rainwater harvesting system would help them maintain an unrestricted supply of water throughout the year. This would impact the lives of the women positively because they are the ones who travel long distances to fetch water, she adds.

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. In Asia/South Pacific, our colleagues have chosen one family in each region in the countries where we work and will bring us quarterly updates. You can read the first story about Rukkhi Devi and her family here. 

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Ryan Bell Gives Gift of Transformation

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Ryan Bell

Ryan surpassed his $25,000 goal on December 14. He's currently at $27,705. Let's help him get to $30,000.

I have to admit, I was skeptical. When I wrote and blogged about the second of the two stories on Ryan Bell, I fully expected it to take much longer before he reached his goal of raising enough money for a $25,000 Gift of Transformation.

But this remarkable young man proved me wrong. Again. Ryan reached his goal lofty goal late last week, and his Team Heifer page continues to bring in money. I’m truly grateful to have been able to tell his story; to have gotten to know Ryan and his family.

But the best part of all of this? Ryan isn’t done. He’s not satisfied with reaching his goal years before he expected to. When I contacted Ryan’s mom, Laura, last week, she was going to text him at school to tell him the news. He was thrilled, she said. Their conversation went a little like this:

Laura: “It made his day!  So, that afternoon we looked up the new total and I said, ‘You know, at this rate you might be able to add a camel to your goal.’  You know my son by now… He said, ‘Mom, I think we should add an Ark!’”

Right now he’s more than half-way to reaching his NEW goal of adding $5,000 more to his remarkable total. If you want to help Ryan, you can go to his Team Heifer page and donate.

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New World Ark Magazine Out Now

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For the people of Sayon in the southern Philippines, a typhoon was a new and terrible experience. So when Typhoon Bopha ripped through their small village in December, most were unprepared. Many people there lost their homes and livelihoods, which for Heifer project participants, that meant seeing livestock and crops wash away. In the May edition of World Ark, which is in mailboxes this week, you can read about Heifer’s work in the aftermath of the typhoon, and how we are implementing Disaster Risk Reduction training so that people can take steps to mitigate the effects of future natural disasters.Cover

Or you can read about what it’s like to scale Mount Kilimanjaro, which is exactly what writer Kelly MacNeil did as part of a team with employees from Heifer partner Elanco Animal Health. The team collectively raised more than $8,000 for Heifer with the climb.

And while you’re reading, check out the interview with former first lady Laura Bush. She is chair of a program at the Bush Institute that empowers Egyptian women at a critical time for democracy and women’s rights in their country.

We also have stories from a Heifer literacy project in Cambodia, and a fascinating look at what affect climate change is having on the pastoralists in the Sahel region of Africa.

As always there are gorgeous photos and intriguing infographics to peruse as well. The page-turner edition is a great way to view the magazine, but don’t forget to check out World Ark’s app on the iPad and Android tablets, too.

Happy reading!

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Heifer CEO Ferrari Tours Haiti Ag Sites with President Clinton

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President and CEO Pierre Ferrari talks with President Clinton at North Coast Development farm in Terrier Rouge, Haiti.

President and CEO Pierre Ferrari talks with President Clinton at North Coast Development Corporation’s farm in Terrier Rouge, Haiti.

TERRIER ROUGE, Haiti—Two large U.N. helicopters swooped in last weekend to North Coast Development Corporation‘s farm in northeast Haiti for a visit by President Clinton and a delegation of executives key to agricultural development in Haiti, including Heifer’s President and CEO Pierre Ferrari.

Andy English of North Coast Development and Heifer CEO Pierre Ferrari chat as a U.N. helicopter warms up for departure.

Andy English of North Coast Development and Heifer CEO Pierre Ferrari chat in front of one of the U.N. helicopters that landed on the farm.

The farm is especially close to Heifer’s heart as we work with operator Andy English and owner Ann Piper to offer Heifer training in beekeeping and animal health care. The farm will also build one of three purebred commercial goat breeding centers as part of Heifer Haiti’s $18.7 million REACH project to strengthen the crop- and livestock-based livelihoods of more than 20,000 vulnerable farming families throughout the country.

This doe, named "Gouda," is the model breeder for the farm, English says.

This doe, named “Gouda,” is the model breeder for the farm, English says.

“If you really want to change something in this country that currently has very poor quality animals, you have to invest long-term,” said Country Director Hervil Cherubin. “We’re developing our own high-quality centers to improve the quality of animals throughout Haiti and reduce imports from the Dominican Republic.”

Ferrari agreed. “What we’re doing is addressing the problem immediately and with scale. It’s not just a pilot project. We’re building a system that creates value for everyone in the chain.

heifergroup

From left, Heifer’s Edwin Rocha, Pierre Ferrari and Ewaldy Estil of Heifer Haiti, pose for a photo with animal health care worker Lovely Cledor, age 26. Lovely took the Heifer animal care training and immediately got a job working with the goats on North Coast’s farm. She wants to become a veterinarian and contribute to improving animal production in Haiti.

“It’s slow, you don’t see it right away,” Ferrari said. “But in 10 to 15 years, we can look back and measure the difference in quality and income and economic value created by this project. Many of the complaints about organizations working in Haiti is that they don’t stay long enough to make any real change. Heifer has been here for more than 20 years, and we’re investing in structural change and the long-term success of Haitian agriculture.”

The Clinton Foundation noted that the weekend tours to farms and factories, and related dinners and conversations, were to highlight a variety of Haitian agricultural products and businesses and explore how the government, international community and private sector are finding new opportunities to foster growth and investment in the agricultural sector in Haiti. The foundation also announced more than $700,000 in grants to support small farmers.

President Clinton speaks with Heifer's Pierre Ferrari and other delegates at the Heineken brewery in Port au Prince that produces the Haitian beer Prestige.

President Clinton speaks with Heifer’s Pierre Ferrari and other delegates at the Heineken brewery in Port au Prince that produces the Haitian beer Prestige.

In a wrap-up speech at the Heineken plant in Port au Prince that announced that company’s $40 million investment and commitment to local sourcing of sorghum for the brewery, Clinton thanked Ferrari and Heifer International by name, in addition to others in the delegation, for their contributions in Haiti. He also reinforced the rallying cry of Haiti’s President MIchel Martelly that “Haiti is open for business.”

“This has been a great day,” Clinton said in a press conference at the brewery. “One of the great debates that I hope to see favorably resolved while I’m still alive is whether the world population can go to 8 or 9 billion or wherever it’s going, and we can deal with the challenges of climate change in a way that enhances and empowers smallholder farmers instead of throwing them off their lands with the pipe dream that large-scale mechanized farming can solve that problem. It will be a disaster if it happens.

“We wouldn’t be in the fix we are in today if all the world’s economic powers, including the international organizations, had not made a decision somewhere around 1980 to simply stop supporting smallholder farm agriculture in developing countries,” Clinton said.

“We are trying in Haiti to establish a laboratory to prove that farmers are smart everywhere, they know how to protect their land and make the most of it and all they need is organization, inputs and support.”

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Double Your Impact To Multiply Income

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This month, you can double your impact with a donation for families like Maria Elsa’s in Honduras.

Maria is the President of Empresa Asociativa Maranonera del Sur (Southern Cashew Enterprise Association) – a project promoting entrepreneurial activities and providing rural women with additional income. After working on their own for 21 years, the women saw things begin to change in 2005 when 22 families received heifers from Heifer International. In 2009, they received chickens and have completed two rounds of Passing on the Gift®.

Maria Elsa

Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International

Seeing the positive results from these first two projects, the women wanted to try something a bit more ambitious. “We wanted something more to do to generate more income,” Maria said. From this, the Southern Cashew Enterprise Association was born. Heifer provided the materials and hired builders to construct the storage rooms and ovens for this cashew enterprise, while the community provided the labor. Heifer provided 200 cashew tree seedlings, and helped the women to market their cashews.

In 2012, a drought destroyed most of the corn harvest. The cashew business, however, along with the ability to sell eggs and milk from their livestock, provided additional income for the families in Maria’s village. Maria gets almost four gallons of milk a day; she uses one gallon for her family and sells the rest.

The family is grateful to have received the cow. Victoriano Gonzalez, Maria’s husband, said, “I never expected to see a cow in my yard and now we have four.”

Maria and her family

Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International

Along with the animal gifts, project participants received a variety of trainings including marketing, gender equity, jelly production, chicken and cattle feed production and Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development. Now, while the women work, their husbands have taken over more of the household chores.

“Now our husbands bring us food while we are working,” Maria said. She’s excited about the opportunity to pass on her training and her animal’s first newborn to another community member. “Passing on the Gift® is a chain that multiplies and won’t be broken. I was so happy when I received my cow. I imagined that other women would feel the same.”

For Maria and her family, the biggest improvement has been to their diet. Before becoming involved in the Heifer project, their typical meal consisted of beans and rice. They could only buy eggs twice a week. “Now we have more chickens so we don’t have to buy eggs,” she said. Milk was also hard to get, but now they have milk and can use it to make cheese.

Maria, whose children are grown, lives with two of her grandchildren. “They help feed the chickens, carry water and clean the pens,” she said. Maria and Victoriano hope their grandchildren have a better life. “I want them to continue their studies until they are professionals. They are very intelligent.”

Double your impact in Honduras

Maria’s grandkids, Elmer and Lisbe, help take care of the animals.
Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International

Heifer’s past successes show that projects like this make a widespread and lasting difference. In 2008, Western Michigan University Evaluation Center conducted an independent evaluation of Heifer’s work in Honduras. It said that Heifer International in Honduras has had a significant positive impact on the communities in which it operates, empowering people at the family and community level.

Your donation this month will be matched dollar-for-dollar to support food security, better nutrition and women’s empowerment for a new project in Lempira, Honduras, thanks to a generous benefactor and international partners. To maximize this match, we need to raise at least $831,000 from generous supporters like you.

Click here to donate and help families to improve their lives.

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Goats Mean Gainful Employment in Nepal

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Courtesy of Heifer International

Photo courtesy of Heifer International

Raghu and Kalpana are a young married couple in Nepal. Raghu worked in Malaysia, but after he attended Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development training, the couple started a goat-breeding business in their own village. Area Vice President Mahendra Lohani shares their story.

Learn how you can help families in Nepal improve their lives.

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From the Field: Partnerships Create New Opportunities

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This weekly post shines a light on a handful of stories from Heifer.org’s “From the Field”From the Field section.

Those who partner with Heifer International are crucial to its mission. Without the help of faith communities, corporations, partners, and countless volunteers, the vision would not reach its full potential. Heifer knows partnerships create the needed strength to make a tangible and lasting difference.  

In the Philippines, three development cooperatives conducted training for participants hit by Typhoon Bopha. The group learned about pig husbandry, dairy goats and feed mills. Participants said the workshop was fulfilling as they gained valuable lessons in a shorter period of time through hands-on learning. Trainings like these hope to engage communities and increase employment and income.

Ukraine Study Tour

Women leaders from Ukraine take part in a study tour established through partnership with Women’s Information Consultative Center. Photo courtesy of Heifer Ukraine

Between October 2012 and February 2013, women leaders from all corners of Ukraine participated in study tours funded by Heifer Ukraine and the Women’s Information Consultative Center. The trainings aimed to solve problems such as high unemployment, domestic violence and lack of medical care. These practical and educational trainings encouraged participants to develop their own projects and receive mini-grants, which help boost self-confidence and active determination.

In partnership with Syngenta Foundation and UAP insurance, Heifer’s East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project participants received help to hedge their businesses against common risks. A newly introduced livestock insurance plan will help farmers to prevent disease and malnutrition and insure them against loss at a low monthly cost. The included care package also aims to reduce annual mortality rates. In addition, a call center is available to farmers, which will dispatch a veterinarian to confirm a cause of death so the cow can be replaced.

Insured dairy cows will protect farmers against the risk of losing their livelihoods to common cattle diseases. Photo courtesy of Heifer East Africa

Insured dairy cows will protect EADD farmers against the risk of losing their livelihoods to common cattle diseases. Photo courtesy of Heifer East Africa

Learn how you can get involved and make a world of difference

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Heifer Haiti Comes Together

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President and CEO Pierre Ferrari, meeting with full Haiti staff in Port au Prince office, on Friday said “we’re working hard to breed the best goats in Haiti.”

President and CEO Pierre Ferrari, in Port au Prince, Haiti, for an agricultural investment tour with President Bill Clinton and 19 other key players in development, met Friday with the Heifer Haiti staff for the first time in the office that just opened last month.

Staff from all three offices, including some who have been on the job only a couple of weeks, came together for introductions and brainstorming on how to work together as the Haiti REACH project powers up to help thousands of farm families throughout the country in the next five years.

“One of the things Heifer is most proud of is represented in this room,” Ferrari said to the assembled staff. “Look around and it’s all or mostly Haitians. If you go to our Kenya office it’s the same; the work is being done by Kenyans. It shows what the soul of this organization is, that we believe in and invest in the people in the countries we serve.”

Ferrari will spend several days meeting with and touring agricultural investment sites linked to Clinton Foundation work, including a visit to a North Coast Development farm on Sunday that will showcase a planned Heifer goat-breeding center as well as bee and honey operations.

Heifer Haiti staff meets in Port au Prince. Photo by Craig Renaud

 

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Heifer’s CEO to Tour Haiti Ag Sites with President Clinton

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Tomorrow (Friday) morning, Heifer President and CEO Pierre Ferrari will travel to Haiti to meet up with President Clinton and 19 other representatives of organizations and corporations investing in Haiti to tour exciting new projects in agriculture across the country.

Haitigoat

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

The Clinton Foundation states in its invitation that it has been working with the Government of Haiti and partners on the ground to help facilitate economic growth and job creation in a variety of priority sectors. The Haitian government has identified agriculture as key in these efforts as it holds strong potential for job creation, improved livelihoods, environmental recovery and food security.

“Revitalization of the agricultural sector is a critical component of the country’s long-term strategy for recovery,” the document says. “Development and the opportunities for growth and diversification are clear.”

The weekend trip is an opportunity to explore new opportunities to foster growth and investment and to also acknowledge efforts already in the works, such as Heifer International’s partnership with North Coast Development Corporation. The partners are launching a solar-powered drip irrigation project focusing on food production with the organization SELF, and will include one of Heifer’s goat breeding centers as part of the Clinton Global Initiative commitment REACH project to introduce better breeding stock, using sturdy Creole goats, into area communities. The project also includes an orchard of fruit and nut trees, sisal production and beekeeping and associated products.

The Clinton-led group will visit this project as part of the tour on Sunday, in United Nations helicopters.

Stay tuned for updates in the next week about the opportunities and relationships at work in this Clinton Foundation tour. Filmmaker Craig Renaud and World Ark writer Donna Stokes will be along for a few of the events and conversations to share details about this exciting opportunity for Heifer’s work in Haiti.

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Double Your Impact In Guatemala

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Double your impact on hunger now! Thanks to a generous benefactor and international partners, your donation to Heifer International will be matched dollar-for-dollar during March to support food security, better nutrition and women’s empowerment in Guatemala.

Double your impact for people like Virginia Jimenez Mateo, who knows firsthand how women living in rural areas can become isolated and marginalized. She lives in the remote village of Laguna Verde, Guatemala, with her husband Mauricio and their seven sons.

Virginia Jimenez Mateo, Guatemala

Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International

Before joining a Heifer project in 2007, Virginia seldom left her house since women do most of the farm labor and household chores. She rarely had the opportunity to get to know other women in her community apart from church activities. “The only time I left my house was to go to church and back,” she said.

Virginia primarily prepared beans, steamed broccoli or carrots for meals. They had to buy eggs from their neighbors and could only afford meat twice a month. She recalls that 14-year-old Mario had stomach problems.

Since joining the project, she has received training along with 10 chickens in 2007 and a goat in 2011. She especially likes Passing on the Gift®. “It would be hard for me to save enough money to repay a goat, but when mine (kid born on February 14, 2012) is big enough I can pass it on,” she said, having already passed on the gift of chickens in 2008.

Heifer’s training improved life in the community. Training provided opportunities for the local women to get to know each other. “No one can take away the knowledge we received,” she said. Thanks to the gender training, the men have started participating. With more help around the house, Virginia’s family started to thrive.

Edwin Gonzalez Jimenez, Guatemala

“Part of the training was teaching my children than they can do anything a woman can do,” Virginia said.
Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International

The biggest benefit for her family, Virginia said, was their improved diet and nutrition. They raise their own chickens, so they no longer have to buy eggs and can now afford to buy meat once a week. “Now we have more variety,” she said. She noticed that they aren’t as sick as before. She credits drinking goat’s milk for her improved health and less aches in her joints.

Better nutrition means her sons have more energy to focus on their school work. Miguel, age 19, and Carlos, age 16, received scholarships to attend a Catholic school. “The knowledge and ethics they are receiving are important,” she said.

This kind of impact happens every day in Heifer projects. Stretch your dollar this month and double your impact to help provide the training and livestock needed by families like Virginia’s to help put more food on the table.

To maximize this match, we need to raise at least $831,000 from generous supporters like you.

Click here to donate.

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From the Field: Global Empowerment Launches Women’s Future

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This weekly post shines a light on a handful of stories from Heifer.org’s “From the Field”From the Field section.

Editor’s note: Empowering women is at the core of Heifer International’s model for sustainable development. In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, this week we are sharing stories of the women with whom Heifer works, who take the gifts of livestock and education to produce extraordinary results for themselves, their families and their communities.

Eka and Guri

Eka Surameli and her son Guri, pick tomatoes in their garden. Photo by Nino Tskhadadze

Eka Surameli, a 42-year-old mother of four children and two grandchildren, lost her home and livelihood during the Russian-Georgian war. The family left their garden and orchard unattended when soldiers forcefully emptied the Georgian border village. After the war ended in 2008, villagers returned to destroyed homes, burned fields and the continuing echo of gunfire.

Eka attended training on modern agricultural technologies through the Rural Development for Future Georgia (RDFG) organization and learned how to better maintain her garden and orchard. She worries her children will never forget the cruelty of war, but because of Heifer’s partnership with RDFG, she has hope for a peaceful future.

On February 22, 2013, Heifer Cambodia and its partner, Gender and Development for Cambodia, launched the three-year project Promotion and Protection of Women’s Rights and Socio-Economic Empowerment. The European Union awarded about $1,441,720 in funding to help the project promote gender equality and women’s participation in sustainable socioeconomic development in Cambodia. Keo Keang, country director of Heifer Cambodia, said the impact on women’s lives will increase their self-confidence and also make a positive change in the expectations and behavior of men, families and communities.

Trinh Thi Phuong Dung, Heifer Vietnam

Heifer Vietnam project participant Trinh Thi Phuong Dung stands next to her family’s sugarcane field. Photo by Maria Lynn Wrabel, courtesy of Heifer International.

 

As a child, Heifer Vietnam participant Trinh Thi Phuong Dung was only allowed to complete the fifth grade. Understanding the importance of education, Dung and her husband have worked hard to finance their son’s and two daughters’ college educations. The couple began raising catfish and sugarcane with a $100 revolving fund through Heifer Vietnam. Dung and her family also help support their community by hosting monthly meetings for project participants to share experiences, ask questions and offer advice.

Empower more women with Heifer on International Women’s Day.

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Pass on the Gift in Peru with Garnet Hill and Heifer

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Pass on the Gift in Peru

For nearly 30 years, Garnet Hill has worked with like-minded organizations to improve communities and better peoples’ lives. And for nearly 70 years, Heifer International has worked with communities around the world to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth. It is this shared desire to strengthen communities, at home and abroad, that forged the partnership between the distinguished catalog merchandiser and the global humanitarian organization.

In 2009 Garnet Hill asked their customers’ opinion on what charitable initiative they would choose to support. The number one choice was the elimination of hunger, and Heifer became the natural choice. With their customers’ generous support, Garnet Hill has made significant contributions to Heifer’s work around the world.

Now, Garnet Hill has developed a promotion to send one lucky person and a guest to Peru to see Heifer’s work firsthand on the trip of a lifetime — while also making a difference in the lives of others. Work hand in hand with Heifer International to foster sustainable development in the ancient Incan Empire capital of Cuzco, and learn about the country’s colorful culture through exclusive guided tours.

Learn more about an amazing opportunity from Garnet Hill.

Note: The above link will take you to Garnet Hill’s website in a new window.

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From the Field: Project Goals Produce Smiles

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This weekly post shines a light on a handful of stories from Heifer.org’s “From the Field”From the Field section.

The mission to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth may seem an overwhelming goal, but Heifer Armenia participant Artur Hovsepyan actively became part of the global vision when his family received a cow named Nargiz through Passing on the Gift®. Artur’s family had lived in very poor conditions, which led him into a deep depression for three years. But thanks to Nargiz and her new calf, Artur regained hope for the future and is once again an active member of his village.

Vietnam Animal Distribution Ceremony

Heifer Vietnam participants receive a heifer at the project’s second animal distribution ceremony on February 21. Photo by Nguyen Thai Loc

In Vietnam, participants of Soc Thao commune of Phu Tam village received heifers at the project’s second animal distribution ceremony. Eager recipients’ laughter filled the busy village as 125 people congratulated each other. One self-help group member said Heifer’s unique tools will allow families to pull themselves out of poverty and give their children a brighter future.

A Farmer Field School in the Northern Philippines recently received a grant for a permanent composting site. Before the project began, most villagers accepted poverty as a way of life. After practicing Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development, they are happy to successfully reach a goal. The site will provide new knowledge in organic farming to improve family’s gardens and help the group become organic vegetable producers.

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