Category Archives: Program Areas

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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An Ode to Bolivia

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This monkey named Boris chased chickens and stole sun-dried beef in the village of San Jose del Cavitu, so the locals now keep him as a pet. Boris is well cared for, but will happily pickpocket strangers given the chance. Photo by Jason Woods

I’ll hedge and say that it could have something to do with jet lag, or changes in altitude, or even something in the water, but anytime I visit a new country where Heifer works, auspices of magic immediately distract and I spend much of my trip wondering if, perhaps, I’m hallucinating. It’s never anything ghostly or alarming, just sights so surreal that I’m bewitched, amazed, delighted. Is there such thing as a traveler’s high?

My first surprise, upon landing in Santa Cruz, was the flurry of kisses that didn’t let up the entire 9-day trip. The customary Bolivian greeting between two women or a man and a woman is a kiss on the cheek. It’s a bit awkward at first, but who can quibble with such a charming welcome? Far superior to a handshake, in my book.

Clusters of butterflies gather on roadsides and on trails in the Amazon region of Bolivia. Photo by Jason Woods

And then, consider the capybara. These squee-worthy creatures populate the roadsides and riverbanks of the Bolivian Amazon. The world’s largest rodent, capybaras look like sleek, super-sized guinea pigs and can grow up to 100 pounds. When startled, capybaras emit kazoo-like sounds and immediately belly flop into the nearest body of water. Seriously! Neither I nor my travel companions managed to snap any capybara photos, leaving me to question, in retrospect, whether such an adorable creature actually exists.

We were further enchanted by the pink dolphins splashing in the rivers and the parrots and toucans flying overhead. “Is that an emu?” I asked our driver as we zipped down a muddy road. Turns out it was a rhea, a giant bird native to South America that can reach up to 90 pounds and nearly six feet tall.

Monkeys whooped at us from the trees as we sped by on motorbikes, headed to the shadowy chocolate forest where giant blue butterflies looped through the trees. Did you know that the juicy white fruits inside chocolate pods turn a bright purple when you chew them? I must report, however, that the charm of the chocolate forest ebbed under attack from the clouds of mosquitoes that nibbled our faces and left bloody specks on our clothes. We were also under siege from chiggers, although we didn’t realize that until hours later when we peeled off our socks.

But back to the kisses. The best part of the trip, of course, was the people we met. The purpose of our visit was to chronicle the work and progress of Heifer project participants who are amping up chocolate harvests, protecting the forests and working together to process cocoa at high quality and large quantities to secure good prices. They’re doing a pretty phenomenal job of it. This success story will appear in World Ark magazine later this year, although I may give a few glimpses of their work on this blog before then.

Hilaria Moye of San Jose Del Cavitu displays the skull of a jaguar her husband killed while out hunting. Photo by Jason Woods

Pastel dolphins and snuggly rodents aside, Bolivia is a real place with real challenges. Our visit was limited to the lowlands of Bolivia, where wild fruit is abundant and starchy crops like corn, yucca and rice grow easily, but malnutrition is still a problem because protein and nutrient-rich vegetables are harder to secure. Jobs outside the agriculture sector are rare, so incomes are low to non-existent. Some of the project participants are prosperous enough to live in houses made of bricks, but others live under palm thatch roofs held up by sticks.

The tools Bolivians have to overcome these hardships are a culture built on community and a fruitful ecosystem that can provide ample food and incomes if it’s well protected.

Elizabeth Franco Rodriguez, the president of the chocolate gatherer’s group in northeastern Bolivia’s Jasiaquiri village, is well aware of both her country’s charms and challenges. The hot, hard work of chocolate harvesting isn’t so great when you come home covered in ticks, or when the mosquitoes infect you with dengue fever, she said. But it’s a family event, and she usually brings children, nieces and nephews along. At her home, shared with extended family, everyone stays busy. Chocolate seeds ferment in the sun, children grind yucca to make starch, and Rodriguez’s sister-in-law makes cheese in the breezeway. But that evening, when the work is done, the whole family will go into the nearby town of Baures to spend a couple of hours mingling and resting in the plaza, along with hundreds of others. It’s back to the forest to harvest chocolate again the next day, and the mosquitoes would no doubt be waiting. Rodriguez never complained.

“I just find it so exotic and beautiful,” I told her as we tromped through vines and underbrush. The translator conferred with Rodriguez, and she nodded. “She says yes, it’s that way for us, too.”

Check out this tree trunk covered in thorns. Amazing! Photo by Jason Woods

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Heifer and the ‘Chocolate Forest’

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The production and marketing process for Bolivian chocolate. Photos courtesy of Heifer International

The production and marketing process for Bolivian chocolate. Photos courtesy of Heifer International

 

Heifer is working with communities in the Bolivian Amazon to harvest cacao for the production and marketing of chocolate, while preserving the health of the forest. By adding sheep, poultry and fish to their regular cacao activities, these families have alternate sources of income and nutrition. In this video, World Ark Senior Editor Austin Bailey and Heifer Americas Program Assistant Jason Woods share about their recent trip to Bolivia’s “Chocolate Forest.”

 

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Three Days of Food

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What is your greatest dream for you and your family? What do you wish for most for your children? For just one moment, ask yourself these two questions and imagine all the possibilities.

And now let me tell you a story.

It was my first morning in Rwanda and already I was feeling overwhelmed by the beauty and harsh realities of this amazing country. As we drove south out of the capitol city, Kigali, to the Mareba district, everything I saw was foreign to me but somehow familiar at the same time. All the images I’d ever seen of Africa were right here on the road we were traveling−women carrying babies on their backs while balancing giant bundles on their heads, men on bicycles taking banana bunches to market, a blast of music from a passing mini-bus, and luscious green hills opening up to wide vistas as we wound our way out of the city into the countryside. It was a bright and sunny day, the wind blowing through banana trees. By the time we reached the village of Ruduha, I was enamored with and at ease in this new, exciting place.

But the harsh reality of what my travel companions and I were there to see quickly rushed in. That morning we were visiting families with severely malnourished and sick children. These families had little or nothing to eat on a daily basis and their children were often sick from malnutrition. We were there specifically to visit Emmanuel Hategeka, a 5-year-old boy with enormous eyes and a sweet disposition. Emmanuel’s family lives in a mud house, not unusual for most rural Rwandan families, but as we went inside I saw that there was nothing–no bowls, no cups, no clothes, no bed.

Emmanuel stands outside his family's house in the Mareba district of Rwanda.

Emmanuel is 5 years old and lives in Ruduha village in Rwanda.

Emmanuel’s family had one possession, a grass mat. The family had proudly put the mat–which is used by the family to sleep on every night–out in front of the house to greet us when we arrived. As we spoke with Emmanuel’s mother about his health and the family’s access to food, we learned that he and his two sisters, Jacqueline (4) and Josiane (1), often just eat cassava. Cassava is a tuber root similar to potatoes, and while it is a good source of carbohydrates, it does not provide enough protein or other nutrients to help children like Emmanuel develop strong and healthy bodies. When we asked when the family had last eaten, Emmanuel’s mother did not immediately answer. It was as if she was trying to remember when it had been. Today? Yesterday? She could not tell us for sure.

One of my colleagues asked Emmanuel’s mother, “What is the greatest dream for your family? What do you wish for most for your children?” Her answer was, “Three days of food.”

Three days of food.

I could see the devastating effects of malnutrition in Emmanuel. Although he was intrigued and excited to be the center of attention by this group of strange visitors, he quickly tired and had trouble standing and staying awake. Emmanuel’s body was so tired from lack of food that he was falling asleep as we filmed and interviewed him. My vibrant morning and feelings of exhilaration vanished at that moment–this is what we had come to see and the reality was that this 5-year-old boy was starving.

The work we were there to do–identifying these real-life stories of need–will hopefully bring many, many new donors to Heifer International. My hope is that it will allow us to increase the number of families we can reach in Rwanda and all across the world, so that children like Emmanuel have nutritious milk and eggs to eat every day, and have the chance to grow up healthy and strong, to go to school and to have medicine when they are sick. We need as many partners as we can to reach these families and help them lift themselves up out of poverty and hunger.

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Emmanuel stands outside his family’s house in the Mareba district of Rwanda.

I had to remind myself of the good work that Heifer does and the good work we will continue to do as I watched Emmanuel struggle to stay awake. I reminded myself when I thought of Emmanuel’s mother and what she must feel knowing that her children won’t eat that day. I remind myself of the good work we do so that we can give mothers like her bigger dreams for their children instead of the daily struggle just to keep them alive.

And I reminded myself of it when we drove away from their village after thanking the family so much for allowing us to meet with them. I imagined what the rest of their day would be like, as the sun begins to set and no fire is made and no food is being cooked. And Emmanuel goes to sleep with his mother and father and two sisters on the mat on the floor of their house, with an empty stomach, again.

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Container Gardens From Malawi

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Kasungu Sustainable Agriculture & Natural Resource Management PrHere’s a clever idea from the industrious women of Gideon village in Malawi, who grow heaps of healthy greens right beside their front doors.

Grace Banda, a 28-year-old mother of four, keeps a line of burlap sack gardens planted with cabbage in front of her house. It saves her from trekking to her garden when she needs something green for cooking, and it could save you a trip to the grocery store.

To make your own container gardens using Banda’s method, you’ll need a large burlap sack, gravel, a tin can with both ends cut out, potting soil and goat berries. If you’re plum out of goat manure, compost works fine, too.

Kasungu Sustainable Agriculture & Natural Resource Management PrStep 1: Put the can in the bottom of the sack and fill it with gravel. Pour equal parts soil and compost around it, up to the top of the can.

Step 2: Slide the can up to the surface of the dirt, refill it with rocks and fill the area around the can with the soil and compost mix.

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Step 3: Repeat step 2 until the sack is full.

Step 4: Cut staggered openings about 6 inches long along the sides, and plant seeds in the holes.

Kasungu Sustainable Agriculture & Natural Resource Management PrThe cylinder of gravel inside the sack helps distribute and drain the water, ensuring that none of the plantings get too wet or too dry.

If you try your hand at sack gardening yourself, please send us a photo. Thanks!

Photos by Russell Powell

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Because They Are There, So Is Heifer

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Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

CHULIDANDA, Nepal—We (Puja Singh of Heifer Nepal staff, photographer Geoff Oliver Bugbee and Donna Stokes of World Ark) started out the day in Surkhet, Nepal at 6:30 a.m., imagining the headlines that might result from today’s task. It was an uphill climb of nearly 5,000 feet, on steep and arguably treacherous footpaths Nepalis take daily, to one of the most remote soon-to-be Heifer goat projects in the forest near Surkhet in the western region of Nepal.

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

“World Ark team meets tiger” was our frontrunner imagined headline, as Heifer Nepal staff in this region reported seeing wild tigers not that long ago. Yet as we began to climb what Puja lovingly dubbed “goat mountain,” a different theme emerged.

In Nepal in mid-April, scores of expeditions are arriving in Kathmandu to begin their Mount Everest summit attempts during the short season, many for no other reason than the infamous one—”because it is there.” But our group of Heifer Nepal and headquarters staff was climbing because “they were there,” they being the women and men in need who live at the top and will soon begin training for Heifer’s goat value-chain project.

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

The first lesson: Goat mountain was very nearly more than this treadmill- and Zumba-trained American could handle. In the more than three hours it took us to climb up to talk with the villagers (not to mention the two hours back down at the end of the day), the women here would have made the whole round trip to fetch water. And they do it twice a day, in the morning starting at 4:30 using flashlights to see the rocky path, and also every evening to haul water for their animals and families.

Stay tuned for a full story on this village’s challenges and plans in a future issue of World Ark magazine.

Heifer Nepal's Puja Singh negotiates the narrow path on the way to Chulidanda, Nepal. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Heifer Nepal’s Puja Singh negotiates the narrow path on the way to Chulidanda, Nepal. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

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NOW We Send Our Children to School

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Nancy Ascencio Neira lives with her husband, Galo, on their family farm in Manglaralto parish along Ecuador’s Pacific coast. They have seven sons; two have moved to Guayaquil, the nearest big city. One is studying at the university in Guayaquil and the rest live at home. Galo only attended school through the 6th grade and Nancy never went. “My parents said I was too pretty, and I would get married soon,” she said.

Photo by Russell Powell

Photo by Russell Powell

Nancy and Galo wanted to give their children opportunities they didn’t have. “If we don’t educate our children, then their life will be as difficult as ours,” Galo said. However, sending their children to school was always difficult. “I haven’t been able to educate all our children because we are a low-income family,” he said.

In July 2010, they received 100 chickens as participants in a Heifer project. They later received two pigs, fruit trees, vegetable seeds and a backpack sprayer. Galo was excited to receive so many seeds because they wanted to diversify the plants and produce on their farm. “Since we produce our own vegetables, we no longer have to buy and that’s an additional income for us,” Galo said. Plus, their farm is now 90 percent organic and their produce is healthier.

Photo by Russell Powell

Photo by Russell Powell

The chickens also made an immediate impact. Every two and a half months, they sell 100 chickens. After 15 months, they have earned more than $3,400. Some of the profit was used to buy raw materials for Nancy’s handicrafts, another source of income. She weaves baskets and makes jewelry to sell at a friend’s store, with part of these earnings saved for their children’s education. “The benefits we derive from Heifer don’t just help the adults, but also our children. Through this project we have been able to send our children to school,” Galo said.

Nancy said, “Education is very important, because in reality it is the only thing we have to give them.” She hopes that her children won’t stay in the city, but that they will be able to buy their own farms and have better lives. “I hope my children won’t abandon the land. I want to instill in them the idea that the countryside is good and that planting the land and caring for animals is also good,” Galo said.

The couple has also been able to purchase geese, mules and horses from the income they earned selling chickens. The mules haul the family’s produce to sell and helps move organic fertilizer and compost to the fields. Their horses are used by the agro-tourists that visit the area each year.

Photo by Russell Powell

Photo by Russell Powell

Besides boosting incomes, another long-term impact of this project is the changing role of women in the community. Nancy is no longer relegated to household chores; she helps with the farming, is a businesswoman and is president of Asociacion de Muejers Artesanas de dos Mangas, a local women’s handicraft association. “She provides us with additional income and a better economic standing,” Galo said. Nancy enjoys being able to contribute to the family income. “I have something to say when we make decisions about our money,” she said.

“Our community is now very conscious about living a better life,” Galo said. Non-project community members are seeking advice from group members. “Heifer is helping us and we are helping others, including our children,” Nancy said.

Galo likes Heifer’s approach because it is a simple idea. He said “the idea is to share and payback.”

A gift to Heifer can help send children to school.

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Agriculture Improves Incomes in Central America

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Heifer's President and CEO Pierre Ferrari celebrates with project participants during a Passing on the Gift® ceremony in Guatemala. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

Heifer’s President and CEO Pierre Ferrari celebrates with project participants during a Passing on the Gift® ceremony in Guatemala. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

Heifer is working with communities in Honduras and Guatemala to create livestock and agriculture businesses, which help residents overcome poverty and malnutrition. Pierre Ferrari, Heifer’s President and CEO, visited these projects in March 2013 and attended a Passing on the Gift® (POG) ceremony in Guatemala. There, project participants gave him a goat to symbolize their gift to Heifer to pass on to communities around the world.

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13 Generations of Passing on the Gift

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Heifer's President and CEO Pierre Ferrari poses with donor and recipient at 13th generation Passing on the Gift ceremony. Photos by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Heifer’s President and CEO Pierre Ferrari poses with donor and recipient at 13th generation Passing on the Gift ceremony. Photos by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Photos by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

BHARATPUR, Nepal—A Heifer Passing on the Gift® ceremony is filled with moments of joy and playfulness, more than a touch of chaos and the pure pride of recipients who in an instant become donors to other women in need in their community. Heifer executive staff and Board of Directors members celebrated with hundreds of families in three villages in the Chitwan region of Nepal this week.

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President and CEO Pierre Ferrari, in Bharatpur for a 13th generation celebration, took the opportunity to pass on a symbolic goat from San Carlos Alzatate village in Guatemala.

“This goat is a representation of the global community and the solidarity we all have for each other,” Ferrari said, who traveled to Guatemala just before the Nepal trip. “The women in Guatemala want you to know that you are not alone, and they salute your success amid the real challenges that they also face. The key to understand is that together there is nothing we cannot do.”

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Heifer Board of Directors Vice Chair Arlene Falk Withers also spoke at the celebration, praising all the women present for their hard work and impressive returns on the investment of animals and training they received from Heifer.

“We want you to know how proud we are of you,” Withers said. “We know that you’ll go on to do tremendous things in the future.”

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Over the River and to the Goats

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Heifer Board member Sandra Godden leaps river rocks on her way to the Heifer project village Shaktikhor. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee.

Heifer Board member Sandra Godden leaps river rocks on her way to the Heifer project village Shaktikhor, with member Efrain Diaz Arrivillaga close on her heels. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee.

SHAKTIKHOR VILLAGE, Nepal—You don’t have to go far in the Chitwan region of Nepal to get a good look at a goat; they’re everywhere you look. However, to see true innovation in the raising of goats for profit, Shaktikhor village is the place to be. It takes a bit of a stroll to get there, over a river and through farmers’ rice and vegetable fields, but it’s worth the trip.

Heifer Board members and staff walk through being plowed on the way to a project visit. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Heifer Board members and staff walk through fields being plowed on the way to a project visit. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

shaktikhor-nepal-bugbee-5Several Heifer Board and staff members are in Nepal this week visiting Heifer projects related to a new goat project that will eventually reach 138,000 farmers in 28 districts by 2016.

Through this innovative project, Heifer aims to reduce live goat imports by 30 percent and milk by 10 percent in the same time frame.

In Shaktikhor, Heifer farmers continue their own experimentation, through what’s called a farmer field school, to come up with the right combination of nutritional fodder, minerals, shelter and veterinary care to quickly produce the healthiest goats to be ready to take to market.

For farmers such as Niramala Magar and her husband Som Bahadur Magar, the project is paying off very well. Five years ago, Niramala received Heifer goats, and soon after her husband received animal health care worker training and now serves as an expert to help others in the community.

They started with only five does and now have more than 20, with a goal of having 50 in the next few years. Responding to a question from Heifer Board member Jay Whittmeyer, Som said that when he gets to that level, he believes he can employ others in the village to help him with the enterprise. He also is hopeful his young sons, now 10 and 8 years old, will follow in his footsteps in the goat-raising business.

Som Bahadur Magar and wife Niramala Magar show off kids, one just a couple of days old, in Shaktikhor village. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Som Bahadur Magar and wife Niramala Magar show off kids, one just a couple of days old, in Shaktikhor village. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

“We had been raising goats for years and were not convinced we needed to plant fodder trees and use that method when we first heard about it,” Som said. “Once we started thinking about commercial farming, we decided to test for ourselves what worked best. We have been very keen on calculating every input and benefit it gives. Through our own testing, we found it was definitely more beneficial to follow this advice and began to plant fodder trees.”

The couple says despite all their success, a goat enterprise is not as easy as it looks. They have to take in consideration of pen space for the goats, feed, water and veterinary care, and then still find a way to get the best prices for their animals. Yet Som and Niramala are ready for any challenge. Som, with his village’s cooperative, just opened a small market collection center and is getting out the word that every Tuesday anyone can come to the village to purchase goats.

“I feel it is my responsibility to get a better price for all goat farmers in this area,” Som said.

Heifer Board member Jay Whittmeyer, who is fluent in Nepalese, jokes with children in Shaktikhor. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Heifer Board member Jay Whittmeyer, who is fluent in Nepalese, jokes with children in Shaktikhor to get them to smile for a photo. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee 

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Nepal Women’s Groups Greet Heifer Board in Field—Literally

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Heifer board members and executive staff join members of the Manakamana Women's group in Koluwa, village, Nepal. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Heifer board members and staff join members of the Manakamana Women’s Group in Koluwa village, Nepal. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee.

KOLUWA VILLAGE, Nepal—There’s nothing like seeing the transformation Heifer provides small-farm families up close and personally, which is what several members of the Heifer board and Heifer executive staff are doing this week in a visit to Nepal.

In one day, groups traveled to visit villages soon to be involved with Heifer and then by comparison spent time with fully involved women’s groups such as Manakamana in Koluwa village that are already leading massive change in their communities.

Manakamana Women's Group members are proud of their accomplishments. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

Manakamana Women’s Group members are proud of their accomplishments. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

The women here, wearing striking black and white “uniforms,” spoke proudly about the changes in their community since the Heifer project first began. “Before” and “after” maps showed each member’s improved house as well as community improvements such as a child care center, biogas plant, a “wishing pond” and an irrigation project tackled by the men of the village.

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee.

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee.

One of the members, Netra Kumari Mahato, said “no one has to be hungry now.”

Board member Franklin Ishida asked the assembled group: “I have seen from your numbers and maps how you have changed economically, but can you share how your lives have changed in your hearts?”

A member responded, “We feel this has been a rebirth for us; we’re very happy from the inner part of our hearts. We have built so much confidence to move forward. Though we didn’t go to school, we don’t feel we are behind now.

“From the help you have given us, we have been able to help others in return. We still have a long ways to go, and we are making plans to continue moving forward.”

The women would have continued to talk about their plans and progress until dark. When their visitors got up to leave, they summoned a drummer and began to dance and sing to celebrate all their hard work. Heifer board members and staff joyfully joined in as you can see in video below. Video and production by Geoff Oliver Bugbee.

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NOW I Pass On The Gift

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NOW PSA photoPassing on the Gift® (POG) is fundamental to our work. It creates a cycle of giving, transforming recipients into donors, and expanding the network of hope, dignity and self-reliance.

For our project participants, it is a joyful experience to pass on the gift of livestock and training. Stories about Heifer’s POGs, like those below, can be found on our website. What amazes me most is that many project participants don’t stop after passing on gifts just once.

They do this by continuing to pass on the gifts of livestock, opening their farms to be training facilities, sharing the training they receive with everyone they meet, and more. They take to heart what it truly means to Pass on the Gift. They are so thankful and proud that they can’t help but tell others.

It is humbling to see project participants pass on part of their livelihood to their neighbors in need, creating a web of support and a world of good. We will end hunger together.

nowTransforming Recipients into Donors
The goats Manamaya received from Heifer raised her family income and allowed her husband to stay home to work, expanding their goat farm. She passed on two goat kids to women in her community to help them create a better life for their families. Read more.

Cambodia Celebrates Passing on the Gift®

In March, the Disability Development Services Program Organization in Cambodia hosted their Passing on the Gift ceremony where children performed traditional dances and recited poems about the hope they have for a better future. Read more.

Passing on the Gift® Has Ripple Effect

Several 4-H Club coordinators in the Philippines learned about Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development and realized that their work is part of Passing on the Gift®. They help move the youth in their communities to get involved in productive agricultural and economic activities. Read more.

Start a new cycle of giving today.

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