Heifer International Gifts Make Unique Mother’s Day Presents

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Kelly MacNeil

Mother’s Day is approaching, and that means it’s time to show our mothers and grandmothers our appreciation for the care they’ve given us. Many people find that a Heifer donation is a very special gift, especially since it will empower mothers around the world trying to support their families.

Mothers everywhere want what is best for their children. That’s why it’s important to honor our moms by extending greater opportunities to women struggling to get by. Simple changes can have huge impacts; women in the developing world could regain 200 million work hours every day if they all had access to clean water in their homes.

Heifer International Mother’s Day gifts like of a flock of chicks, clean water or a healthy home can bring transformative benefits for a family in need. Faith Onyango’s family, for example, was trapped in crushing poverty in a Kenyan village with her husband and three children before Heifer arrived. She was struggling to feed her children and their home was a crumbling mud brick hut.

But then, because of an individual’s donation, Faith received a heifer and training in organic farming from Heifer International. The cow’s manure helped increase the family’s corn harvest fourfold. With their new earnings, Faith sends her children to school and has built a new, safe house. She has now Passed on the Gift of her cow’s first calf to a neighbor.

Mother's Day gift bee

Heifer International provides Mother’s Day gift honor cards that explain to gift recipients the impact a gift of livestock can have for a family in need.

With $1.9 billion spent on Mother’s Day flowers each year, Heifer International believes that donations to help families around the globe are the most meaningful – and impactful – Mother’s Day gifts available.

Fill Your Easter Basket With Last-Minute Gifts

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Kim Nixon

Are you searching for that last-minute gift to fill your Easter basket? Why not give chicks or rabbits or a goat?

Photo by Olivier Asselin

Through Heifer, the gift of livestock and training can help “hatch hope” with a family living in hunger and poverty. A gift to Heifer is a hand up to a family in need. Along with animals, recipients receive training in animal husbandry, sustainable agriculture, nutrition, gender equity and more. But it doesn’t end there.

By Passing on the Gift®, each Heifer recipient becomes a donor when they pass on the skills and training they’ve received as well as their animal’s first born to another family in need. This cycle of hope lasts long beyond the chocolate and Easter eggs.

Whether you’re filling an Easter basket for a child or an adult, a gift to Heifer is a great way to spread hope this Easter.

Gift Different. Give Heifer.

This Easter, Gift Different with Heifer

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Maegan Clark

Are you gearing up to fill someone’s Easter basket with candies and other treats? This Easter, consider putting eggs in someone else’s basket and “hatch hope” for a family in need.

Heifer’s infographic illustrates the multiplying power of something as simple as a flock of chicks.

Heifer International’s gifts – at Easter or any time – provide new hope and new life for families in need.

Give different. Give Heifer.

Pack Their Easter Basket With a Special Treat

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Maegan Clark

This Easter, Heifer is offering families a unique twist on the usual Easter basket goodies of chocolate and plastic eggs – a gift that will change lives. Think about a donation of a flock of chicks, a trio of bunnies or little lamb to love for a family in need — gifts that will bring joy and also lift a family out of poverty.

Easter donations benefit Heifer International participants Take, for example, the story of Teju Thapa, a remarkable woman from a remote village in Nepal. She was the recipient of two nanny (female) goats and a billy (male) goat. In a very short time those three have multiplied into 13 healthy goats. In addition to selling the goat milk she uses the manure and turns it into organic fertilizer for her gardens and fruit trees.

Heifer livestock donations are a unique and heartfelt way to honor the Easter spirit of sharing and caring. Each animal, along with extensive training, is donated to a family in need, providing them with better nutrition and marketable products. As the animals grow and reproduce, the family’s livelihood improves and they become benefactors themselves when they fulfill the commitment to “Pass on the Gift” of their animal’s offspring to another family.

See how you can pack an Easter basket with a special treat this year.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Heifer International!

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Brooke Edwards

Happy Valentine’s Day! Some say love is the universal language, and I’d have to agree. It’s not too late to spread some love with a thoughtful Valentine’s Day gift from Heifer International. Check out our special selection here.

Enjoy some love-ly Heifer photos from around the world!

Photo by Christian DeVries, courtesy of Heifer International.

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International.

Photo by Jake Lyell, courtesy of Heifer International.

Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

Did you give or receive an alternative gift for Valentine’s Day this year? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

Heifer’s Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas Show Real Heart

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Brooke Edwards

This Valentine’s Day, don’t just go through the motions of gift-giving – get a special Valentine’s gift that will benefit others long after the heart-shaped chocolates are consumed. The gift of a flock of chicks, a llama or honeybees that help lift families out of poverty is the ideal present for Valentine’s Day.

Heifer International offers heartfelt and unique gifts for Valentine’s Day that celebrate a person’s sweet side. Each animal, along with extensive training, is given to a family in need, providing better nutrition and marketable products. As the animals grow and reproduce, the family’s livelihood improves; and they become benefactors themselves when they fulfill the commitment to Pass on the Gift of their animal’s offspring to another family.

Heifer Valentine’s Day gifts are touching and impactful. For example, see the changes in the small village of Carromata in the Philippines, which was bogged down in illiteracy, poverty and malnutrition after a new dam altered the river that had been its lifeblood. Heifer International’s LOVE project (“Life-giving Offerings and Values-enrichment for Empowerment”) provided water buffalos, pigs, chickens, vegetable seeds and fruit tree seedlings to families there, as well as values-based and technical skills trainings.

Canoto Budong manually strips his Abaca to get the fibers. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Now, LOVE participant Canoto Bodong happily says sweet potatoes, taro and cassava are improving his family’s diet, and project families are growing abaca plants, whose fiber is valued by paper makers and the automotive industry. The community plans to set up its own fiber-stripping machine to expand its production.

Children in Carromata play as Abaca fibers dry along the river bank of Tago. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Heifer International’s Valentine’s Day infographic shows that 80 percent of women have received a gift with no thought behind it, according to a recent survey. So instead of expensive but impersonal chocolates, baubles, or flowers that wilt all too soon, this Valentine’s Day give something that will honor him or her – a Heifer International gift that spreads the wonderful feeling of making a difference.

Check out our special selection of Valentine’s Day gift ideas to find the right gift for your sweetheart.

Quit Giving the Same Valentine’s Day Fluff

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Brooke Edwards

Want to think outside the heart-shaped box this Valentine’s Day? Looking for free Valentine’s Day printables? Look no further than Heifer International! Instead of shelling out $30 for a box of cavity-inducing chocolates, why not give the gift of bees? Now that’s sweet! Don’t want to spend three hours crafting something for your kid’s preschool teachers? Give them a trio of rabbits.

Heifergraphic courtesy of Heifer International.

Give Heifer This Valentine’s Day

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Brooke Edwards

If you’ve been to the grocery store, your local drug store or nearest big-box one-stop, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the Valentine’s Day goodies out in full force. We’re getting ready for the year’s sweetest holiday here at Heifer International, too.

Every day is a great day to give a Heifer gift, but I think a gift from Heifer for Valentine’s Day is sublime. It’s a genuine gift from the heart. Shop for the perfect Valentine’s Day Heifer gift here. And spread the Heifer love with our free downloadables here.

Last-Minute Gifts are Meaningful with Heifer International

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Brooke Edwards

Still searching for the perfect last-minute gifts for the people on your list who have everything? Heifer International has a thoughtful and easy way to show you care: charitable gifts of animals and resources that will help families around the world lift themselves out of poverty.

Photo by David Snyder, courtesy of Heifer International.

Last-minute gifts don’t have to be hasty and impersonal if you choose to give a goat, a llama, or perhaps some chickens. These animals will to help boost a hungry family’s nutrition, and products like milk, eggs and wool can be sold for income that will pay for school and health care.

Your gift recipient gets a beautiful honor card describing the benefits of the donation made in their name, and you get the satisfaction of having given something far more meaningful than a gift card.

Image courtesy of Heifer International.

Ganga Khanal in Nepal experienced the power of a Heifer International gift. She had been rejected by her husband after she failed to produce a son. Despite his opposition, she joined a Heifer International women’s self-help group and received goats and training. Today she helps lead a women’s cooperative and run the co-op store. Her son now says, “The future looks bright for us because of our mothers.” A gift of $72 to Heifer International can help start another women’s self-help group.

Last-minute gifts from Heifer International.