Tag Archives: Cambodia

From the Field: Assembled to Celebrate

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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.

Heifer International project participants work hard every day to Pass on the Gift® (POG) they once received and transition from recipient to donor. Sharing their success often brings participants joy and a commendable cause to celebrate.

In March and April 2013, Heifer Cambodia self-help groups (SHG) organized seven POG ceremonies. More than 820 families shared gifts of livestock, vegetables, tree seeds and rice with new project families. During one ceremony, POG recipient Chea Sambo responded with gratitude to her donor family, “Words cannot express how happy I am to receive the gifts. I promise to take good care of the animal and improve my garden so that I can pass on to other needy families, and become a donor like your family.Thanks much to your family and to Heifer.”

April 2013

Heifer Cambodia participants Pass on the Gift® of chickens during an April 2013 ceremony. Photo by Toeng Rothy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Heifer Cambodia.

Armenian YES! Youth Clubs gathered to celebrate the past year’s activities during the 10th Youth Parliament General Assembly, April 26-27, 2013. Thirty clubs shared about their projects, which were mostly focused on civic participation and responsibility, and the success of their small businesses. Vardouhi Torosyan, a 13-year-old jewelry-making business owner, said she was able to pass on her seed money of $100 to another club member so he could also start a business.

Heifer China project participants joyfully celebrate after a POG with a Tibetan Guozhuang (bonfire) dance. Photo by Droma Sangmo, Tibet Regional Project Manager, Heifer China

Heifer China participants prepare to celebrate after a POG ceremony with a Tibetan Guozhuang (bonfire) dance. Photo by Droma Sangmo, Tibet Regional Project Manager, Heifer China

Beneath snowy mountain peaks, farmers in Tibet applauded each other during a wintry April POG. Participants from Dan Nu, Xue Ba and Zhi Ba villages passed on a monetary fund worth about $37,342 to Xu Ba village. Three candidates were distinguished among their community for modeling exceptional behavior and a traditional Tibetan Guozhuang (bonfire) dance ended the celebration.

Learn how you can help Pass on the Gift®

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.

Community Organizer for Heifer Cambodia Project Wins Award

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It’s exciting when Heifer is able to make connections between people and groups that might never have otherwise happened. Heifer International recently helped nominate a talented young Cambodian women for recognition from Students Rebuild and Half the Sky Movement, and now we’ve learned that she was selected as one of the five award winners. This means a cash prize of $10,000 for her to spend on her community project of choice.

Lay Savorn is one of the community organizers who helps implement a Heifer project in Cambodia. She plans to use the prize money to open an agricultural supply shop to sell goods to farmers in her community at reduced prices, with proceeds benefiting local elderly, women and children.

Young women in Cambodia wins award from Half the Sky, Students Rebuild

Ley Savorn of Cambodia

To create the award, Half the Sky Movement – created by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, authors of The New York Times bestseller “Half the Sky” – partnered with Students Rebuild, an initiative of the Bezos Family Foundation that mobilizes young people worldwide to connect, learn and take collective action on critical global issues. Winners of the awards were selected by a panel of judges and a public vote.

The daughter of a traditional musician and a farmer in the Battambang district of Cambodia, Ley became a community facilitator in Dak Sor Sor village, organizing 597 families into self-help groups for a Heifer International project. The shop she plans to open will supply fertilizer, agriculture materials and groceries to area communities at reasonable prices, cutting out the middlemen. Profits will go to assist elderly people and vulnerable women and children in her community. Ley wants to see every child in the village go to school.

Ley currently leads a new cooperative of 120 families named “Poleu Strey,” which means “Women’s Light” in English. It became a formal cooperative in 2012 and has pooled $3,000 as a revolving credit fund. “What I want to see from my work is people in my community live harmoniously with dignity, have food security for the whole year, share their own resources to support lonely elders, liberate victimized women from domestic violence and assist women and children to live in dignity and prosperity,” she says.

From the Field: Heifer Brings Families Together

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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.

Gender and Family Focus is one of the key elements of Heifer International’s 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development. Communities worldwide are greatly impacted as families work together to achieve their goals. As men and women, sons and daughters, share responsibilities we are one step closer to eliminating hunger and poverty.

Norik with his calf. Photo by Knarine Ghazanchyan, Program Coordinator, Heifer Armenia

Norik with his calf. Photo by Knarine Ghazanchyan, Program Coordinator, Heifer Armenia

Norik Mkrtchyan, 14, lives with his parents and two brothers in Lukashin Village, Armenia. He helps take care of the family’s animals and works along side his father and brothers in their garden. Neighbors look to Norik’s father, Armen, for vegetable marketing advice, and his mother works preparing cheese. Norik received a cow from a Heifer-supported YES! Youth Club and plans to pass on its first calf to another club member.

Before joining a SHG in Cambodia, Loek Bunthoeun had to leave his wife and two children behind to work in Phnom Penh city. Most of his income had to sustain him as he migrated to the city for work. Now, Loek and his wife generate income with their family’s organic vegetable garden and are planning to expand their garden and begin raising pigs.

In Vietnam, Danh Hoang, 45, lives with his wife and four children. They are members of a self-help group (SHG) and plan to seize every opportunity to live a sustainable life. Danh’s two sons help their neighbors with the rice harvest while their mother weaves coconut leaves for roofing material. Danh received training through Heifer Vietnam and plans to pass on the gift to another family in need.

Learn how you can help bring families together.

Heifer International From the Field: Self-Help Group Members Become Leaders

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

Involvement in Heifer’s Self-Help Groups produces leaders. The process of people advocating for themselves and participating in improving their lives transforms disenfranchised groups into powerful community leaders.

Volunteer trainers of Igorota Foundation, Inc. (IFI) projects in the Northern Philippines belong to various Self-Help Groups. They are the original, first and second-generation pass-on families of two Heifer subprojects.

Self-Help Group Members Become Leaders

Photo courtesy of Heifer International

“They were all reserved at first,” Jun Dom-oguen, a Heifer program officer, said. “You really had to ask them to speak their minds. Seldom would they volunteer. But soon after they understood the Cornerstones, they began to share, discuss among themselves and volunteer to share their ideas.”

These Self-Help Group members now conduct workshops on Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development. Through their participation in these Self-Help Groups, they have transformed into trainers for their neighbors.

In Cambodia, Phuong Nen, from O’Nornorng village, had lost hope in the future of his village, believing it couldn’t be saved because of its extreme poverty. Nen became involved with Heifer and joined a Self-Help Group.

“Now I understand that a poor community can be saved,” Nen said. He is the leader of his Self-Help Group and an innovator, looking for ways to further improve his community. He plans to apply a new micro-finance management system in 2013 to further the Self-Help Group’s savings.

Advocating for themselves through Self-Help Groups creates change in individuals and the communities that they are a part of.

Help start a Women’s Self-Help Group today.

Heifer’s Legacy of Peace

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Through the support of our generous donors, Heifer International has put millions of families on the path to peaceful and sustainable futures. Here are just a few examples of how our gifts of livestock and training have made the world a more peaceful place.

 

After World War II, we sent heifers do devastated European communities to help them rebuild their lives and their livelihoods. Here a mother in Poland gives her daughters fresh milk.

Peace in post-WWII Poland.

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

In 1951, with the Korean War still raging, Heifer sent three planeloads of hatching eggs to Korea – Heifer’s first “Egglift.”

Peace during Korean War.

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

After more than two decades of genocide and civil war, Heifer is helping families in Cambodia by providing peaceful alternatives to lives of violence. Click photo for more Heifer Cambodia stories.

Peace in Cambodia.

Photo by Matt Bradley, courtesy of Heifer International.

Devastated by genocide, Rwanda has begun its long road to recovery thanks to the “cows of peace” that supporters like you have provided. Pass-ons between Hutus and Tutsis are now common and a shining example of how gifts to Heifer can lead to peace. Click image for more about peace in Rwanda.

Peace in Rwanda.

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International.

Help Heifer continue its Legacy of Peace by ending hunger and poverty now.

 

Heifer International From the Field: Training and Technology for Improved Livelihoods

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

Heifer International’s projects around the world differ in many ways, but training is an element they have in common. Training on topics such as livestock raising, marketing and gender and family focus is often the spark that drives project participants to create farms and businesses that are innovative, lucrative and inspiring.

Pa Phoeuk with her pigs in Cambodia

Pa Phoeuk with her pigs in Cambodia

In Cambodia, Pa Phoeuk applied swine-raising skills she learned and fattened a piglet to 304 pounds in just five months. She sold the pig and bought three more piglets to expand her swine production.

Project participants in Peru are using information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially online resources, such as social networking, to strengthen capacity and access new markets.

Milk cooperative members in Ukraine put their training to work and opened the country’s first smallholder farmer-owned milk processing plant. Being directly involved with processing and marketing is sure to increase their incomes.

Families in Tanzania have used innovative training techniques to make life better, including turning to camels for milk when raising cattle is no longer an option and transforming a small plot of land into an organic farming system.

Help more families by donating now!

 

Heifer CEO Speaks at World Food Prize 2012

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This week I am honored to be a part of the World Food Prize 2012 Borlaug Dialogue in Des Moines, Iowa, to represent the work of Heifer International and to help give voice to the millions of smallholder farmers who struggle daily against enormous odds to feed themselves and their families.

The World Food Prize is an incredible event, founded by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug in 1986, that honors outstanding individuals from all over the world who have made substantial contributions in the fight against hunger.

World Food Prize 2010

World Food Prize 2010 co-recipients, Jo Luck and David Beckmann. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

It was only two years ago that Heifer’s then-president, Jo Luck, and Bread for the World President David Beckmann accepted the World Food Prize. It was a milestone—the first time the prize recognized the critical achievements that non-governmental organizations, such as Heifer International and Bread for the World, are making empowering everyday people everywhere to help end hunger.

I am humbled to be standing in their shadow and honored to be carrying on Jo Luck’s legacy. Since that October day in 2010, Heifer has helped another four million families move beyond subsistence to resilience, bringing our total to more than 18 million families assisted.

World Food Prize

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

We cannot end hunger and poverty on our own. The direction that Heifer is embarking on will move us closer to achieving our mission of ending hunger and poverty and caring for the Earth. We are building on our past success to help more families than ever before by increasing our scale of impact. And our persistent efforts have not gone unnoticed. We have caught the attention of many large and impactful organizations such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Bank and United States Agency for International Development. I met with these organizations when I traveled to India, Nepal and Cambodia. They have seen the socioeconomic advancements in our project communities, generated by our work, and  they are interested in integrating with our efforts to empower families.

World Food Prize

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Speaking at the World Food Prize, surrounded by the luminaries of the development world, means that Heifer is being recognized as a key player. These next few years will be exciting and full of promise. But don’t just be an observer, get involved. Everyone has a role to play in ending hunger and poverty and your involvement in your own community can help the families all over the world with whom we work.

Susan Sarandon: Heifer International’s Work Empowers Women

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Susan Sarandon in Cambodia

I have followed and supported Heifer International’s work with women and their families for more than 20 years. I am excited Heifer is a featured nonprofit for the Half the Sky movement, which premieres its documentary tonight at 9pm Eastern. Last year I had the chance to see Heifer’s work in person in Cambodia, and below are my reflections on the importance of Heifer’s transformational work with women. Women, particularly in poor rural communities, really are the “glue” and the key to ending global hunger and poverty.

 

 

I encourage all of you to watch Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a four-hour television series on your local PBS station.

Editor’s note: Photo and video courtesy of Heifer International.

Beyond Hunger Event Celebrates Women’s Empowerment

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I am in California where this evening I will be a part of Beyond Hunger: A Place at the Table. This event is an extraordinary opportunity to honor Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson for their awesome dedication to Heifer International, and to raise awareness of the ongoing need to empower women.

Because I feel so strongly about the importance of providing opportunities to women, many of my blogs feature this topic. I wrote that Investment in Women Farmers IS Priority for Heifer; but at Heifer, we don’t just say it is important, our actions demonstrate our commitment.

Heifer CEO, Pierre Ferrari in Nepal

In August, Heifer CEO, Pierre Ferrari met with a women's self-help group in Nepal.

Gender and Family Focus is one of Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones and empowerment for women is  an integral component of our projects. Gender equity (the notion that women, men, girls and boys are valued equally and have the same opportunities to achieve their potential) is an important, key element of our programmatic work. Heifer has developed a two-part strategic approach: mainstreaming and understanding the cultural aspects that prevent gender equity. Mainstreaming ensures that women’s (and men’s) concerns, priorities and experiences are an integral part of the entire project cycle: the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project. Through training, Heifer is able to address the cultural systems, procedures, norms, beliefs, practices and attitudes that perpetuate gender inequality. These approaches allow for bridging the existing gaps between women and men.

Women in Cambodia in August 2012

Heifer CEO, Pierre Ferrari, was present in Cambodia when several women participating in Heifer projects received certificates for completing their training.

I recently returned from a visit to India, Nepal and Cambodia; and for the first time, I met women who were in the beginning stages of Heifer projects. These women were shy, and their husbands dominated the conversations. They were such a contrast to other women whose stories I have previously shared, such as Dolores Delgado from Peru or the Women’s Group Coordination Committee (WGCC) in Nepal. But I know that this contrast will not last, and these timid women will become transformed after they complete their Cornerstones and Values Based Holistic Development trainings.

It’s unbelievable that even though women make up more than half the total number of small farmers in the world, produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries, they still struggle for access to basic resources and services. Gender equity should be the norm; with your help Heifer will continue to work toward making that a reality.

So tonight, as we celebrate the stories of hope and inspiration and reflect on the work that is yet to be done, we recognize that together, we can change the world. And, even if you will not be able to attend this event, I ask that you join us in this pledge for the future to help empower women to achieve their dreams of life without hunger and poverty.