Tag Archives: children

Save Lives this International Children’s Day

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International Children's Day

Photo by Dave Anderson, courtesy of Heifer International.

Many countries around the world are celebrating International Children’s Day today, June 1. While the United States doesn’t formally recognize today as a holiday, I’d like to commemorate it, because the world’s hungry children are why we do what we do here at Heifer International. Any day we can recognize the weight of that commitment is a good day.

Every five seconds today, a child somewhere will die from a hunger-related cause. That’s 16,000 in just one day. It will happen all over again tomorrow and the next day and the next. It’s tragic and mind-blowing and preventable.

What can you do to stop it? Give. By donating to Heifer International, you help turn statistics like these into healthy children with a future.

Not committed to helping yet? Watch this slideshow below to see just a few of the millions of children Heifer International has been able to help through donations from people like you. Families who receive livestock and training from Heifer are able to feed their children nutritious meals, send them to school and pay for their medical care when needed.

Created with flickr slideshow.

You can also help by sharing this post! Share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

 

From the Field: New Beginnings

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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 works with families to help direct men and women toward gender equality. As men and women participate in projects together, communities develop a sense of unity and respect. After joining Heifer, project participants not only see major improvements in their income and living conditions, but regain trust and hope in their relationships. Where despair may have seemed overwhelming, new beginnings unfold as friendships produce respect and families are reunited.

Heifer Vietnam project participant Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, 39, with her two daughters. Photo by Nguyen Xuan Quyen, Communication and Networking Officer, Heifer Vietnam

Heifer Vietnam project participant Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, 39, with her two daughters. Photo by Nguyen Xuan Quyen, Communication and Networking Officer, Heifer Vietnam

Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, a 39-year-old Heifer Vietnam project participant, is a resilient woman with a painful past. Trang married her first husband when she was 25 years old and quickly found herself in an abusive relationship. After her husband beat her and threw her into a river for buying rice, Trang divorced him and began a new life. She remarried and is grateful to now have a respectful and honest husband. She and her current husband harvest rice and rent out their tractor to earn a living in their village. Trang works hard to make the most of every opportunity and has hope that her two daughters will live a happy life.

Sriman Thapa, a 9-year-old boy from Nepal, was bullied becuase of his parents disabilities. After his mother contributed goats in a POG, the teasing stopped. Photo by Alina Karki, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Temp, Heifer Nepal

Sriman Thapa, 9, was bullied because of his parents’ disabilities. After his mother contributed goats in a POG, the teasing stopped. Photo by Alina Karki, PME Temp, Heifer Nepal

Sriman Thapa, 9, lives in Nepal with his mother and father. He was relentlessly bullied because his parents are “laata,” meaning deaf and mute. The constant teasing established Sriman’s identity with his parent’s disability. When his mother contributed to another family in a Passing on the Gift® (POG) ceremony, the bullying stopped. By caring for her community, Sriman’s mother changed her son’s life and her community’s perspective.

Due to conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Beglaryan family left their Armenian village for several years. They returned home just before the first POG took place. A fellow villager presented the family with a cow, which inspired them to believe in a prosperous future. The Beglaryans want to improve their livelihoods and the economic life of their community. Their belief in this new beginning will help others push forward with hope.

Learn how you can help families find new beginnings worldwide

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.

World Health Day Teaches Kids to Relieve the Pressure

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Every week we feature a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. World Health Day is held on April 7 to celebrate the founding of World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948. The 2013 theme is “Control Your Blood Pressure,” which is not usually associated with children; however, among infants and children hypertension can be linked to kidney problems or excess weight.

Photo credit: timeanddate.com

Photo credit: timeanddate.com

Celebrate World Health Day 2013

WHO’s goal for World Health Day is to raise awareness about high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Healthy habits improve detection and lower risk of hypertension.

  • Know the health consequences of high blood pressure
  • Encourage others to check their blood pressure
  • Establish healthy behaviors
  • Reduce salty foods
  • Stay active

WHO also encourages individuals to share their experiences through social media, host a local discussion group or organize an event, such as an art exhibit or concert, to spread the news.

Kidshealth.org provides health information for parents, teens and kids. The site’s games and activities teach children about growing up, staying fit and eating healthy. ‘How the Body Works’ scavenger hunt is head to toe fun as kids learn how their body functions. Parents and kids can also watch movies, read articles, take quizzes and other activities to learn about heart health.

World Health Day 2013

Photo credit kidshealth.org

Heifer International project participants learn how to live healthier lives by eating more nutritious foods and improving living conditions. When participants receive an animal, or other gifts like seeds or trees, they also receive training on how to successfully care for that gift. As they begin to sell milk, eggs, cheese, honey, meat and wool, they reap the benefit of increased income and improved diets. Some also share with their neighbors when they have extra.

Join Team Heifer to create a healthier world

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.

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.

Double Your Donation to End Malnutrition in Honduras and Guatemala

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Right now, the rate of malnutrition in Central America is staggering. In the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala, 60 percent of the population suffers from chronic or acute malnutrition. Six out of 10 children struggle with malnutrition in the Lempira region of Honduras. These communities face an infant mortality rate of 28 deaths for every 1,000 births. That’s almost five times worse than the United States. But, we can do something about it.

During the month of March, your gift to Heifer International can be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to a generous benefactor and international partners, every dollar raised for three new projects in Honduras and Guatemala will be doubled. Stretch your dollar further and double your impact to help provide the training and livestock needed by families to help put more food on the table.

Cary Rubelse and Eduardo Najera Gonzalez, Guatemala

Cary Rubelse and Eduardo Najera Gonzalez can drink goat’s milk to increase their nutrition.
Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International

In Honduras, Heifer is working alongside communities in Lempira to improve health and nutritional food security by 2016. Training in areas like micro-enterprise initiatives, gender equity and sustainable farming practices will help improve production and full inclusion in the community. Farming and income diversification will be impacted by the placement of cows, goats, poultry and bees.

Heifer has started two projects in the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala to help families to produce more on their family farms through the use of stronger livestock, seeds and improved agroecology.

Gifts of livestock and training provide improved nutrition and additional family income along with the chance for vulnerable children to grow up healthy and strong. In addition, these kids will have the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty by attending school.

Elmer and Lisbe Gonzalez

Elmer and Lisbe Gonzalez now have the opportunity to attend school.
Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

In order to maximize this March match, we need to raise at least $831,000 by generous supporters like you. These projects cannot move forward without your help. Right now, any gift made to this project will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Click here to find out more or to donate.

Around the Web: Kids With a Cause, Tikkun Olam and Holiday Lists

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Every Sunday we highlight some of the people who are funding our work creatively or helping us spread the word of our mission online. If you spot Heifer International while you’re surfing the web or know of a fun or creative fundraising effort, please share it with us here in the comments.

You’ll be impressed by 12-year-old Ryan Bell, who’s made a goal of raising $25,000 for Heifer’s Gift of Transformation. Ryan was born with Treacher Collins syndrome, a cranio-facial disorder. He sees the Gift of Transformation as a reflection of his own year of transformation, which has been full of extensive surgeries. NOTE: We are excited to share that Ryan has reached his lofty goal, but let’s see if we can help get him even further!

Ryan Bell and his sister, Meghan. Photo credit: New Haven Register

Thanks to the Congregation Shomrei Torah, who is promoting donations to Heifer this Hanukkah: “We’re really looking to help people around the world. In Hebrew we call it Tikkun Olam, which means ‘repairing the world.’”

Lucinda and Clara Becker manned a booth sponsored by Laguna Presbyterian Church to benefit Heifer International. They brought their own pet chickens to bring attention to their booth, and according to reports, it worked.

Clara and Lucinda Becker and their pet chickens. Photo Credit: Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot

Gift Guides/Gift Ideas/Charities Lists
Thank you to all who mentioned Heifer in gift guides and in their charity lists this past week. Here are some we came across:

 

 

Giving Independence

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It’s hard not to be pleasantly overwhelmed by the kindness of others when you’re in my business. For each issue of World Ark, I get to write about donors who love Heifer’s mission so much that they go to great lengths to provide a gift of livestock to the families in need all around the world.

Meghan and Ryan Bell in June 2012

But one donor in particular has really inspired me, and I find it a true pleasure to have gotten to know him and his family over the past couple of years.

Ryan Bell was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, a disorder that causes malformations of the face. The 11-year-old from Wallingford, Conn., has endured 37 surgeries, and just last week had a tracheotomy—a device which helped him breathe—removed. But Ryan knows his birth defect is nothing compared to what some families face.

An animal lover, Ryan convinced his parents in 2009 that their annual giving should go to Heifer International, a nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger and poverty by providing gifts of livestock and training to families in need around the world. In two short years Ryan  raised nearly $9,400 for the charity. We profiled Ryan and his little sister, Meghan, in last year’s Holiday edition of the magazine when they were hoping to raise $850 for a camel.

Ryan before the surgery to lengthen his jaw (left) and after. He has since had his tracheotomy removed.

Well, Heifer donors came through for Ryan and Meghan, and the pair raised more than $8,600 last year. But this year, Ryan has upped his goal. Inspired by a surgery that helped lengthen his jaw and open his airway, Ryan has become set on raising $25,000, or Heifer’s “Gift of Transformation.”

I’ll let Ryan tell the rest, but you can read his whole story and his quest to raise the Gift of Transformation in the most recent edition of World Ark:

“I was excited when I saw the Gift of Transformation in the gift catalog because it reminds me of the transformation that I went through this year. I wasn’t excited to do this surgery and I wouldn’t have chosen it for myself. The doctor took my underdeveloped jaw and transformed my airway. It was a transformation for me,” Ryan said.

That transformation serves as his inspiration, he said.

“I want to give my own Gift of Transformation to the world. I want to send herds of heifers, llamas, and goats, flocks of sheep and chickens, a pen of pigs, a school of fish and a gaggle of geese to an underdeveloped area of the world and let a transformation take place as the gift is received, utilized and passed along. A Gift of Transformation can affect the lives of people in an entire village or community.”

“I don’t want to rely on a trach to breathe. I don’t want extra medical equipment and it would be great to not need a nurse or parent around at all times. I want my independence, just like these people want to be independent and take care of their own needs. They just need a different kind of assistance for their transformation; they need us.”

To help Ryan meet his goal, go to his Team Heifer page.

Read To Feed Has a Fun New Website

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Know a group of kids who’d like to get involved with Heifer? We have some exciting news about Heifer’s classic Read to Feed program.

Read to Feed now has a revamped website, with features that make it extra-simple and enjoyable to participate in this reading incentive program. Teachers will find it easier than ever to customize their class’s project and share their students’ progress with the whole community.

Read to Feed involves classrooms in helping to end hunger and poverty around the world, while fostering a love of reading. Now educators can set up a class reading and fundraising goal and use Facebook, Twitter and email to encourage their friends, family and neighbors to get involved.

Read to Feed challenges children to use their own reading efforts to help buy Heifer International animals for other needy kids. Kids love to work toward this goal, because it’s a purpose that makes sense to them. Hunger is a clear injustice, and children want to be part of the solution.

The free Read to Feed kit is full of materials to make the project come to life. At the end of the program, the group pools its challenge funds and decides which animals to donate through Heifer International, to help other families move into self-reliance.

Education World called the website “light and fun,” saying, “For classes that want to improve student reading ability while helping families in need, Read to Feed is the place to go.”

Classes can add pictures, goals and achievements to the class page and use a fundraising thermometer to help keep track of all the progress. Teachers looking for new ways to inspire their classes can visit www.readtofeed.org or, to order the Read to Feed kit, email volunteer@heifer.org or call 877-275-READ (7323).