Tag Archives: International Women’s Day 2012

Each Year, The Harvest Grows

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A commitment to empower women is embedded in Heifer International’s core values for sustainable development. In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, this week we’re sharing the stories of Heifer participants who take the gifts of animals and training and run with them to extraordinary results for themselves and their communities. Through hard work and innovations, each woman secures her rightful place in the family, the marketplace and the world.

Photo by William Russell Powell

Esperanza Caal, 22, lives on her family’s farm outside Sayaxche, Guatemala, where oranges, mangoes, sweet potatoes, nutmeg, bananas and corn grow in tidy patches and rows. Crops thrive in the steamy heat, and the Esperanza proudly offers a bowl of fresh pineapple slices to visitors, a tasty welcome that highlights the bounty of the land.

But the abundance the Caals enjoy today was hard-won. Like many indigenous Guatemalans, their ancestors spent decades laboring on huge European-owned coffee farms that swallowed the plots they once tended for themselves and their families. And during the devastating 36-year-long civil war that was especially punishing to indigenous people, opportunities for families like the Caals to escape their servitude and strike out on their own were virtually nonexistent.

Twenty years ago, though, Esperanza’s father and grandfather decided to change their family’s future by laying claim to the land the family now lives on. Miles from any passable roads and churning with mosquitoes that thrive in the wet lowlands, the Caals’ farm wasn’t considered much of a prize. It took 14 years of work to make it habitable, but now, the family is healthy and proud to be independent. Each year, their harvest grows.

As participants in a Heifer project promoting sustainable agriculture and fair trade, the Caal family sows Heifer-provided seeds that yield high-quality fruits and vegetables that fetch good prices. In Heifer trainings, they learn how to market their crops to make fair profits. And the Heifer group members encourage each other to hold on to their farms, which are so productive now that outsiders frequently show up with offers to buy the land.

Esperanza has listened to the stories about her father and grandfather working on the coffee farms and struggling to survive during the war, and she has no plans to leave the family farm that took so long to build. “There’s plenty of room, I’m happy here. I want to stay,” she said. “I’m always thinking about how to improve the land.”

Honoring Heifer’s Women Participants: Ganga Khanal, Nepal

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Editor’s Note: Acommitment to empower women is embedded in Heifer International’score values for sustainable development. In honor of International Women’s Dayon Thursday, March 8, this week we’re sharing the stories of Heifer participants who takethe gifts of animals and training and run with them to extraordinary resultsfor themselves and their communities. Through hard work and innovations, eachwoman secures her rightful place in the family, the marketplace and the world.


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Video by Geoff Oliver Bugbee and Puja Singh

Ganga Khanal of Jirouna, Nepal describes herself as stubborn, driven and outspoken, traditionally not celebrated qualities in a Nepali woman.

Her fierce spirit grew all the stronger after a heart-breaking early married life full of betrayal and blame.Her first two children were daughters, and her husband and mother-in-law turned on her, blaming her for the lack of a son. Her husband hit her when she spoke up, and her mother-in-law encouraged him. She never had enough to eat.

But she would not accept that life of poverty and pain. She heard about a women’s group looking for a new group of women to receive Heifer animals and knowledge through the practice of Pass on the Gift. Armed with that sliver of hope, she rallied her neighbors.

“I said, ‘Let’s do something. We are very poor people. We lease other people’s goats and raise them. If someone is willing to give us goats for free, why wouldn’t we take that opportunity?’” Khanal said.

Despite bitter opposition from her husband, she formed the Jagrit Women’s Group and received two black and white goats and training in Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones.

“Today I am something,” Khanal said. “I have substance; I have animals; I have crops. … If you have the backup of the whole group, the trust of the group, there is nothing you can’t do.”

Khanal now sits on the executive board of a larger cooperative of women’s groups that owns and operates a commodities store where the women can sell their own produce.

Her husband came around too, a few months after she received her goats and a loan from the group savings. “He started helping me in the farm and with the animals. We were making enough money to get us by.

“I believed what I was doing would result in a bright future for my family,” she said. “So I didn’t lose faith. I didn’t give up.”Khanal is hopeful her efforts will mean a better future for all her six children, four girls and two boys.

“I used to be guilty as well in believing it was more important to educate or provide for my sons than for my daughters,” she said. “But the trainings changed all that for me. Today, my daughter is in the army. My daughter has made me realize and understand that girls are no less than boys.”

Her son, Sudip, learned that same lesson from Khanal. “I have so much respect for these women who have created opportunities for people like me. The future looks bright for us because of our moms.”

To read the full article about Khanal in World Ark magazine, click here. Below, Khanal shares what her life is like now.