Tag Archives: students

Around the Web: Students of All Ages Giving in Creative Ways, and an Easter Egg Hunt

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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.

Swipe Out Starvation

Photo credit: The Living Principles

Now this is a great idea:  Swipe Out Starvation, started by students, gives students the choice to allocate unused food allowance credits to hunger-relief efforts instead of buying unnecessary items just to use up their credits before they expire. Purdue tried the program for a week in 2011, and within five days, and $1,300 was donated to a local food bank and Heifer International.

If you are around the Chattanooga, Tennessee, area on March 24, be sure to attend St. Luke UMC’s Easter Egg Hunt to benefit Heifer.

I came across this story of Dr. Camille DeClementi, who paid off her student loan payments in 2011 and decided to use that money in 2012 to donate $50 to a different charity each month, including Heifer International.

Livestock Market

Photo credit: examinar.com

The children and youth of St. Thomas More held a livestock market to share with parishioners the gifts each animal provides when you give through Heifer. Booths were set up in the parish hall to share how pigs, sheep, goats, llamas, rabbits, chickens, honeybees, water buffalo, trees and heifers can help the rural poor throughout the world. Those attending were asked to donate the full price or funds toward the purchase of livestock or tree seedlings.

Forest Park Elementary

Photo credit: todaysthv.com

“Last year in Mrs Riley’s class, we bought a goat. This year I think we can buy something bigger. How about a heifer?” This comment from a 4th grader at Forest Park Elementary, right here in Little Rock (where Heifer International headquarters lives), sparked a classroom project that will change a family’s life.

South Africa Students Learn the Secret of Heifer International’s Success

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Story by Magdalena Wos | Resource Development Officer | Heifer South Africa

Student Nokulunga Gasa and Zusiphe Heifer International project member David Ntombela

Nokulunga Gasa and Heifer South Africa project member David Ntombela stand in David's garden.


Photos by Buyani Khumalo | Livestock Coordinator | Heifer South Africa

Working closely together and sharing a spirit of unity is one of the reasons Heifer International farmers succeed. Three agriculture students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal learned this firsthand when they spent several weeks living and working with members of the Zusiphe Project in South Africa over the summer. The three women and one man left comfortable lives in the city to learn how residents of Nqundu village are fighting poverty and food insecurity on a daily basis.

During their stay, the students participated in training activities and spent time collecting data, analyzing soil and planting vegetables. They saw the obstacles residents deal with every day and learned how, as a group, community members overcome them.

Thobile Maphumulo with Heifer South Africa project member Grace Sikhakhane.

Thobile Maphumulo with Heifer South Africa project member Grace Sikhakhane.

“I have learned that group members are taking care of each other and are united,” said 19-year-old student Inamandia Mngadi. “When the group received seedlings, some members did not have gardens yet, but they could plant their seedlings in the garden of one of the group members who are close to them. They are very supportive of each other.”

Living in Nqundu village helped the students understand that Heifer’s model is not to give a handout, but a “hand up.” Gifts such as seeds and livestock are a significant part of the project, but only through sharing the same values and being committed to working together and helping each other does the project succeed. The Zusiphe community is a great example of that.

The Zusiphe Project in northern KwaZulu-Naltal began in early 2012 and will lift approximately 1,000 people out of poverty. Participants have already received seedlings and started vegetable farms. Over the next few months and years they will begin farming goats and chickens.

Find out how you can give the gift of transformation.

Heifer Around the Web: A Little Girl Determined to Change the World

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Every Sunday we will 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!

It’s so inspiring to read blogs about those who give of their time and hard-earned money to help us in our mission to end hunger and poverty. These caught my eye this week:

With the huge jackpot looming, there had been talk everywhere about what people would do once they won the lottery. We were lucky enough to be mentioned in one would-be winner’s plans.

This mom blogs about how “some bedtime tears and $7.00 turned into two flocks of chicks and two strongly worded letters to President Obama and Secretary Clinton. And a little girl determined to change the world.” A great read on Redefine Girly, Pigtail Pals blog.

Mary Steenburgen talks home decor, entertaining, and her candle company, which donates $2 from each candle purchase to Heifer International.

These people made the news last week for their creative fund-raising efforts on behalf of Heifer International:

Fairfield Grace United Methodist Church in Connecticut hosted an annual Bunny Breakfast last weekend with proceeds going to Heifer International. Check out the cute pics!

Jana Bass mixes her business (all-natural goat milk skin care line) and generous spirit by bringing one of her goats to talk to third-graders about Beatrice’s Goat, a true story about a Ugandan girl who received a goat through Heifer International, allowing her to sell milk and afford an education, hoping to inspire them in their own fundraising efforts to buy a goat to help a family in need become self-sufficient.

Students in the Davies World Language Department in Fargo Schools competed to raise the most loose change for Heifer International’s matching project in Vietnam, so their hard work’s results will be doubled. Team Pig won, Team Sheep came in second, and Team Rabbit came in third, with a total donation of $2,185.00. (I love those team names, don’t you?)

Mike Ainsworth of Illinois is gearing up for a 420-mile cycling tour to raise awareness on world hunger and Heifer International. Read the whole story here.

And last but not least, here’s an interesting little snippet about a Heifer project in Cameroon, found on a climate action website:

Julian Mengue, a government program participant set up with the help of Heifer International, turns her animals’ manure into fuel, saving money AND helping the environment at the same time.