Ian Hands is an employee of Elanco, one of Heifer’s corporate partners. He recently participated in a Heifer Study Tour to Peru and was gracious enough to share his reflections with us.
We took a one hour internal flight from Lima to Cusco, South Peru, to join up with Heifer staff there. Cusco is a historic city and is positioned in the mountains at an altitude of 3, 200m, high enough to cause altitude sickness when going from sea level to 3,200 meters (10,499 feet) in one hour!
There are three main areas in this region: Cusco (1.1 million people), Apurimas (404,000 people) and Puno (1.2 million people). Politics seems to focus on welcoming large investors rather than supporting small communities. Mining companies in particular are making investments that cause problems for small rural communities. They take land close to water resources, which causes issues with supply and pollution. Although promises of work, health care, schools, etc. are made, they sometimes don’t materialise or workers are employed from Lima instead. Where offers are made to relocate farming families, they are left with the problem of what does a rural farmer do in a city?
Heifer is supporting 14,400 families in South Peru, working in 92 farming communities. Projects are always suited to the environment and ecosystem that the families are living in. For example, it is important to breed from native Peruvian sheep and select the best characteristics, as foreign breeds are too delicate for the environment.
Passing on the Gift is a major component of any project, and this is what will be seen tomorrow.
Ian Hands is an employee of Elanco, one of Heifer’s corporate partners. He recently participated in a Heifer Study Tour to Peru and was gracious enough to share his reflections with us.
Today we saw an example of Heifer working in collaboration with other organisations with great success. Unusually, this is an urban project approximately one hour from Lima. (Most of Heifer Peru’s projects are focused on the high mountain communities.)
During the political unrest of the 1970’s many people moved out from Lima and its suburbs into relatively unpopulated areas outside of Lima. Of course, lack of resource and infrastructure meant that these communities were, and still are, in constant threat of poverty.
With gender equity being so important in Peru, this project focused on training women to grow vegetables so that they could feed their under-nourished children. Initially, the reaction from the men was not great as the women were leaving the home to attend training! With many literally starting with a 20-inch growing area, the results seen today were amazing. All kinds of vegetables are being grown – eggplant, celery, radish, onion, lettuce, spinach, yellow pepper. The growing is entirely organic. Aromatic herbs are positioned next to the vegetables to deter insects. Compost from vegetable leaves and guinea pig manure is fed back to the plants. Water is only available from the municipal supply for 30 minutes each day. With 70 women being involved and the success of the project, they were not only growing enough to provide for their families, but also enough to sell in local markets. Assistance was given in demonstrating that with a differentiated organic project, this could raise more money by selling the produce in the more affluent areas of Lima. They now have their own brand and a source of income.
Training was also given in the rearing of guinea pigs, which are a common delicacy in Peru. From knowing nothing about the rearing of the animals, one lady has expanded her breeding stock over a period of 10 years from 5 guinea pigs to 300.
It was amazing to see today that with basic training and the efficient utilisation of resources, a community can be transformed. What stood out more than anything was the pride with which the women show in abundance. They attribute their success to necessity and the pure will to succeed.
We were also shown a demonstration farm showing that self-sufficiency is possible by utilising Peru’s natural resources and bio-diversity. This included a bio-digester that used guinea pig manure to provide the entire farm’s gas supply. The gas could also be used to generate electricity.
Today was an inspiration and confirmation that a little can go a long way, not just in providing food security and income, but also in pride and self-belief.
I want to share one more video of the celebration in Tontolo, this time of the first POG ceremony. The woman on the left is receiving 20 chickens and a rooster from the woman in the middle. What really impacted me about this moment is that you can see the impact of Passing on the Gift on the recipient’s face. She can hardly believe that this moment has finally arrived, and she is overcome with emotion.
As mentioned in the previous post, the Nueva Amanecer group is part of “Sustainable Food Systems in Copan and Lempira,” a Heifer umbrella project that involves 2,058 families in 43 communities in western Honduras. The project is one of the three projects that you can help fund through the Honduras umbrella project match. Any gift you give will be doubled by an anonymous donor and will help thousands of families improve their nutrition and income!
From June 24-July 1, 16 professional educators from around the United States traveled to Honduras with Heifer International to visit various projects. Check the blog over the next few weeks for more posts from Study Tour participants to hear their perspective on seeing Heifer’s work in the field. Learn more about Heifer’s programs and resources for educators.
Honduras, Heifer and Hope By Karyn Watanabe
In June 2011, I had the opportunity to attend Heifer’s Educators’ Tour to Honduras, which was one of most fantastic trips I have ever taken! We spent six nights in Honduras. The first two days, we learned about poverty. We learned about what defines poverty and the psychology of it; which of course is not plain and simple. Heifer does not dwell on the politics and the causes. We focused on identifying needs and setting the cornerstones into place so that people can be empowered and work their way out of poverty.
On the third morning, we packed up the white van and would spend the next three days visiting villages that were in various stages of sustainability. Enthusiastic and grateful village leaders (and oftentimes much of the village) who were eager to share their successes greeted us at each village. Much of the time, they weren’t really sure who we were but knew that we were somehow a part of helping them gain the tools and knowledge for their success. Many would have tears in their eyes. “Thank you for helping us when even our government won’t,” one man said.
We ran overtime at one village because our leader had a long list of all the exciting things he wanted to show off! When he got to the cow with her calf, he talked about
how wonderful it is that they have milk.
Visiting these people’s plots was more like a Boy Scout Merit Badge hike. The villages that we visited were on the worst plots of discarded land you could imagine. If it were our back yard, we would put in a retaining wall and plant ground cover. These people have terraced the land and built zero grazing pens, tilapia farms and shelters in which they live—on slopes. There are no roads; they have no cars. The nearest paved road might be hours away and the nearest town might be more than a day’s journey in some cases.
One particularly endearing moment occurred when we were visiting a group of entrepreneurial women who had started a plantain chip business. We were all gathered around the entrance to their new building listening to a woman tell her story in Spanish, and then to Pat who translated it to us in English.
These women were resilient. They knew they needed to come up with a business plan so that they could make some money. They got chickens, they all died. They saved and saved for another project, they were robbed. Finally, they came up with the Plantain Chip idea and it was a success. They are probably in the process of moving in to their new and improved factory this month. It’s a low-tech but very effective operation. They cut the plantains with a mandolin contraption, deep fry and salt them, place them in plastic then heat-seal them.
They have no stickers or logos to affix to the packages as of yet, but are hoping to eventually do that and sell them in town. I wish them luck. They were the best chips I ate in Honduras.
People don’t want to be poor. They can’t always simply get a job. There are people all over the world who are marginalized and/or abandoned by governments who pretend they don’t exist. People want to be educated and to provide their families with the basic necessities that all who are reading this take for granted.
As a teacher, I’ve seen that spark and enthusiasm in my classroom. It was even more profound to see how education, some seeds, a cow and people who care can literally save lives and give a community hope for a brighter future.
A few weeks ago, as a member of a Honduras Study Tour, I had the privilege of visiting the community of Tontolo, La Campa, in the Department of Lempira. Our group was invited to celebrate the Passing on the Gift® of chickens in the community by Nueva Amanecer Tontolo (New Dawn Tontolo), a group of 36 women farmers that formed four years ago and connected to Heifer through project partner Comision de Accion Social Menonita (CASM, Mennonite Social Action Commission).
Our drive took us up into the mountains and through a village with a distinct colonial influence– remnants of its history as a stopping point for the Spanish on their way to Guatemala. Eventually, even our fearless bus driver decided that the bus couldn’t navigate the path ahead, and we walked 15 or 20 minutes to join the POG party. Later we learned that our walk paled in comparison to that of many of the members of Nueva Amanecer, who walked an hour or longer to arrive at the POG ceremony that day, as they do for their meetings every month in the same location.
When we began to near the celebration, we were greeted by the joyous sound of a guitar accompanied by boisterous singing and clapping. After a couple of songs, Nueva Amanecer members and their families introduced themselves and the organization. In addition to training, group members had received cows, rabbits and native chickens, they explained, and their husbands help with the animals.
Some group members received biodigesters and ecostoves to boil milk. When necessary, Nueva Amanecer also functions as a small, rural bank that promotes saving and offers loans, with interest payed back monthly.
“I give thanks to God for the work that Heifer is doing and (for) supporting us as women farmers,” one Nueva Amanecer member said. We are poor, she said, but we have been working together to move our community and our families forward in a very organized way.
Next was the main event: not one, but two Passing on the Gift ceremonies, which marked the first POG for Nueva Amanecer. Each POG recipient would be receiving 20 chickens and one rooster each, and seemingly everyone in the community crowded around the chicken coops to witness the special moment. During the second ceremony, community members (and a Heifer employee or two) gathered together to catch some elusive chickens for the POG:
After the chickens were finally rounded up, the woman giving the chickens (right), beaming with pride and confidence, and the POG recipient (left), with a joyous smile on her face, talked about what the ceremony meant to each of them:
The event was as moving as it was inspiring, and I was honored to be able to share the moment with such an empowered group of women who are finding ways to work their families and community out of poverty.
Nueva Amanecer fits into the larger project picture as a part of “Sustainable Food Systems in Copan and Lempira,” a Heifer umbrella project that involves 2,058 families in 43 communities in western Honduras. In addition to generating livestock products and diversifying family agricultural production, the project promotes the use of agroecological and soil conservation practices as well as the use of animal waste as a source of alternative energy via biodigesters.
Also, “Sustainable Food Systems” is one of the three projects that you can help fund through the Honduras umbrella project match. Any gift you give will be doubled by an anonymous donor and will help thousands of families improve their nutrition and income!
Nueva Amanecer’s president (right) helps prepare one of the organization’s members to pass on 20 chickens and a rooster in the community of Tontolo in Honduras.
From June 24-July 1, 16 professional educators from around the United States traveled to Honduras with Heifer International to visit various projects. Check the blog over the next few weeks for more posts from Study Tour participants to hear their perspective on seeing Heifer’s work in the field. Learn more about Heifer’s programs and resources for educators.
A Change in Vision
Todd Montgomery, Manager of Adult Education for Heifer International
It is the rainy season in Honduras. No matter how hot and sunny the mornings, the afternoons usher in low moving, dark blue clouds. It isn’t a question of whether it will rain, but when.
Today’s clouds find us in the small mountainside community of Copantli in the department/state of Copan in western Honduras. By now our group of 16 teachers and four Heifer staff have grown sensitive to the difference in the road conditions of rural Honduras and the United States. But we are here, and the rain clock is ticking. The dirt roads become treacherous in the rain, so we are prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. However, there is one person with whom I really wanted to chat.
Angelina stands out in a crowd. She radiates a quiet confidence. I met Angelina on a previous trip to this village. I was amazed at the story that she told us of this community’s founding and growth, and of her group’s work with Heifer. I was thrilled at the chance to ask Angelina the questions that came out of our last meeting. Now, here we are, and the rains are coming.
Following a presentation by students at the small, one-room schoolhouse, we were invited to Angelina’s home. Rain drops begin to thump the tin roof of the school as we leave. This will have to be quick.
Angelina (back left in the white shirt) and her family.
We are herded to Angelina’s home. With a sweeping motion of her arm, Angelina draws attention to her home and farm. In the foreground, I see a beautiful and bountiful small tract of land replete with fruit trees, a vegetable garden, a buck goat and a pond stocked with tilapia fish. In the background, I can see the sheets of rain creeping across the mountain. There are two homes on Angelina’s property. Where she and her family live and where they used to live. As Angelina ushers us inside her new home, she tells her story.
Angelina is one of the founders of Copantli. She, along with other landless agrarian workers from a nearby city, moved to this hillside in 1982 while many rural people where moving into the city looking for work. Facing an uncertain future was more desirable for Angelina than living in the city and having no control of her own destiny. All were looking for a better life.
Angelina and her neighbors built homes from “dust,” and scratched out a living farming on the hillside. There were no schools in the new community, so a first priority was to build one and lobby the government to pay a teacher. Water had to be collected far away. The community still had very little, but they were not short on pride and determination.
Angelina, who was only able to attend school through the 3rd grade, became a community leader, even teaching 1st and 2nd grade. A Heifer project partner organization came into contact with the community and provided training in gender equity, then community leadership, and finally advocacy. The group now had a voice to go along with their pride and determination.
Armed with all of that, a delegation from Copantli led by Angelina made the long trip to the capital city of Tegucigalpa to meet with government and development agencies about building homes, schools, water wells, better roads and other infrastructure. They visited the Heifer Honduras office last. That meeting in 2006 marked a milestone in the growth of Copantli. The community had pride, determination, a voice, and now they had new resources and training.
Community members received dairy cattle. Eventually, the chickens, goats, tilapia and seedlings would follow. The community also received training in how to build and utilize biogas digesters that would harvest methane gas from composting animal manure, providing a healthier cooking source that burning firewood.
The group also received training on how to make concrete bricks and how to build homes from them.Angelina proudly points out that many of the group’s trained bricklayers are, in fact, women. These same women now train other communities in the region who are following in their example. Angelina herself pressed the bricks and then stacked them to form the walls of her new home. It is a marked improvement over the mud walls, dirt floor, and scrap metal roof that was her old home.
But I realize we have tempted fate long enough; the roads will become mud soon. We have to go. I ask Angelina what has changed about the community over the years that they have lived here.
“Our vision has changed. We used to look for leaders who would tell us what to do. Now we are the leaders. We know that we must lead by working with our communities. A good leader works for her people, for the good of the whole community. A good leader can’t make decisions based on race, politics, or religion. Everyone in the community should have the ability to be a leader,” she said.
As I look at Angelina and her family as we prepared to leave, I see several generations that have made the move from the city back to the country in search of a better life. I see members of a community that—through determination and hope and a little help—built a community from the ground up, a community with a school and with healthy families.
I hop in the back of our truck for the trip down the mountain, realizing how much we all could learn from a hillside in western Honduras.
From June 24-July 1, 16 professional educators from around the United States traveled Honduras with Heifer International to visit various projects. Check the blog over the next few weeks for more posts from Study Tour participants to hear their perspective on seeing Heifer’s work in the field. Learn more about Heifer’s programs and resources for educators.
I, Too, Have Received a Gift
By Jesse Freedman, The Potomac School
Let me begin with an admission: when I boarded my flight earlier in the summer for Honduras, I would have been hard pressed to fully communicate the meaning of one of Heifer’s core beliefs – the idea of Passing on the Gift.
It is a testament to the power of Heifer’s Study Tours for Educators, however, that by the end of my time in Honduras, I could speak passionately on behalf of the organization’s unique, values-based approach to the alleviation of hunger and poverty.
As a history teacher at large independent school outside of Washington, D.C., my primary motivation for traveling to Honduras was to construct – both for myself and my students – a more nuanced conception of what development ‘looks like.’
Turns out, of course, that development is a complicated thing, and that its implementation differs from one community to the next. But if I were to distill my experience in Honduras to one moment, to one lasting vision of Passing on the Gift, it would focus on our visit to Mejocote, a rural Honduran village west of Tegucigalpa.
It was here that we witnessed the transfer – from one family to the next – of roosters and chickens. The transfer, though, was about so much more than animals.
As the gift changed hands, we, a group of educators drawn from across the United States, observed development at its most local level: these chickens represented for the families involved the promise of improved economic prospects. And yet, in another way, the transfer embodied a number of the important goals to which Heifer, its partners, and its beneficiaries aspire: gender equality, local accountability, and environmental sustainability.
The memory of those families – engaged as they were in such a small, but such a vital, actof self-improvement – has assumed an indelible quality in my mind. To my students in Washington, D.C., I will return in the fall with a renewed sensitivity to the importance of development initiatives built on local needs – and challenges. I will also return with a far better sense for the complexities of Honduran history and identity.
It’s thanks to Heifer and its exhaustive efforts on our behalf that I, too, am the recipient of a gift. This gift comes as a call to action: to develop new curricula; to orient my students, friends, and family to development initiatives in Central American nations like Honduras; and to support the efforts of those committed to a values-based approach to social and economic empowerment.
From June 24-July 1, 16 professional educators from around the United States traveled Honduras with Heifer International to visit various projects. Sarah French, an education coordinator at Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas, led the tour; and her reflections on witnessing a Passing on the Gift ceremony are included here. Check the blog over the next few weeks for more posts from Study Tour participants to hear their perspective on seeing Heifer’s work in the field. Learn more about Heifer’s programs and resources for educators.
Now I am Free
The bougainvillea grew thick among the simple whitewashed homes topped by clay shingles in Mejocote, a small hillside community in western Honduras. We were there to witness the first Passing on the Gift by a family who had received 20 hens and a rooster 13 months ago.The walk from our van down a hillside was lined with coffee, avocado, mango and banana trees—evidence that the participants here were practicing integrated farming.
The site for the ceremony was Don Jose Garcia’s small, simple rented home, and we were greeted there as honored guests. White plastic chairs set up in a circle awaited us, and it was our group that felt honored to receive the information the Popular Association of Integral Development (ADPI) group gave on how they had used funds and resources they had received from Heifer. Accountability seems to be a paramount Cornerstone in the field, and groups like ADPI are only too proud to show how far they can stretch slight means.
Outside the home of the Garcia family.
Pastor Mejia Vargas, president of ADPI began the ceremony with a reminder that this family was not poor in love, but merely money. “We can respond to what this project asks of us because one of the Cornerstones is sharing. Today we share with a family in need. It is a joy to be present here,” he said.
Jose Gregorio Quintinella then spoke. Quintinella was Passing on the Gift along with his family.He explained that at first, he was not interested in chickens; chickens were “women’s work,” he said. After further education and the support of his family, he eventually decided to apply for chickens after all.He has grown to enjoy the birds, and, “Thanks to God, now I am free, no one else’s responsibility.Free from being subject to others.”
Jose Gregorio Quintinella about to pass on a chicken.
The gift that the Quintinella family passed on to the Garcia family comes with responsibility.All heads of household must sign the contract, agreeing to pass on the gift and care for the animals, among further duties. There are always obstacles, but the families who have received these gifts demonstrate that families are capable; they can benefit and pass on benefits to others in need.
Each member of the Quintinella family passed a hen to each member of the Garcia family.The rooster, “El Macho,” watched from his new home with its still wet mud walls solidifying to protect him from predators.Don Jose Garcia, father of the receiving family, shared his dream with the group to use the income from the chickens to move out of his rented home and into one he plans to build on nearby land.
The Quintinella family (right) passes on the gift to the Garcia family (left).
We celebrated the event with a gift of sweet rice milk provided the community, furthering the idea that “those with least tend to give the most.”
by Sandi Watson Have you ever seen a llama or alpaca up close? They are beautiful animals, with their big eyes, flirty eyelashes, long legs, and soft fleece.
alpacas in Pacchanta, Peru April 2010
For the Heifer project families who raise them, llamas and alpacas are also tremendously useful. After turning the fleece into yarn, families can create blankets, hats, ponchos, and other items. During our volunteers study tour in Peru, we learned that these beautiful weavings are also part of a rich cultural heritage. Special symbols such as condors, alpacas, mountains, and rivers honor Mother Earth.
Sometimes white fibers are dyed, using inks made from local plants. Other times, the weavers use only the naturally occurring colors – rich browns, pale taupes, creamy whites.
All these hand-crafted pieces are an important source of income for the families.
Llamas thrive at high altitudes, as we saw when we visited Pacchanta (over 13,000 feet above sea level). They are nimble and strong, able to carry loads to market. And because they are related to camels, they don’t need much water.
The next time you need a fun gift for a loved one, consider giving a llama in your beloved’s name. The person you honor will be thrilled and you’ll make a tremendous difference in the lives of the people who receive your gift!
All of the Heifer Experience videos have been submitted and now it’s time for you to vote! We received a wide variety of videos, ranging from school kids to teenagers, talking puppets and those trying to buy a monkey. Now we need your help to vote and determine which video winner will receive a life-changing experience that will send one lucky winner and guest to a Heifer project to see first-hand how we are ending hunger and poverty. To vote, visit www.heifer.org/contest, and view all of the submitted videos. Click the “Vote” button that appears when you hover over any of the videos below. This will open the video’s YouTube page. Once you’re there voting is simple: Click the ‘Like’ button under the video player (pictured at right). You’ll need a YouTube account to vote. Don’t have a YouTube account? Click here to register.
Do you have a favorite video? Tell us which one you like and why in the comments.
