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2007 WiLD Winners

Successful Heifer project partners know that for families and communities to effect real change, all members must participate fully and on the same level. Equal partnerships between men and women are a key ingredient for success.

In 1988, Heifer International established the Women in Livestock Development (WiLD) initiative to help women care for themselves, their families, the Earth and each other. A project is designated as WiLD if 70 percent or more of the participants are women.

Every year, Heifer recognizes the most remarkable of these WiLD project participants with two awards: the Grassroots Award for a superlative project and outstanding individuals, and the Meritorious Award for supporting women and advancing the cause of gender equity. Below are our 2007 winners.

Meritorious Award

Effatah Jele
Sharing Her Success

In the Fisenge community of Zambia, copper mining, not farming, is the main source of income. And until Effatah Jele moved here in 1972, no one raised livestock. The Jele family began keeping cows because milk was so hard to come by. Jele became a community leader and helped establish livestock as a viable way to make a living in her community.

The family embraced their new livestock endeavor, and their herd thrived and grew. This allowed them to help their neighbors, many of whom were unemployed after the copper mines began shutting down. Jele soon enlisted the help of Heifer International, which provided 20 heifers and 72 dairy goats for the Fisenge Dairy Cooperative.

Jele encouraged women to take charge of their families’ animals when men were called to work in the mines. Her hard work was the foundation of success for this Heifer project. Without Jele’s initiative, this Heifer project would have never started, and she is responsible for providing a pathway to better nutrition and improved income for her family and neighbors.

Grassroots Achievement Awards

Photo by Darcy Kiefel

It used to be that Nguyen Thi Len’s husband made all the money and major decisions for the family. But over the past five years, much has changed in the Nguyen household.

Because her husband was a hired laborer whose work was unsteady, the family needed a dependable source of income. So in 2003, Nguyen Thi Len joined the Long Hoa Dairy Cow Cooperative, near Can Tho City, Vietnam. Her original gift of two cows from Heifer has grown to eight, and the family now makes the equivalent of $9 a day selling milk. Her economic contributions to the family helped give Nguyen Thi Len the confidence to contribute in other ways, including making decisions about her son’s education. She also took up a leadership role in the cooperative, becoming vice-president of the managing committee.

Photo by Darcy Kiefel

In her mountain home in Ukraine, Vasylyna Klimpush sees both beauty and potential. A member of the Sil’sky Hospodar Agriculture Service Cooperative, Klimpush champions the unique native Hutsul horse breed for its suitability to the climate and terrain and its important role in the region’s culture. Klimpush became involved with Heifer International in 2002 at a time when she was unemployed and raising six sons alone. With the gift of a Hutsul from Heifer Ukraine, Klimpush and her sons, whose ages ranged from 5 to 18, were able to plow and cultivate a highland field. The horse also proved useful hauling firewood to keep the family warm during the long, cold winters.

Since 2002, Klimpush has become a leader in her group, recruiting her neighbors to participate in the Heifer project. And she was among the first to realize the Hutsul horses’ value as a tourist draw. Today, agritourism is thriving as visitors to the town ride the carriages pulled by Hutsuls as they accompany Klimpush on searches for medicinal berries and mushrooms.

Photo by Darcy Kiefel

In the desert-like conditions of Peru’s Piura region, rain is a stranger to the land and poverty is all too well known. It’s hard to make a living here, especially for women, who must struggle to survive in this harsh land and in a macho culture. One man, Yolmer Gutierrez Delgado, is making a difference by encouraging women to take leadership roles and training them to care for livestock.

Delgado, his wife and three children were among the first to settle this unwelcoming land. He began working with Heifer in 1996 and has since been an outreach livestock worker, teaching people how to raise goats. He also helped establish a group to encourage civic participation and positive gender relations in this traditionally male-dominated culture, and he continues to organize trainings about health and education, especially for women.

Delgado supported his wife and children as they became community leaders, and today the many women who serve as livestock outreach workers are helping to redefine gender roles.

Jane Opolot
Accomplished Advocate

Recently widowed and diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, Jane Opolot of Uganda used her grief to lift herself and hundreds of others to self-reliance. Faced with a household of seven people and no savings after her husband died, Opolot started a self-help project with 50 other women, many of whom were also infected with HIV/AIDS, stigmatized and struggling.

The women pooled their contributions to buy chickens. The sale of eggs and offspring allowed them to expand their operations to also raise pigs, but Opolot wanted to do more. With Heifer’s help, she added goat breeding, finally gaining financial security for herself and the other women she works with. The group Opolot founded now numbers 207.