Year-Round Ideas for Sharing the Gift of Knowledge

1. Write Your Representatives. 2. Buy Locally. 3. Buy Fair Trade. 4. Visit a Heifer Learning Center. 5. Go Organic. 6. Volunteer Locally. 7. Give. 8. Join a Heifer Study Tour. 9. Be an Ambassador. 10. Pass It On. Want to know more? Click Here

Giving Peace a Chance...
...in Rwanda

Few places need peace more than the African nation of Rwanda.

Survivors of the genocidal war between the Hutus and Tutsis like Christine Makahumure are still deeply scarred by the vivid memories of neighbors butchering neighbors.

Christine watched in horror as her son and husband were gunned down before her very eyes as she and her daughter barely escaped with their lives. The years that followed brought unimaginable hardship for Christine and her country.

But Heifer has been working to speed the painful healing process. We’ve provided hundreds of cows to small-scale farmers like Christine in the last few years … with very visible results.

One of the first cows delivered to Rwanda was actually named “Peace,” and the cows that have followed have become rallying points of communal togetherness without ethnic segregation.

Christine received a cow from Heifer and has since witnessed firsthand the remarkable power of the gift. Her cow quickly gave birth — allowing Christine to take part in the time honored Heifer tradition of “passing on the gift” to another needy family.

Former enemies are passing on baby animals to each other

Marie Benjamin, a single mother, fled Rwanda in 1994 and returned seven years later with nothing. She received a cow from Heifer, which has enabled her to feed eight children. She also sells the cow's milk, which provides her with enough income to pay for the children's school fees.

When Marie was able to pass on a calf, she said her decision was never based on the ethnicity of the family.

"I don't concern myself with others' ethnic background. We are all very much trying to live in peace with one another," Benjamin said.

Today in Christine's village, all ethnic groups are now working together to raise and care for the cows … forming a “Family Cow Cooperative” that helps foster understanding of common challenges and restores hope for once again living in harmony.

As for Christine, in addition to having money to pay for her daughter’s school, she has even been able to adopt four orphans from the war … yet one more way that Heifer cows are helping build a future of peace in Rwanda.

For both Christine and Marie, passing on their gifts means healing old wounds in a very unexpected approach.

Year-Round Ideas for Sharing the Gift of Knowledge

1. Write Your Representatives. 2. Buy Locally. 3. Buy Fair Trade. 4. Visit a Heifer Learning Center. 5. Go Organic. 6. Volunteer Locally. 7. Give. 8. Join a Heifer Study Tour. 9. Be an Ambassador. 10. Pass It On. Want to know more? Click Here

Giving Peace a Chance...
...in Armenia

Until the early 1990s, poverty was virtually unknown in the Caucasus region.  But the collapse of the Soviet Union caused severe poverty for some of its people, such as Spartak.

While Spartak was away on seasonal work trying to make ends meet, his wife left him and put their newborn twins in an orphanage. When he returned, he immediately attempted to take the children home, but was denied permission by the orphanage authorities.

After almost a year, he was granted custody of his girls. He was a single father for four years, when he remarried. Soon after, Heifer staff became acquainted with Spartak. He and his family of five had only a domik (wagon), and no experience in livestock keeping. Spartak built a barn, with assistance from Heifer and the community, and acquired one pregnant cow.

He has since passed on the offspring to a neighboring family and the families work together to maintain their small farm, which includes now four cows, several hogs, numerous vegetables and a peach orchard.

Elsewhere, on a hot summer day near the small village of Shulaveri in the Republic of Georgia, families representing three different nations came together to hold a “Passing on the Gift” ceremony.

But these families from war-torn Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan were passing-on more than just life-giving plants and animals, they were also passing on peace — a commodity that has been so rare in this region.

Civil wars, violence, and border disputes dating back to the Soviet era have killed thousands and left these economies in shambles.

Yet here these families were … joining together on this afternoon in peace and friendship.

Maxim Movsesyan was there with his two daughters Sveta and Diana to pass on a sheep to Ali Aliev from Azerbaijan.

Maxim said, “We are happy to join this Peace Project. I hope other nations like us will be given the chance to participate and share the joy we had today with the Passing of the Gift.

“I was a recipient a long time ago and now I share my joy with someone from another nation. I wish for all children in this world to live together in a safe place and with Peace.”

Wheither it's Spartak from Armenia, Maxim from Georgia or Ali from Azerbaijan, people are learning that peace can be achieved one animal at a time.