60 Minutes and Beatrice Biira

For immediate release

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – CBS has just confirmed a January 12th airdate of "60 Minutes" on CBS Wednesday, January 12th at 8 p.m. ET/PT, (7 p.m. CT) featuring  Heifer International and the story of Beatrice Biira, a young woman in rural Africa whose life was transformed when her family got a dairy goat from the U.S.-based humanitarian aid organization Heifer International.

The goat, named Mugisa (or "Luck" in Okonzo, one of several languages spoken in Beatrice's home village in Uganda), produced milk for the family to
drink and sell. For the first time the family could afford to send Beatrice to school, where she proved an able student.

Today she is a freshman on full scholarship at Connecticut College, majoring in international studies. Her goal is to complete her education and return to Uganda to help her country's development. Beatrice is also the subject of the best-selling children's book, "Beatrice's Goat," published by Simon & Schuster, written by Page McBrier and illustrated by Lori Lohstoeter.

CBS correspondent Bob Simon accompanied Beatrice on a trip back to her home in western Uganda near the equator, where he saw tiny farms (most
less than three acres) producing food for families using high-quality dairy goats as a source of milk to drink and sell, and manure for organic fertilizer to
grow more vegetables. With a better diet and income, life quickly improves for residents who receive a goat from Heifer International.

"60 Minutes" also filmed a ceremonial "Passing on the Gift," in which villagers who have received goats from Heifer International give offspring of their
animals to others in need in their community so they, too, can improve their lives, creating an ever-widening circle of hope.

Since 1944, Heifer International has provided struggling families a way to become self-reliant for food and income. Through the gift of livestock and
training, a family can obtain milk, eggs, wool and other income-producing benefits to feed, clothe and educate their children.  Each gift multiplies
because every family that receives a Heifer animal promises to "pass on the gift" by giving one or more of their animal's offspring to another family in
need. 

Heifer International currently supports projects in 50 countries, including the United States, that create sustainable small-scale farm enterprises to improve nutrition and supplement income. Local community groups conceive and manage Heifer International projects, empowering them to solve their own problems and equipping the next generation to face challenges successfully.

For more information about Heifer International, please call (800) 696-1918,or visit the Heifer web site at www.heifer.org.