WiLD Grass Roots Winners

Heifer’s WiLD initiative celebrates women and empowers them to make real changes in their community.

As actor and Heifer supporter Susan Sarandon says, “It's absolutely crucial that women all around the world gain the respect that they deserve for their role in family life and health. There will be no end to hunger until women everywhere have more control over their lives. Heifer understands this and makes men and women working together a vital part of their lasting solution to world hunger.”

Anush Ghazaryan is a model of this philosophy. In 2003, Ghazaryan joined a Heifer project in Saramej, Armenia and was elected leader of the women’s union. The women’s union established YES! Youth Club. Among their successes, the youth club, under Ghazaryan’s leadership, mobilized the whole community and planted 4,000 trees in a single day.

The women’s union’s concern extends beyond the boundaries of their village. In 2005, when a Heifer study tour visited Saramej, Ghazaryan and the women’s union entrusted them with hand-woven wool socks and asked them to pass the socks on to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Nguyen Thi Len - Vietnam

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 day 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, 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 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.

Jane Opolot - Uganda

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 who 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.

Vasylyna Klimpush - Ukraine

In her mountain home in Ukraine, Vasylyna Klimpush sees both Beauty and potential. 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 native Hutsul horse from Heifer Ukraine, she and her sons, ranging in age from 5 to 18, were able to cultivate a highland field and haul firewood in winter. Since 2002, Klimpush has become a leader in her group and was among the first to realize the Hutsul horse’s value as a tourist draw. Today, agritourism is thriving in the area.