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Powerful new source of energy in Cameroon

Starved of electricity but with plentiful methane-rich manure, rural livestock farmers in this heavily agricultural nation have become unlikely heroes and beneficiaries of Africa’s fight to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Take 46-year-old Juliana Mengue, who was widowed five years ago and has to care by herself for 40 cows on her a one-and-half acre farm in Bafut village in northwest Cameroon. A government program set up with the help of the Cameroon branch of global nonprofit Heifer International has turned her animals’ manure, more traditionally used only as a fertilizer in crop-farming, into fuel, boosting her family’s income.

Read more on tcktcktck.org

“Seagoing Cowboy” now living in Riverdale to be honored at art exhibit at Merchant Marine Academy

With his crisp button down shirt, pleated dress pants and neatly swept- back gray hair, the Rev. Dr. Charles Wesley Shike may not seem like a seafaring adventurer. But in the summer of 1946, he was among an intrepid group of men who took to the high seas after World War II to deliver livestock to starving, war-torn Europe. He was a “Seagoing Cowboy.” “It changed my life,” the now 87-year old Anglican priest said at his Riverdale home. Shike is being honored at an art exhibit opening Friday at the American Merchant Marine Museum at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island. The exhibit, “Heifer Relief: Compass, Ark, Berth,” explores the little-known history of the Seagoing Cowboys. “This was an untold story,” said sculptor and film maker Jo Israelson . “Once you start talking to a seagoing cowboy, it’s like going on an adventure, both a spiritual adventure and a historical adventure.”

Read the full article on nydailynews.com

Celebrating Seeds of Change in Hughes, AR

Leaders from Heifer International and the U.S. Department of Agriculture gathered Monday in Hughes to celebrate Heifer's commitment to working in a USDA StrikeForce area.

Heifer International recently launched the first phase of the Seeds of Change project, which aims to improve the income of small farmers in areas of Appalachia and the Arkansas Delta. The project also aims to make healthy foods more accessible to hungry families by creating sustainable food systems. Welcomes were given by U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, St. Francis County Judge Gary Hughes, Hughes Mayor Lawrence Owens and Hughes School Superintendent Jimmy Wilkins. Tamidra Marable, program manager for Heifer International, said, "We're very excited to be here today. There is a true recognition of a need for collective commitment."

Read the full article at thnews.com.

Facebook Game 'WeTopia' Allows Players To Donate Real Cows

Remember the day you selected “Hide all by FarmVille” on Facebook? That was a good day. Friends among the 32 million monthly users of Zynga‘s popular game immediately lost the power to share the number of purchased cows on your news feed. We knew our friends were enjoying mindless fun, but still judged them for putting so much effort into something so intangible and non-constructive. Today, that’s all changing. We’re seeing more and more games that bridge our online and offline worlds for social good.

Read the complete article on forbes.com

The risks and rewards of helping Honduras

Virtually the entire American Airlines flight going to San Pedro Sula in Honduras was clad in color-coordinated t-shirts, each representing a group doing good in the Central American country. Medical missionaries from South Carolina. College students from the Northeast. Church groups of kids, parents and pastors from across the country, including ours from St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Coral Gables.

Read the complete article on miamiherald.com

Cameroon Farmers Turn Bio-Gas Into Power

Henry Njakoi, country director of Heifer International Cameroon, says the construction of bio-gas digesters in demonstration farms can generate enough gas for whole communities. Farmers pay only about a quarter of the $120 cost of a manure biodigester, with Heifer International and the Ministry of Agriculture footing the rest of the bill.

Read the complete article on trust.org

Give While You Get: Catalog Spree Gives Back 5% of Sales on Free Shipping Day

On Free Shipping Day (December 16, 2011), Catalog Spree will donate five percent of all purchases made through the app to Heifer International, which will help those in need around the world. Catalog Spree is the highest-rated catalog app for the iPad® and is the only catalog shopping app that offers free exposure to charities who publish catalogs.

"Luckily, Heifer never charges shipping on its llamas in South America or chickens in China," said Rich Cason, Heifer International's director of Internet Marketing. "But we know shoppers will love the chance to get a deal while also helping Heifer move hungry families into self-sufficiency."

Read the complete article on Market Watch

NPR Discusses the Holidays and Ethics of Consumption

What if you simply bought 1/2 as many gifts this year? Buy half as many gifts and see if you can find things that will last, things that are made really well. And for each gift you don't buy, write a card to that person and tell them how important they were to you this year. If you have kids (and it's hardest to cut down when it comes to your kids) try and get them one cool thing that relates to nature and the environment (books about tigers? Everyone loves books about tigers). If they are old enough, use that present to explain the links between our "stuff" and the natural world. If you are up for it, replace some presents for adults with gifts in their name to something like Heifer International. Rather than yet another Christmas sweater, they get to see that money go to buying chickens for a family that will then raise more chickens and, maybe, become self-sustaining.

Top 10 Travel Gift Ideas for the Holidays

As voluntourism rises in popularity, so does the urge among travellers to give back to a community, even after the suitcases are unpacked. Give the gift that gives back through organizations like Heifer International, which provides animals to poor communities around the globe to help them become self-reliant. Donate a $60 Flock of Hope in someone’s name and provide a family with chicks, ducklings and goslings that will feed that family and produce offspring that, under Heifer’s guidance, will be donated to another family in need.

Normalville couple sharing their knowledge of alpacas

Love brought Jennifer Gallentine from the city to live in the country. A desire to stay home and raise her baby turned her into a farmer and a textile artist -- and Willow Mist Acres Alpaca Farm & Boutique was borne.

Not only did the Gallentines bring NJ Atlantico's Sea Admiral to the school they also donated the fiber from the farm and materials for the students to make alpaca-needle felted magnets to sell during Lent. The students made and sold 62 magnets from which they raised $260 to donate to Heifer International, which works with communities all around the world to end hunger and poverty.

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