Heifer International offers Valentine’s Day presents that help families in need.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Jan. 31, 2012) – This Valentine’s Day, don’t just go through the motions of gift-giving – get a special Valentine’s gift that will benefit others long after the heart-shaped chocolates are consumed. The gift of a flock of chicks, a llama or honeybees that help lift families out of poverty is the ideal present for Valentine’s Day.
Heifer International offers heartfelt and unique gifts for Valentine’s Day that celebrate a person’s sweet side. Each animal, along with extensive training, is given to a family in need, providing better nutrition and marketable products. As the animals grow and reproduce, the family’s livelihood improves and they become benefactors themselves when they fulfill the commitment to “Pass on the Gift” of their animal’s offspring to another family.
Heifer Valentine’s Day gifts are touching and impactful. For example, see the changes in the small village of Carromata in the Philippines, which was bogged down in illiteracy, poverty and malnutrition after a new dam altered the river that had been its lifeblood. Heifer International’s LOVE project (“Life-giving Offerings and Values-enrichment for Empowerment”) provided water buffalos, pigs, chickens, vegetable seeds and fruit tree seedlings to families there, as well as values-based and technical skills trainings.
Now, LOVE participant Canoto Bodong happily says sweet potatoes, taro and cassava are improving his family’s diet, and project families are growing abaca plants, whose fiber is valued by paper makers and the automotive industry. The community plans to set up its own fiber-stripping machine to expand its production.
Heifer International’s Valentine’s Day infographic shows that 80 percent of women have received a gift with no thought behind it, according to a recent survey. So instead of expensive but impersonal chocolates, baubles, or flowers that wilt all too soon, this Valentine’s Day give something that will honor him or her – a Heifer International gift that spreads the wonderful feeling of making a difference.
For more information about Heifer International gifts, visit the Heifer Gift Catalog.
About Heifer International:
Heifer International’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. Since 1944, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in more than 40 countries, including the United States, to help families and communities become more self-reliant. For more information, visit www.heifer.org, read our blog, follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or call 1-800-696-1918.
