From Hurricane Survivor to Successful Farmer

Nestled within the highlands of Olancho, Honduras, is the community of Carricillos Arriba. Everywhere you look there are with lush green hills, ripe fruit trees and seemingly never-ending pastures.

The people living here always carry a spirit of positivity and resilience. Nevertheless, the living conditions here are not without their inherent challenges. Carricillos Arriba is remote, threatened by extreme weather events, and many who call this place home struggle financially to support their families — forcing them to seek employment overseas.

Rosa and her husband, Ramón Lainez, know a thing or two about weathering the storms to get to the sunny side of life having made Carricillos Arriba their home.

Rosa recalls the time when their life was significantly disrupted after a hurricane devastated their hometown shortly after they married. Flooded farms, demolished homes, and damaged infrastructure were the aftermath, and they found themselves cut off from local communication networks, food, health supplies and essential services for weeks.

Rebuilding was slow and living conditions were deteriorating, leaving Carlos with no other option than to leave home and work abroad in order to provide food for his family.

However, the disastrous event marked a transformative chapter for Rosa and her family's life in the highlands of Olancho.

Your generous gift enabled Rosa to attend a Farmer Field School where she seized the opportunity to learn the skills needed to rebuild her family’s farm and how to establish a steady income off cultivating their crops and caring for their livestock.

In Honduras, Farmer Field Schools — which consist of groups of 10-15 farmers — provide training on livestock rearing techniques, pasture management, and animal health to the students.

"Before Heifer, we didn’t know things like working properly with cows. Now with Heifer, we know about diseases cattle get, how to treat it, and how to treat deficiencies," says Rosa's granddaughter, Kellyn.

Rosa puts her heart and soul into caring for her land and livestock so that her family members no longer have to leave home to earn an income. In fact, her granddaughter, Kellyn, also completed training at the Farmer Field School ensuring her own family has a stable life.

Before Heifer's intervention, Rosa was struggling to feed her family and raise healthy cattle. But now, she and Kellyn can identify conditions and illnesses in their livestock and know how to treat it. They are raising a healthy herd of cows that provide nutritious milk and additional income to their family.

Rosa also recognized the importance of fostering healthy crops, just as much as tending to her livestock. The Farmer Field School also taught her about the benefits of beekeeping and she now maintains hives on her land. Thanks to the sustainable practices they’re taught by these schools, farmers are directly working to restore balance to the earth.

After witnessing several generations of families having to chose to leave their home in Olancho to simply feed their families, Rosa is deeply grateful for your generous support which ended the cycle of hunger and poverty for her family. To show her gratitude, she chooses to pay your gift forward by sharing her knowledge in sustainable farming to others in her local community, giving them the chance to end hunger and poverty for their families.

Thank You

Your generous support as a Friend of Heifer enables farmers globally to nourish their families, manage their farms, and secure a steady income. It does more than just provide training and livestock to families in need. A donation to Heifer gives families the resources to end the cycle of hunger and poverty, once and for all.