The Heifer project

[Frozen Feathers]

Has anyone helped out (or heard of) with the Heifer project? It's a really great organization and is more then a handout.

Basically what is does is provides people in need with livestock. For example they'll give a person or a village a heifer, provide support in the feeding and caring for the animal, even provide AI. The village or person can then sell the surplus milk and calves for money, use the fertilizer for their crops. This is much better then giving a person a bag of rice or grain, because the cow can provide food for years. The also provide chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, llamas and even honeybees and water buffalo. They not only work in Africa but in the US and all around the world.

Anyway just thought I'd share. It's a really neat project.

Heifer Project

I always like to donate money to charities, but sometimes it's a little vague what those charities actually do.

 

[blue90292]

i do this during Christmas. instead of giving gifts, i send money to heifer in their names. i usually pick the seedlings or the chicks. our world could never have enough trees and of course, chickens.

 

[arwmommy]

Our children had a very small Christmas last year (a stocking and 3 presents instead of a zillion presents) and we instead donated all of that money to the Heifer Project. In speaking with his teacher, they decided to do that as a class project, we sent brochures home, Heifer sent us videos and books to read to the kids, and in the end, we were able to donate $1400 to Heifer International!

The kids had many great discussions in class negotiating what animals they were going to buy. Each table had $350 and it was interesting to see some went all out and got the Water Buffalo ($250) and then shares of other animals, and other tables got tons of little animals (rabbits, chickens etc). My son was holding out for a pig so badly and finally got his table to agree to a share of one!

Our teacher is AWESOME and he was amazed at how it exploded into a huge lesson about compassion/culture/geography/education-kids in Africa WANT to go to school so badly/debate/math- counting all the money, figuring out how do divide it evenly, adding up how much each animal was/ and a zillion other lessons.

IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!

 

[foxtrapper]

Quote:
I've an aunt who's a vet that works with them. They started out just up the road from me a ways.

They are exactly what they say they are.