2004-8-23
This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture
Report.
Heifer International is sixty years old. This organization gives
farm animals to families and communities around the world. The idea
is to fight hunger and poverty. Instead of short-term aid, the
animals represent a chance for people to improve their lives and
become independent.
Heifer International gives away young cows, known as heifers. But
it also gives away other animals. These include sheep, goats, pigs,
buffalo, rabbits, birds, even bees.
Celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary are planned in October
in Little Rock, Arkansas. That is where the organization is based.
Events will also include a Conference on Ending Hunger. The
conference will follow a discussion called "the Small Farmer in the
Global Economy."
An American farmer named Dan West developed the idea for Heifer
International. He was working in Spain in the nineteen thirties
during the Spanish civil war. Many families were starving. So Dan
West asked his friends in the United States to send some cows. The
first ones were sent in nineteen forty-four.
Since that time, Heifer International says it has helped millions
of families in more than one hundred countries. Its Web site lists
more than four hundred current projects in fifty countries.
The organization provides families a chance to feed themselves
and become self-supporting. Those who wish to receive an animal must
first explain their needs and goals. They must make a plan for use
of the animal. Local experts usually provide training. The animals
must be guaranteed food, water, shelter, health care and the ability
to reproduce.
Also, those who receive an animal must share their success with
someone else in need. Each family must agree to give away the first
female animal born. Families must also agree to pass on the skills
and training they received. This idea is called "passing on the
gift."
The organization has a gift catalog on its Web site to permit
people to give money to support its activities. Five hundred
dollars, for example, will pay for a heifer. Fifty dollars will pay
for a share of one.
The Web site is heifer.org. Heifer is spelled h-e-i-f-e-r. The
mailing address is Heifer International, post office box
eight-zero-five-eight, Little Rock, Arkansas,
seven-two-two-zero-three, U.S.A.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Jill
Moss and Avi Arditti. This is Gwen Outen.