Heifer 2006
Jul. 28th, 2006 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidHeifer International sent me a listing of all their active projects in 2006. It was interesting reading.
I knew that Heifer has "passing on the gift" as part of their projects, so people not only learn and are recipients, but become teachers and givers, and the effects ripple outward. I hadn't realized that they also have a foci on gender, health, and environmental improvement. Projects may include seminars on gender equity, AIDs prevention, or biodiversity.
Some projects focus on reintroducing or reinvigorating local breeds of animals, while others aim for cross-breeding local breeds with other breeds known for strength, hardiness, greater wool production, etc. It's interesting to see that some people end up each approach. I wonder how they choose.
It's interesting to see the regional differences:
No great conclusions, just a realization that I like even more what Heifer's doing.
I knew that Heifer has "passing on the gift" as part of their projects, so people not only learn and are recipients, but become teachers and givers, and the effects ripple outward. I hadn't realized that they also have a foci on gender, health, and environmental improvement. Projects may include seminars on gender equity, AIDs prevention, or biodiversity.
Some projects focus on reintroducing or reinvigorating local breeds of animals, while others aim for cross-breeding local breeds with other breeds known for strength, hardiness, greater wool production, etc. It's interesting to see that some people end up each approach. I wonder how they choose.
It's interesting to see the regional differences:
- In Africa, none of the current projects are in north Africa; everything is the southern side of the bulge (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, etc.) and south of there (Kenya, Malawi, and so on, down to South Africa). I wonder why the word hasn't gotten out farther north, or if there are political considerations that keep things from happening there, or something else.
- Some Africa-specific projects: there were a number of projects to help AIDs orphans, getting more nutrition to orphanages and teaching them animal husbandry. No other region had this; it's a stark reminder of how bad things are. One project helps two prison camps, while another is focused on blind and visually-impaired women. And there were a lot of projects that were started by women's groups.
In addition to the usual animals (bees, sheep, cattle, goats, chickens, fish, and so on), there was a less standard project, for the sustainable hunting of wild crocodiles. (And for the Krayzen-ites: there's a Dolo Livestock Project in Burkina Faso.) - In Asia, there were projects to help lepers, which surprised me, rather. I didn't realize it was much of an issue anymore.
- Asia was the only area that taught people how to raise ginger. And there were lots more ducks than other places, too.
- In eastern Europe, there were a number of projects by and for people who live in national parks. It seems odd to me that there should be so many people living in parkland. The other project that caught my eye was a guns for animals scheme (in the US, people sometimes get gift cards for guns; different places need different solutions).
- Eastern Europe was also big on keeping traditional species of local animals, more than other places.
- In South America, there were many projects focusing on sustainable practices in the rainforest, including raising animals without grazing. The region-specific species included llamas, guinea pigs, earthworms, and coffee.
- In the US, the projects were described with totally different verbiage, having much more emphasis on social and intellectual aspects of different projects, and less on the nuts and bolts of numbers and species.
No great conclusions, just a realization that I like even more what Heifer's doing.