Heifer Project 101

Since I'm at the Heifer office today, a little bit about the organization.

Here's a picture of a woman receiving a heifer from a man in her community. The ceremony is called passing the gift, which is one of Heifer's central tenants. When a person receives a heifer from the organization, they sign a contract saying they will pass on another heifer to someone else in their community. This way, the gift of one heifer keeps giving. It's a great concept (anyone ever seen "Pay it Forward"?). 

This is one of Heifer's newer projects: eco-stoves (eco-fogones in Spanish). Heifer and it's various partner organizations are working to build these stoves in rural communities. It seems like a small thing, but these new stoves have proved extremely helpful to the families, and in particular the women, who receive them. The stoves burn 70% less wood, which means a lot less time spent looking for it. They pipe smoke out of the house so the women don't get sick when they're cooking. The stoves are also built so women don't have to bend over and strain their backs. I saw an eco-fogon in action when I was in provincidad Langue. The woman who it belonged to, Maria, said it was a really big improvement over her old cooking situation.