Tonya visits with Maasai women during a planning session for their Heifer project, which focuses on integrated livestock assistance and gender equity initiatives.

By Tonya Toney

After traveling over 5,000 miles, I arrived in Tanzania with my stomach full of butterflies, anxious and excited about my first visit to a foreign land. I couldn’t believe it I was in Africa. Being an African American, I felt a strong connection to the people and culture. Upon landing, we traveled to Arusha, which is nestled below Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro.

The first day of the study tour, we went to the Heifer Tanzania office where we meet the staff, toured the offices, and got an overview from Peter Mwakabwale, Tanzania country director, on the various projects, the different communities, successes stories and what’s next for the program.  I was looking forward to the project visits and seeing firsthand Heifer’s work in the field. I took in the scenery as we traveled back to our hotel. The streets were bustling with people selling produce, roasting fresh corn-on-the-cob, and women carrying tall loads atop their heads with ease.

Model Farmers Educating Others

Our first day of project visits, we traveled outside Arusha to the Nambala village where we met Zadock Kitomari and his wife Mama Nama. This family received a cow from Heifer in 2003; since then they have expanded the one and a half acre farm to include goats, chickens, tilapia ponds and organic farming. Zadock grows sugar cane, vanilla, bananas, mangos and tangerines. He is considered a “model farmer” in his community, educating other farmers on the techniques of organic farming, how to produce better yields, types of grass to use for livestock and animal management.  He is now able to pass on the gift by educating others.

You could see the pride and happiness as he shared with us that he has been able to send his children to school and provide a better life for his family. He wished he had only known about Heifer sooner so that he could have sent his oldest son to school, but he was thankful for the opportunity for his other children.

Our study tour leader pulled out a plastic blow up globe to share with his two daughters and two sons. We each took turns showing them where we live on the globe; they smiled shyly. We asked how old they are, they told us nine and eleven. By holding up my fingers I explained to them I have a nine-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son. I took a photo of the two of them on my digital camera and held it out to show them as they giggled with delight. It was a special moment that reminded me of my two children back home.

Joy On Mount Meru

We then traveled to the slopes of Mount Meru to the AGAPE Women’s Group, in the Mulala village. The ride up the mountain, some 6,000 feet above sea level, was a bumpy one with a breathtaking view of the countryside. As we drove up the mountain, excited children ran alongside our trucks waving and shouting  “Jambo”  (“hello” in Swahili) and they made funny faces. I took in the beauty of the countryside with lush fields of banana trees, sunflowers, and lavender African lilies dotting the landscape.

Mama Anna, who started the women’s group, greeted us with a hug and a smile that radiated warmth. They welcomed us with a popular Tanzanian song and once we got the words, we were able to sing along. Mama Anna and her husband Ismael started with Heifer in 1992, receiving cows whose milk they sold at the local market. In 1997, after training in milk processing and becoming successful dairy farmers, they expanded to making cheese and butter. In addition to dairy farming, she started the AGAPE Women’s Group to empower the women in their community. Then, they showed us how they made cheese and butter.  Surprisingly, we even got to take turns churning the butter, which can take four hours from start to finish.

Before they were walking many miles to sell the cheese and butter at the local market, but were soon able to purchase a motorcycle to get to the market. As the demand increased and they were getting more orders, they started making several varieties of cheeses. Mama Ana’s children now attend school and one is in college. They have helped build a school and a medical clinic in her community. She truly has a passion for empowering the women in her community to work toward improving their lives and helping families through education and training. The group is also expanding to a bigger building to process the cheese and butter. She has many awards for the success of her group and contributions to her village. She said she will continue to “help the women of her village become better.” The power of “passing on the gift” is very evident in the lives of Mama Anna and Ismael.

Planning For Success

Next, we traveled on a bumpy, dusty road to Los Kitos, where Heifer is working with the Maasai people in the Ekenywa village on integrated livestock assistance and gender equity initiatives. The Maasai are an indigenous semi-nomadic tribe. Their livelihoods largely depend on livestock keeping and pastoralism. The Maasai welcomed us to the village with traditional Maasai dance and singing as they encouraged us to participate. The men dressed in red “shuka” and women were adorned with plate-like, colorful beaded necklaces, earrings and bangles. Massai women are skilled handicraft workers who are known for their use of colorful beads. I was in awe of the beauty of these majestic women and men who looked so regal. The children were curious and cautiously came out their boma’s (Maasai house) to see the visitors. Their tradition is the to give visitors something when they come to the village. A prayer was said and we shared hot goat’s milk, fresh ground coffee and tea.

We saw dairy cows, goats, donkeys, and chickens that have been passed on to others in the village. We visited the home of Lillian who received a cow in 2007 and has since passed on her first calf. She has been able to use the manure to fertilize corn crop to increase yield. She was so eager to tell us that now she could pay for school fees and buy school supplies for her children.

We attended a planning session lead by the project supervisor with Maasai elders. We all sat together in a circle and the chairman of the village spoke to us about the project’s successes and challenges and how excited they were about what the future held for the village as they continue to pass on the gift. We listened as the group discussed the Heifer Cornerstones and areas they wanted to improve, including education, training, nutrition and animal management.

Both women and men shared in the decision making when putting together a plan to improve in these areas. They also covered areas in which they are doing well, including gender and family focus, full participation, and passing on the gift. One of the women in the group spoke to us about how empowered she felt to speak before anyone now and how much better her family was now that she and her husband worked together to take care of the animals and decide how to spend the income.

A Brighter Future

Just outside of Arusha is the small mountain town of Moshi where the HIV/AIDS epidemic has devastated the community. This has increased the number of widows, orphans and vulnerable children in the area. Heifer Tanzania started the Orphans and Vulnerable Children project in 2000 with 85 cows, 400 goats and soil conservation efforts to assist the people in the area. “The need in this area is great,” said Reginal Dmoshi, project supervisor. They hope to improve household incomes of widows, child-headed households, and those caring for orphans, thus increasing their access to basic social services, such as healthcare and education.

Joseph Lui Massawe is a 65-year-old widower. He has a half-acre farm with a small house and garden. Before he received a goat and chickens from Heifer this year, he was struggling to care for his three grandchildren who are all AIDS orphans. Thanks to the “pass on the gift” he received, his family is already benefitting from goat milk, which has provided for the nutritional needs of the children and income for home improvements like the new corrugated roof on his home. He is thankful that now things are better for his family and hopes to “pass on the gift” to another family this year.

We then visited the home of Bernadina Michael, a 56-year-old widow living with AIDS. “Karibuni” (“welcome”) she said as she shook our hands with a bright smile, more than happy to show us her farm and lovely home. Bernadine had five children to support when she was widowed. She desperately needed help providing for her family. In 2003, her family received a goat. “The children were so excited” she said.

Since then, she has “passed on the gift” to two families and used the disposable income that her animals have provided to build a bigger home for the family. Bernadina showed us her old home where the family lived that was much smaller than her new home, which better accommodates a family of five. She has been able to provide better healthcare for herself and her family. Her children attend school and her oldest daughter has completed secondary school, which is a big accomplishment.

I had the opportunity to speak with her oldest daughter who spoke some English. I asked her what she saw in her future now that she has finished secondary school. “I want to go to a university and maybe work in the tourist industry,” she said. She asked what I did in America and I said, “I work for Heifer, USA.” She reached out for my hand and said “thank you.” This took me by surprise. I offered back to her, “hapana, asante sana” (“no, thank you”) she smiled and I took a photo to capture this moment. I was touched by her words and by how an animal given to this family provided a secure future and allowed Bernadina’s daughter an opportunity to achieve her dreams.

My experience in Tanzania was both humbling and enlightening. The country is beautiful, and the   people are so warm and giving. This trip has given my work at Heifer Foundation so much more meaning.  It was invaluable to see firsthand the life changing work of Heifer.

In the village of Nambala, Tonya shows two girls where she is from on a globe. After the girls’ family received a cow and training from Heifer International, they were able to pay fees to attend school with the additional income.

In the village of Olbabal, a camel project has enabled families to pay school fees for their children. The Maasai people that live here have utilized camels due to severe droughts in northeastern region that killed most of the cattle and goats. Camels can go for up 12 days without water, locate water from long distances, and the milk is very nutritious.

These two boys in the village of Mweka, where Heifer is working to improve conditions in an area hit hard by HIV/AIDS.

Joseph is now raising his three grandchildren, who were orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. With very little income, he had been struggling to provide for the children. He received his first goat from Heifer this year and his family is already benefiting from the milk. He was able to use income from goat milk to improve his home, adding a corrugated roof. Joseph hopes to “pass on the gift” to another family this year.

The women of the Ekenywa tribe, adorned in beaded necklaces, welcomed our group with a traditional dance.

A Maasai woman with a cow she received in 2007. She has been able to provide for her children and buy household items she could not afford before thanks to the cow. She has also “Passed on the Gift” of a calf to a fellow villager.

“What an amazing first day of project visits, I’m still processing all that I saw, heard and felt. The people have such a beautiful spirit.” – Tonya Toney

In this photo, Tonya is in the Nambala village with four siblings who are now able to attend primary school thanks to their parents involvement with Heifer’s life-changing work.

In the Nambala village, Zadock, a farmer, and his wife received Heifer goats and now have a variety of livestock, more fish ponds and practice organic farming. Zadock now trains other farmers in surrounding villages. They have now been able to send their four children to school (they are in the above photo with Tonya).

Mama Ana demonstrates butter churning. The Agape women’s project, in the hills of Mt. Meru, has shown women how to process milk to make all types of cheese and butter that they can use to improve nutrition and sell in their communities. The profits from this successful project has helped build primary and secondary schools and a health clinic for the community.

by Shannon Boshears

(This is part two of a series that started last month. To read part one, click here.)

We sang through each verse featuring a different animal in each one. We mimicked the cow, the chicken and the pig, and with each verse, we followed it with the animal sounds we had learned early in life – “moo, moo,” “cluck, cluck” and “oink, oink.” With their nods and smiles, they seemed to enjoy our song and afterwards our interpreter explained to them about what we were singing. He turned to us and asked, “tell us again what sound you say the cow makes?” We said, “moo moo.” And now that the villagers understood what we were saying, they all exploded in laughter. But what they were really laughing about was how it didn’t sound like a cow at all to them.

So, the interpreter then asked one of the village men to demonstrate, “so, how do you think the cow sounds?” And the man immediately made a groan that was very realistic to a real cow. Of course, our group fell out laughing because of his interpretation, which was very authentic compared to our “moo moo.” Needless to say, we went through the same process with the chicken and the pig. Our “clucks” and “oinks” sounded nothing like their animal sounds did, as theirs were very authentic. The laughter between the two groups swelled in waves like a great ocean and the banter between us was back-and-forth like a tennis match on center court at Wimbledon. It was a most poignant moment for us. We were two completely different worlds coming together and sharing a common ground not through our own language but the language of animals.

That night, we slept in sleeping bags on pallets under mosquito nets in our host family’s house. We knew we would have an early meeting the next morning and we went to sleep exhausted, yet energized by our surroundings and experiences so far. But at 4:30 a.m., we were jolted awake, like a sharp stabbing pain demanding our attention, by the hair-curling crows of the roosters under our house. We all lay there listening and anticipating as they barked out their calls again and again for hours. We became so tickled by trying to muffle our laughter that none of us ever went back to sleep that morning. At one point, I even pulled out my iPhone, started my audio recorder application and recorded several minutes of them crowing while we are in the background breaking up into laughter. Since then, we’ve discussed making the “rooster recordings” into audio ringtones for our phones.

Later that morning, the man brought us hot tea and water with small packets of instant Nescafe coffee. Let me say, after a long journey without the comforts of home, it was the best coffee I’ve ever had in my life. When we walked outside of our room for breakfast, we wandered onto their balcony that overlooked one of the most incredible views I had ever seen. There, the heavy morning mist hung over the highland mountains and the morning sun was just beginning to creep over the trees. People in a civilized world would pay thousands of dollars for a view like this. The irony of the poverty-stricken land we were in and all its beauty was staggering. We were invited to sit on the floor where we had our breakfast laid out in several bowls on our small wooden riser. It was the same meal that we had the night before – exactly the same. And we enjoyed like it was the first time.

The morning was still very cool as we set out on our walk around the village. Many of the villagers came out on their stoops to watch us walk by while others shyed away from us, ducking back into their houses or turning their backs when we’d lift our cameras. I was very sensitive to this and began nodding at them, showing them my camera, as if to ask permission to take their picture. One woman who was on her porch let me carefully and slowly approach her. I moved in hesitantly as if I was trying not to frighten off a wild animal. She was much older than most in the village and she had a tiny frame with brown, wrinkled skin. She even stooped when she walked and squatted low to the ground which made her seem even smaller, while her many cats ran about her feet. Her yellow turban offset her royal blue shirt and her skirt that was made of pink and red hand- woven fabric. Her teeth were brown and rotted. To me, she was a work of art. She was fabulous. As she let me come in closer and take her picture, she gestured to me that she wanted to see what her photo looked like. So I swung the camera around let her see the display on my digital camera. She backed away, shaking her head and smiling embarrassingly. Our interpreter happened to be there at the time and he translated to me that she said she was ugly and didn’t like the picture. Again, it was heartbreaking to me as I thought she was one of the coolest people I’d ever seen.

Throughout the day, we were able to see all the inner-workings of the village and the role Heifer has played in its development. We met a man who kept his cows under his house and he used them for draft power, meat, manure for fertilizer and he is able to make money from them. Heifer refers to this as a “living bank” where the people in the projects use their livestock from which to make money. He said eventually he will “pass on the gift” of the offspring to another family in need of improving their livelihood.

Also, the tribe showed us their “kitchen gardens” where they grow their own food and herbs, keeping the cost of living down while they are able to sustain better health from the fresh and more plentiful food crops. This village also had a handful of biogas units where they use the organic wastes to fuel fires with which to cook.

One young girl showed off her two large black pigs given to her by Heifer. She expressed her gratitude to Heifer for them and the difference they have made in her life. Through Heifer, not only do they receive these animals that provide a sustainable life and income for these people, but also they are provided training on animal management, “kitchen gardens,” biogas production, agroforestry and natural resource management, which in turn, preserves the environment.
For the next two days, we visited other Heifer projects that included more Karen Tribe and also Lahu Tribe villages. We learned of the progress being made in the SHGs. Many of these villages are involved in “savings groups.” These are groups that maintain a collective savings account and make loans to villagers for reasons ranging from medical to farming needs. This allows communities to become self-sufficient and not have to rely on the outside lenders whose interest rates are so high that the villagers who borrow from them go into debt and are not able to repay their loans, eventually losing their assets or becoming penniless.

Another major issue for these tribes is that most of them are not granted citizenship in Thailand. Therefore, they are not given identification cards that they need for any governmental services. In addition, without an I.D. card, they cannot cross borders. One villager described it as “being a prisoner in my own home.” This is one major conflict where Heifer is able to assist by going into the communities and provide training to the people to be so they will learn to help themselves by becoming their own advocates.

During our remaining project visits, we took jungle hikes to see different dams built by the tribes. It was amazing to see an entire village come together and work as a community on these dams. The first dam we visited was in its initial stages of construction, and some of us assisted them in cutting the bamboo poles to be used in the construction. The other shake dam we saw was already complete and more advanced. However, both were built by hand with bamboo poles affixed into levels of large, staggered structures stretching across several acres of land. Not only will these dams control flooding and erosion, but they provide access to clean water for the community, which is a major need. The villagers were proud to show off their work to us. And not only was their work impressive, it was their ability to organize and complete a project of this scope and size that was inspiring – all for the good of the whole.

But the more incredible experience of the jungle hikes was how the villagers assisted us while journeying in and out of the remote jungle area. They carried machetes and cut the vines and thicket away for us to pass through. They built makeshift bridges out of wooden logs for us to crossover streams while holding out bamboo poles for us to hold and leverage ourselves. When we crossed unstable, rocky areas, they held our hands. If we slipped, they were there to catch us before we fell. They cut steps into the side of a hill for us to have better footing. And they patiently stayed by our sides when many of us were lagging behind the group.

Thailand is known as “The Land of Smiles” and the knowing, the comfort, the warmth one feels from a smile is what I found on this journey. Flying back home on the plane, I tried to still my mind. I would shut my eyes, but all the pictures of the faces I had seen would roll relentlessly through my mind like spinning reels of film. All the nuances and rhythms of their language rolled like drums in my ears. I could still smell the richness of their spices and feel the smoothness of their silk. And the knot in my stomach tightened as I remembered the sense of yearning and striving I felt from the villagers, as strong as their plentiful bamboo poles, trying to find a better way of life. My heart was full but aching, as I knew I was leaving a treasured friend who I would not see again.

by Shannon Boshears

(This is part one of a two part series that will conclude next month.)

We were about three miles from arriving at our first project visit in the mountainous region of Northern Thailand when the fear caved in on me like an emotional avalanche. I was abandoning life as I knew it – never having been without electricity, running water or Western facilities, and surviving on a simple and fundamental existence in an extremely remote area. I was as far from the world I knew as I could get without purchasing a ticket on the next NASA space mission.

After a 25 hour plane ride, and driving six hours on the road from Chiang Mai to Pai, Thailand (notorious for its 762 hairpin curves), I braced myself in the passenger seat of a small cab truck with a driver who spoke no English, while traveling down a road that was as bumpy as the ravaged face of a 13-year-old pubescent boy.

This land of colorful silks, the hot pink skin of the dragon fruit, and the aroma of lemongrass and Thai basil had me absorbed until this point. I was wide-eyed in this mystic place of mopeds, tuk tuks (small motorized taxis) and countless massage storefronts sprinkled across the congested city streets where frantic drivers ignore designated lanes and it’s not uncommon to see a family of four riding on a single-seat scooter, babies in tow.

However, it was the overnight stay in the first village that I was most anxious about on this Heifer Thailand Study Tour. I was overdue to witness first-hand the Heifer mission in action. My last two and a half years as Marketing Director at Heifer Foundation still could not prepare me for my first study tour experience. All the videos and pictures from projects around the world that I’d used in creating marketing materials were about to become a living and breathing reality. So, when that landslide of fear came pouring over me, just outside our first project village, I was forced to surrender to a world where my only reference point was reruns of Gilligan’s Island.

When we finally arrived at the Karen Tribe Village in Mae Chaem and I crawled out of our tiny truck, all the weariness from the travel fell to the ground like a loose garment. What looked like a movie set at Universal Studios was the Baan Huay Baba village, part of the “Empowering Women in Upland Watersheds of Northern Thailand” Project. But this was no staging area for a movie; this was real life and a stark reality for those of us descending on the simple, yet struggling world of the Karen Tribe people.

Their village was cluttered with wood and bamboo-thatched dwellings that were scattered about on the steep, mountainous dirt paths. The houses, all on stilts, served not only to avoid flooding during certain times of the year, but for storage and housing for livestock. Upon this vast landscape of Earthy browns and forest greens, the villagers stood out like rich red cherries ready to be picked in their brightly colored hill tribe clothing. Their skin reflected the same rich tanned color of the soil on which they stood and it seemed to make them resonate even more as people of the Earth.

Our first meeting was with the village self-help group (SHG) and took place on top of the hillside at dusk. The SHG consists of a group of villagers that participate in the project with Heifer and its Project Partner, in this case, The Raks Thai Foundation, a non-governmental organization (NGO).

On white, plastic chairs, we formed a circle with the members of the tribe while we studied a large sheet of butcher paper scrawled with black and red characters that we couldn’t read. A representative of Raks Thai spoke to us in Thai, while one of our Heifer Thailand representatives interpreted for us. The presentation was an overview of the expectations and current results of the project.

Currently, there are 47 families in this particular village and from that, 15 families are members of the SHG. Women perform the main role in forming and guiding this particular SHG, hence the project name, “Empowering Women in Upland Watersheds.”

The Karen Tribe is the largest ethnic tribe in Thailand and they live mainly in the mountainous area because 64 percent of this regional area is mountainous slope, resulting in poor farm lands. Other regional issues for the various ethnic minority groups include low literacy rate, citizenship problems and a high population of people living with HIV/AIDS.

In this three-year based Heifer project, as in most, efforts include training on:

• Values-Based Holistic Community Development (VBHCD) Program,
• improved animal management,
• feed production,
• group and savings management,
• Heifer Cornerstones,
• gender equity,
• co-learning among SHG,
• sustainable agriculture and natural resource management.

The goal of this training is to increase the participant’s food and income security, raise the capacity for sustainable resource management and create a more equal participation in development, particularly by the women.

This village is called one of the “model villages” because of the success from Heifer’s influence. They have become a good representative of the three levels of impact that are a result of Heifer’s work. First, the “physical impact,” where there is improvement in the household and income for the families. Second, the “deeper level impact,” where they experience a change in behavior after they have been a project participant – when one who was previously selfish becomes willing to share their ideas with others. And third, the “external impact” where it affects other people in the community or government – other villages like what they see and want to incorporate those ideas too.

As we listened to the presentation, the sun lowered across the tops of the banana trees and the village members sat up proud and attentive like new daisies. Nearby, a young, Buddhist monk draped in swaths of orange cloths was perched in a doorway while several young children crouched quietly by his side.

That night, we broke into small groups and were invited into the homes of the villagers, where our host families cooked dinner for us. The metal ladles and spoons clanged against the skillets as our food sizzled and popped over a wood-burning fireplace carved into the bamboo flooring of the house. The man and woman of the house cooked our dinner – steamed rice, cooked greens with small bits chicken mixed in, a bowl of spicy chili sauce and hot tea served in small cups made of cut bamboo poles.

When dinner was ready, the man motioned with his arms for us to sit on the floor around a small wooden riser that was covered in bowls of fresh meat and vegetables. We were pleasantly surprised with our meal; it was flavored well and it lived up to the spiciness for which Thai food is known.

Then, we noticed the family, including their young daughter, was not eating. They sat in the next room, shyly keeping an eye on us, only coming in to refill the bowls when they were only halfway empty. That’s when we realized they would only eat after we were through with our meal. So, we hurriedly finished with our dinner. I felt shocked and embarrassed and it made me painfully aware of the generosity and humility of these people. Later, we learned it is custom for guests to be served first before the family. Finding this out lessened my guilt somewhat, but it’s a custom with which I would never be comfortable.

The short time that we spent in the house with our host family developed into a crash course in communicating with body language. We would simply use the Thai “Wei” – (pronounced ‘why”) holding the hands in a prayer-like fashion up to your chest with a quick and gentle bow and nod of the head. In Thailand, the “Wei” stands for many things – “hello,” “thank you” and “I’m sorry,” to name a few. And we used that gesture again and again as the universal “catch-all” language to our host family.

However, it was spending time with the daughter of our host family that we found most rewarding. She was approximately three-years-old and was very interested in interacting with us, these strange Americans who were staying in her house overnight. Immediately, two of the women in our group pulled out a spiral notebook and pen and they began sketching pictures. They would draw a tree, a house or an animal, and the little girl would study it intensely, and then begin to draw her version of what they had drawn. We sat on pallets on the bamboo floor and held up a flashlight to shine on the notebook pages since there was no electricity in the house except for one bare light bulb that was hooked up to a battery-powered box. It was a very intense moment for us all and we felt joyous and full because we were making a real connection with this young girl – not through words, but through pictures and smiles. Also, respecting their customs and way of life was a necessary requirement. We quickly learned to always remove our shoes before entering a home. Outside of the homes, if people were inside, there would be several sets of flip-flops or sandals in all colors and sizes. In addition, we had to figure out the function of different large tubs of water that were sitting around the house or out-house. One large water tub would be fresh, clean water that you used to wet your hands and then quickly pull them out to use the soap. Another tub of water was just to rinse off the soap. Another one was just for cleaning dishes. In the out house, there was always one large basin of water usually with a small sauce pan floating in the water that you would use in conjunction with their squatty bidet toilet – but that’s another story entirely.

After dinner that night, we met with all the villagers around a large stack of split wood built into a pyramid for a bonfire. As a welcoming treat, they gave us oranges and hot tea. Also, since we were special guests, they served us “sticky rice” – cooked rice packed down inside bamboo poles that were allowed to steam on the heat of the fire. When the rice was ready, they passed around the long bamboo sticks for us to peel back the sides like a banana and pull out the sticky, chewy chunks of rice inside. As we all shared the rice with each other, we felt humbled and honored with each warm bite we swallowed.

We all formed a giant circle around the bonfire – we were on one side and the villagers completed the other half of the circle. They seemed as interested in us as we were in them and we peered across the jumping flames at each other. The Karen women wore brightly colored cloths swirled into turbans around their heads as small children circled around them and tugged on their long skirts. Several of the women carried babies on their backs in woven sacks with snug knit caps on their heads to protect them from the cool mountain air that was more than 90 degrees earlier that afternoon.

Through our interpreter, they asked us questions, “How far did we travel to get there and how long did it take us?” “Did we take an airplane and how much did it cost?” Then, they asked us to tell them our names. One at a time, we stood, spoke our names and what state we were from in the United States. They would repeat our names back to us with enthusiasm in their voices and it sometimes erupted into laughter when a word was hard for them to pronounce.

After we all finished, we asked them for their names too. Surprisingly, we were met with resistance and obvious conflict among the villagers as they began talking amongst themselves. Our interpreter explained to us that these people are so shy that they cannot speak their own names. And actually, they are not even called by their names in their own village. They might be known as “Sam’s mothers” or “Jill’s father.” So, for them to speak their names was very embarrassing for them. Very uncomfortable and hesitantly, several of them did speak their names out loud. This was one of the oddest things I’d ever experienced – people too shy to say their own names. I still shake my head in disbelief thinking about it.

In honor of us being their guests, two of the Karen tribe men squatted down and swayed back-and-forth while they sang a traditional song for us. They both sipped clear liquor in small shot glasses poured from an unmarked bottle by the “witch doctor” of the tribe. One woman from our group was asked to participate in a ritual where the medicine man conducted a welcoming ceremony for us. He took a wooden stick and rapped it in a repetitive beat on a large wooden bowl that housed a bowl of rice, broth mixed with vegetables and a shot of clear liquor. He took a white string and dragged it through the three items then rubbed it back-and-forth across her forearm several times before tying it on her wrist. Then, she was offered a shot of the whiskey, which she sipped and then poured some on the ground in an offering to the Earth. This ritual is said to bring prosperity and long-life to the participant.

In response to the song sung to us by the two village men, we needed to return the gesture and decided to sing a song to them. So, after contemplating it and voting down “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” sung in rounds, we chose, “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” We felt somewhat awkward choosing a song that we all learned in nursery school. However, it was a choice that we would not soon regret.

What is certain at this point is that once the rescue and relief efforts have been completed, there will be many years of rebuilding essential infrastructure and developing agricultural and commercial enterprises to sustain the Haitian people. Hope Equity helps provide long-term support for the work of Heifer International through endowments, or interests. Many of us are now looking for ways to help the survivors that have lost everything. Once the conditions on the ground have stabilized, there will be continue to be a need for long-term support as the nation begins to rebuild.

One way to support Heifer’s efforts in helping the people of Haiti put their lives back together is through country interests, which can provide support year after year. When you give to an interest those funds are invested and each year a percentage of the interest is made available to the area you have specified.

The following are links to the Haiti interests as well as Heifer’s Disaster Relief Interest, which is utilized to support the efforts of Heifer’s country programs after a major crisis.

Haiti Country Interest

Haiti: Carolyn W. Reynolds Interest

Haiti: Carolyn M. & Clarence R. Wenger Interest

Disaster Recovery Interest

It was an opportunity to travel outside of the country for the first time, and, more importantly, experience first hand the life-changing work of an organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty.

Pat Brower, human resources manager for Heifer Foundation, traveled to the east African nation of Mozambique in October of 2008 for a study tour through the projects of Heifer International, an organization with a mission of ending hunger and poverty through education and livestock. “It reinforced how I feel about Heifer, how I feel about the Foundation, and what we are doing,” she said. “Seeing it first hand I can tell people: I’ve seen it, I know it’s working and I know it’s right.”

One of the most exciting and surprising aspects of the trip, Pat said, was the variety and diversity of the projects that they visited during the two-week journey. “We got a real overview of the Heifer projects and the model, what it takes to get one started, and how long and drawn out it can be,” she said.

Pat said there was considerable poverty in the cities, but once they traveled into the countryside the poverty became even more prevalent. However, the first project they visited, which was one of the very first projects in Mozambique, demonstrated what Heifer’s mission could mean to the lives of a group that worked hard for a few years in the project programs. “All the people in that village had matching polo shirts and women had matching kampulanas,” she said, which was very different from the dress of the projects that followed.

“One man talked about how he had two kids in the university and had been able to put a tin roof on his house. Another man had a bicycle and was very proud of owning a bicycle. A widow woman told us that because of her goats she was able to provide for her children and they were all doing well.”

After witnessing that success, Pat then saw some of the challenges faced by the newer projects, which contrasted sharply with the more established projects that had developed a better life for all the families involved. “There was some frustration that things weren’t happening so quickly,” she said. “An HIV/AIDS project first planted closer to the village, but it was farther away from the river so irrigation was difficult. Most of the crop failed and what they did grow, they sold. They didn’t get the idea that they should be eating the food they had grown to build up their bodies so they wouldn’t get so sick.”

“So then the second time they planted, a fellow in the community who had land close to the river said they could use his land. He taught them how to irrigate it. So this second time everything flourished and they started eating the vegetables.”
Heifer had to teach them how the different phases of the projects would bring about better nutrition and health for the families involved, she said.

One of the highlights for Pat was witnessing a “Passing on the Gift” ceremony where five families received three goats each from other families that had already experienced the life-changing gift of livestock.

Pat said one of the things that impressed her most was how one group had drawn pictures of the 12 Heifer Cornerstones showing how their project related to each of the Cornerstones. “The people who drew them explained what their picture was, which Cornerstone it was, and how it related,” she said. “They take it seriously. It’s not just something that they talk about. It’s how they build their project and understand what the Cornerstones are, probably even more so than we do.”

Everyone on the trip was treated like honored guests, greeted at each stop with singing and clapping, she said. “They would lead us to their central shelter area where there would be welcome speeches and they would want to know about us. They were just real outgoing and friendly. One of the poorest groups gave us gifts as we were leaving, a big bunch of bananas, sugar cane, two live chickens and a big basket of beans. You want to say, ‘oh no, it’s okay, you should keep it’ but you can’t. We rode back in the truck with two live chickens under our seats because you don’t want to insult them.”

What amazed Pat the most was how joyous the people were even though they sacrificed their time, their energy, and their produce to show her and her fellow travelers what their projects were all about. “If you don’t have very much and what little you do is keeping your family alive, for you to give part of that to total strangers you will never see again is very, very generous,” she said.

Since returning Pat has had friends, relatives and acquaintances frequently ask her what it was like, to which she would reply: “Do you have an hour?”
“I wouldn’t change the experience for anything,” she said. “I don’t know how to say what it was. It was amazing. It was awesome. It was a chance of a lifetime.”

It was the barren dirt yards dotted with small patches of flowers that brought Dorothy Graham back to the Delta of her youth. Mozambique is more than 9,000 miles away from her childhood home in Marvell, Arkansas, yet the living conditions brought back a flood of memories and established for her an instant connection with the people and the land.

“They use hoes to cut their grass, so their yards are nothing but dirt because they cut all the grass out plus the children playing in it,” she said. “And I can remember growing up, that’s the way my mother did our yard.” Dorothy Graham, the planned charitable giving officer for the nonprofit organization Heifer Foundation, had traveled to Mozambique in October of 2008 to take part in a study tour of the projects of Heifer International, an organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty through education and livestock.

Finding home an ocean away

“I was thinking about my childhood a lot when I was traveling in Africa because I’m from the Delta,” she said. “Anyone familiar with the Delta knows that it is poor. Growing up, I realized I was poor, but it wasn’t until after I graduated and moved to Little Rock that I realized how poor I actually was.”

Dorothy was quick to point out that while she was considered poor growing up, it was still nothing like the challenges and conditions faced by many of the people she visited on her journey. “Poverty is different here in the United States than it is in the third world countries,” she said. “Even with the poorest people here, it’s just not the same. They have nothing. We at least have the government to assist us. They don’t have that because their governments are so poor.”

Her own personal heritage also made the trip more poignant. “Being an African-American, I have always dreamed of going to Africa,” Dorothy said. “When I first started working [at the Foundation] and realized I had the opportunity to go to different countries around the world, I made up my mind then ‘I want to go to Africa.’ I can’t even describe what it meant to me.”

Witnessing the triumphs and struggles

The first project group Dorothy and her fellow study tour members visited had been involved with Heifer the longest. “You could really tell a difference between them and the other groups that were just starting out, but yet what impressed me about that first group is that, yeah they knew they were doing better, but they still wanted to do more. They talked about how they have the animals and are able to farm their land and can put tin roofs over the top of their houses, but now they realized they needed an education.”

The people were very eager to share with Dorothy and other members of the group exactly how their lives had changed. “In the first village we visited with a man who was so happy he could put a tin roof over his house because of the goats,” she said. “This one lady was able to build a house big enough to store extra grains of rice. You could tell they were a proud people. “

Some of the newer projects were still experiencing the challenges and obstacles that come with teaching and training people in new techniques in livestock and agriculture. “When we went to the fish farm they seemed a little disheartened that they had tried this before and the first time it had completely failed,” she said. “So this was their second attempt. It’s a slow process, but you can tell they wanted it to happen overnight. “

All of the trials and tribulations were showing so much on their faces, Dorothy said.
That particular group needed some words of encouragement, and Dorothy was the one elected to give them a speech. “It gave me the opportunity to tell them right then, ‘don’t be discouraged, you are doing good. You started with three families receiving three goats and as they grow you pass those on to other families, so you will eventually get to where you want the outcome to be.’”

Dorothy was also impressed with how Heifer Mozambique stressed the importance of getting people to think differently about their land, resources and potential.
“Many people still use slash and burn techniques to clear land,” she said.
“They have the resources that they need, they just don’t know how to implement them. They have the land, but don’t know how to cultivate it to grow the things that they need.”

The people spoke primarily Portuguese and native dialects, but the nonverbal communication made an impression on Dorothy. “I couldn’t speak the language so the smiles and handshakes was how we interacted,” she said. “They were very generous. This one village expected us to stay all day, but we were only going to be there a couple of hours because we were going to visit another village. But they gave us what they had – two chickens, a bushel of beans, a big bunch of bananas, and I don’t know how many sugar canes they gave us. I just thought, ‘wow, you may go to bed tonight without eating any dinner, but you are giving us this.’” When asked how this made her feel, Dorothy replied with only one word: “Humbled.”

Working with a purpose

Dorothy said she feels blessed to work at Heifer Foundation because it gives her more of an opportunity to help people that she felt a kinship with in Mozambique. “It’s a cliché to say it’s a blessing to be a blessing, but it really is and I enjoy being able to help someone every day,” she said. “This is more than a job to me. It’s a job with a purpose, with a meaning. I am doing something to make a difference. Now I can share my experiences through my eyes. I love it.”

Shortly after arriving back in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dorothy closed on the purchase of her first home. She knew immediately what her friends and family could get for her house warming. “I don’t want any gifts,” she said. “Anybody that wants to give me something I am going to ask them to put it in my Micro-Endowment through the Hope Equity initiative here at Heifer Foundation. It’s set up for the Delta, AIDS/HIV and Mozambique. That money will go to help the people in Mozambique whom I saw that really need it. They do need our help and we can make a difference.”
-Jeremy Glover