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Column Honeybees and heifers on the Christmas gift list
By KRIS BERGGREN
In these tense times, we search for
uplifting news to counter the terrible collapse of the twin towers Sept. 11. We
seek fragments of hope, like clues in the ground zero rubble, to help us to
construct a semblance of meaning from the disaster we experienced that day. It
has been suggested that our feelings of grief and loss illuminate our
solidarity with others worldwide who regularly suffer from violence and
terrorism.
For many, this inclination to identify our common human suffering
has prompted a desire to reach out to others around the globe in acts of
giving; we want to make things right. The Heifer Project International, a
faith-based nonprofit organization with roots in pacifist war resistance,
offers one opportunity to satisfy such leanings by supporting sustainable
development in poor communities throughout the world.
I learned about The Heifer Project last year, from a catalog in my
mailbox. It pictured beautiful children from around the world with animals they
were helping to raise, along with stories about how the children and their
families sell milk, eggs, meat, honey, or wool from these animals, enabling
them put food on the tables and a roof over their heads -- not to mention
sending the children to school. Ive since learned that the organization
has been around for more than 50 years, quietly appealing to faith-based
groups biblical sense of justice. The Heifer Project board is composed of
representatives from each of its 12 covenant agencies including the
National Catholic Rural Life Conference.
The Heifer Project began in the wake of another tumultuous era.
During World War II, conscientious objector Dan West, a member of the Church of
the Brethren, did alternative military service as a relief worker in Spain,
distributing powdered milk to hungry children. The meager rations seemed to
West an affront to their dignity and a poor substitute for real milk. He
resolved upon his return home to take the bull by the horns and organize an
effort to create sustainable means of income and food production in communities
such as those he had encountered in Spain. His dreams led, a few years later,
not to a bull, but to three donated heifers, which he named Faith, Hope and
Charity. He, in turn, donated the heifers to a community in Puerto Rico in
1944, the organizations first grassroots project.
Today through The Heifer Project International local residents in
communities around the world -- including Afghanistan and refugee villages in
Pakistan -- receive one or more animals, anything from an alpaca to a yak, a
hive of honeybees to a heifer, a goat to a guinea pig. The organization trains
recipients to care for the animal, and they contract with Heifer Project to
pass on the gift by sharing their animals female offspring
with other families in their area. Those first three cows have multiplied
almost as fast as the legendary loaves and fishes. Last year, China marked
its millionth animal descended from its first Heifer Project donation,
according to Rosemary Larson, the organizations Chicago office
director.
Donors in the United States and around the world support this
expensive and long-term work, Larson said. All told, the project
has helped an initial four million families worldwide -- that doesnt
count the families helped through passing on the gift. The World
Bank, she claims, describes The Heifer Project as the golden standard in
international development. It is, of course, her job to offer such spin,
but it seems hard to dispute such a win-win proposition.
My friend Anne and her family in White Bear Lake, Minn., are on
the donor side of the equation. Last year, as she considered Christmas gifts
for her mother and her husbands father, both in their 80s, she came
across a Heifer Project catalog and made her choice. I knew that neither
needed anything, explained Anne. I am concerned about people and
hunger in third world countries, I am uncomfortable with spending a lot of
money on gifts when so many people are needy, and I loathe shopping and this
was much, much easier.
When I saw that they had honeybees, I knew we had the right
gift for [my father-in-law]! said Anne. He has always had a giving
attitude about those who are hungry. Furthermore, she continued, he loves
honey and had raised bees himself some years ago. I painted a beehive in
watercolors and on the back, explained the gift of the bees. As he read it, he
got tears in his eyes, she reported. For the less artistically inclined,
The Heifer Project supplies informational cards about the gifts.
The Heifer Project also promotes various donor plans and
educational curricula to schools, churches and religious education programs as
a way to put faith into action and raise social consciousness and global
awareness among parishioners or students. The organization markets many plans
for involvement, as well as the requisite complement of books, tapes, cards and
t-shirts.
This year as we celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace, it
seems more fitting than ever to be mindful of ways we may extend our
celebration to our brothers and sisters in our global village. If youre
looking for a holiday gift, think about a gift abundant in spirit, and one that
truly keeps on giving.
For more information about The Heifer Project, call (800) 422-0474
or visit the organizations Web site, www.heifer.org
Kris Berggren lives in Minneapolis.
National Catholic Reporter, December 7,
2001
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