Heifer International
For over half a century, Heifer International has provided livestock and training to more than four million families around the world The poor get cows, rabbits, sheep, goats and even fish and trees to breed or grow for sale, enabling them to feed their families and to become more self-reliant.
Item 12. Providing animals for food and income
12a. Chicks: $20 (+$0.25 handling = $20.25)
Chickens are a real value. Starting at six months, they can lay up to 200 eggs a year — a reliable source of protein for children who otherwise subsist mostly on starches. Extra eggs can be sold to pay for school, clothes and medicine. And in the vegetable garden, chickens peck at bugs and weeds, scratch up the soil and enrich it with droppings.
From India to the Dominican Republic, bees from Heifer International help struggling families earn income through the sale of honey, beeswax and pollen.
Beehives require almost no space, and once established, are inexpensive to maintain. As bees search for nectar, they pollinate plants. Placed strategically, beehives can as much as double some fruit and vegetable yields. In this way, a beehive can be a boon to a whole village.
Although most Heifer partners keep bees as a supplement to family income, beekeeping can be a family's livelihood. Your gift provides a family with a package of bees, the box and hive, and training in beekeeping.
To help hungry, undernourished families put protein back in their diets at little cost, Heifer teaches farmers how to raise healthy pigs in countries where waste products are the only available feed. Using resources once considered worthless, impoverished families worldwide supply themselves with the protein and income they need to improve their lives.
