HOLIDAY 2019 || HEIFER.ORG

PAGE 27 - THE MOST IMPORTANT CHRISTMAS CATALOG IN THE WORLD

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Wool Into PLUS Glutinous Rice Balls, Dehydrated Fish & KFC: Gold Holiday Feasts Around the World EMMY-WINNER UZO 12 ADUBA GIVES BACK 38 MEN AT WORK IN RWANDA WHY WE NEED MORE FEMALE JOURNALISTS AT 46 THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER Heifer Marketplace offers the ultimate one-stop shopping solution. Find great gifts that make a big impact.

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Dear Determined Humanitarians,

s we stand at the cusp of a new decade, I am struck that we have just A 10 years to achieve our goal of ending hunger for good. And while we have evolved our work over the past 75 years with that purpose in mind, there is more urgency now than ever to expand the work to bring true, systemic change to the most marginalized families. Despite the shifts in our approach, the way we’ve told the story of the true effect of our work has not changed much. You’re familiar with the arc: A struggling family receives Heifer CEO Pierre Ferrari, a gift animal and training in its care, purchasing goods from becomes part of a group that is taught shop owner Gita Acchami to identify and act upon their shared in Khayarmara, Nepal. values and eventually helps transform their community. In short, we teach a In Nepal, this looks like 255,500 read here — from women’s groups man to fish. We tell that story because farming families organized into in Ecuador reclaiming ancestral it’s genuine and enormously effective. 11,000 self-help groups and 226 textile traditions to move toward As we aim to complete our entrepreneurial cooperatives. starting their own enterprises, mission and work with others to The power those women have in to a new model of program in achieve the Sustainable Development cooperatives has allowed them Rwanda that is changing lives Goals — which come with the to change the market for their and livelihoods there, particularly looming 2030 deadline — we are goats. Where they previously in the realm of gender equity. shifting in both intention, action either sold goats at a net loss or As always, I leave you with the and narrative to an approach we had to take them to India to access utmost gratitude for the support know will sustainably transform decent markets, they’re using throughout the decades and shifts in the communities in the most their collective power to cut out approach. I hope you now realize your need. How? By both teaching the middlemen and sell to local donations transcend charity — and families to fish and showing consumers at a benefit to everyone. allow farmers to escape mechanisms them where the fish are biting. Allowing farmers to buy in to that kept them marginalized and We will still start with communities their own change means they will to participate in systems that allow in the most need. We will still confidently collaborate with others them to be truly independent. place assets and provide trainings. along the value chain. The end result Families will still organize into is a market system that has changed Yours for a better world, self-help groups and act on shared because of the farmers’ presence, and values to drive change. Now, because they’ve learned to work in though, we’re extending the scope collaborative union with one another. of projects and focusing on the I hope you see the themes of true, Pierre U. Ferrari entirety of the market system. systematic change in the stories you @HeiferCEO

HEIFER.ORG | 1 Feed the Hungry. FEED YOUR FAITH.

Heifer International is a nonprofit dedicated to helping the least of these around the world lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. Our faith programs allow your congregation to join us on our journey toward a poverty-free future. Visit www.heifer.org/faith today for free resources.

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TIME TO TAKE STRIDES AGAINST HUNGER Heifer International is teaming up with companies to take employees on a virtual race into our work around the world. To learn more about creating a healthier work environment while supporting our mission, go to StridesAgainstHunger.com or email [email protected].

STRIDESAGAINSTHUNGER.COM table of contents | Holiday 2019

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Spinning Wool Into Gold In the Andes of Ecuador, indigenous 14 communities are raising alpacas and using the animals’ wool to break the cycle of poverty, all while taking care of a delicate ecosystem and reclaiming fiber art traditions. Men at Work In rural Rwanda, men often avoid the 38 “women’s work” of tending to children and gardens, and their rates of alcoholism and domestic violence are high. Through training and participation in a Heifer project, attitudes are changing, and that’s leading to healthy relationships, gender equity and better livelihoods. Why We Need More Female COVER: María Juana Journalists at the U.S.-Mexico Border Chaluisa spins alpaca 46 Writer Alice Driver travels with migrants headed fiber into yarn. north to the U.S. border to understand and share TOP: José Pedro Pallo their stories. She writes about why women and Cuzco tends to his herd of LGBTQ individuals on the border are not being alpacas in Apahua, Ecuador. represented and what needs to change to honor Photos by Joe Tobiason their perspectives.

HEIFER.ORG | 3 letters READERS RESPOND

else consumers can do. Is there a how much they pay. Ask coffee brand/company or co-op that your barista or email your works with the farmers? Please help favorite company requesting us make better choices because this information, or visit I doubt there are very many that www.transparenttradecoffee. will give up their morning coffee. org for a list of specialty roasters BEVERLY ROUNSAVILLE who voluntarily disclose prices. Riverside, California We believe an appropriate starting price is $3-4 per pound I was upset to learn of the desperate for commodity-grade coffee, situation of the coffee farmers. It although this is unfortunately was even more upsetting not to rare to find on shelves. If your be offered suggestions as to what preferred brand or shop isn’t we can do about the situation. No paying fairly, tell them so and mention was made of Fair Trade consider shopping elsewhere. coffee, which I always buy thinking • Talk about unfair coffee prices that means the farmers get a with friends and family. Share THE COFFEE CONUNDRUM decent price for their coffee bean news articles about the I am a longtime contributor and harvest. Is that not true? Have we coffee economy on social have just read the article in your been misled? What about a boycott media, and tag major coffee recent magazine about coffee and of coffee houses that do not pay a conglomerates when you do. the predicament for coffee farmers. fair price to the farmer? We need • Know that while certification I am distressed but the article direction, Heifer. You’ve brought the programs do often raise the bar in gave little information about what problem to our attention. You can’t terms of social and environmental individual coffee drinkers can do. stop there. Waiting for more. Cheers. standards, that doesn’t Just give up coffee? Can that really DIANE ADLER necessarily mean farmers earn have any impact? I would appreciate enough. For example, Fair Trade’s an article in your next publication As a dedicated coffee drinker who minimum price of $1.40 a pound laying out a recommendation views a fine cup of coffee as one of falls short of what farmers need. for individuals like myself. life’s true pleasures, I am appalled This isn’t the last you will hear MAGGIE TEAL that we pay dearly for our valued of this issue, and we greatly Sanford, Florida brew while the growers live in appreciate your support. abject poverty. How can we join I found the article regarding coffee our voices and take action? farmers in the fall issue of World Ark ANNE MURR WE WANT TO very enlightening. I had no idea that Osceola, Iowa coffee farmers received so little for HEAR FROM YOU! their crops when we pay so much Editor’s note: We received a Please send your comments to for coffee. I just have one question. number of emails in response to [email protected]. While Heifer is rethinking their our “Coffee at a Crossroads” article. Include your name, city, and strategy toward the coffee industry, Currently Heifer is outlining a a telephone number or email what can we, as consumers, do to pathway to change. As we explore address. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and help? I’ve already given up buying long-term ways to help coffee may be published online as the expensive coffee drinks, or farmers, here are some things well as in print. Because of the any coffee for that matter, at the you can do to help right now. volume of mail we receive, we coffee stores that populate every • Transparency is important, so buy cannot respond to all letters. corner. There must be something your coffee from those who share

4 | HOLIDAY 2019 table of contents | Holiday 2019

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04 LETTERS 54 MIXED MEDIA Readers respond Book Binding: Reading Our Way Back Together 06 FOR THE RECORD Meaty turkey facts, 56 FIRST PERSON both dark and light Working Together 08 GOOD LIFE Glutinous Rice Balls, What is your favorite Dehydrated Fish & Heifer gift to give? KFC: Holiday Feasts Use hashtag Around the World #HeiferWorldArk 12 ASKED & ANSWERED Uzo Aduba and The Difference One @Heifer Person Can Make 52 HEIFER SPIRIT @HeiferInternational Young Artist Raises $5K for Heifer International by Painting Cards @HeiferInternational

MANAGING EDITOR World Ark is the educational, infor- non-governmental organizations, mational and outreach publication of and of Global Impact. Federal and Austin Bailey Heifer International. Its purpose is to state employees may designate gifts SENIOR EDITOR further Heifer’s goals to end poverty to Heifer through payroll deduction and hunger while caring for the Earth by entering CFC #12079. Jason Woods and to raise awareness of the issues involved in this work throughout the © 2019, Heifer International. Passing WRITERS world. Heifer International is qualified on the Gift® is a registered trademark Molly Mitchell as a charitable organization under of Heifer International. Opinions Bethany Ivie Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal expressed in World Ark are those of Revenue Code. Contributions to the authors and do not necessarily PRESIDENT AND CEO DESIGNER & PRODUCTION Heifer International are tax-deduct- reflect the views of either the Pierre Ferrari Pooi Yin Chong ible to the extent permitted by law. magazine or Heifer International. PUBLISHER Since 1944, Heifer has helped CONTRIBUTORS 34 million families, directly and ® Annie Bergman The FSC Logo Alice Driver indirectly, move toward greater self- identifies products Alexa Strabuk reliance through the gift of livestock which contain and training in environmentally wood from sound agriculture. well managed 1 WORLD AVENUE forests certified in LITTLE ROCK, Heifer International is a member To change or remove an address, accordance with AR 72202, USA of InterAction, the largest alliance the rules of the EMAIL: WORLDARK email [email protected] of U.S.-based international Forest Stewardship @HEIFER.ORG or call toll-free 877.448.6437. development and humanitarian Council®.

HEIFER.ORG | 5 for the record FACTS & FIGURES

Turkeys are native to Wild turkeys are Turkeys follow a strict pecking North America, and wild omnivorous and eat order and are known to attack turkeys can be found in seeds, insects, frogs meat turkeys raised birds and even people they deem every U.S. state in the U.S. in 2017. and lizards. subordinate, especially during the spring mating season. People Turkeys are the “It” bird of the season, and who have suffered turkey attacks there’s more to know about them than ideal recommend not looking the oven temperatures and baking times. birds in the eye. Benjamin Franklin was so fond of turkeys Turkeys are Galliformes, he recommended they become our national an order of heavy, ground-feeding bird. But turkeys have a dark side. birds that also includes If you encounter one in the wild, don’t look wild turkeys roamed the grouse, chickens In Brookline, Massachusetts, Wild Turkey, a popular it in the eye… United States in 2017. and pheasants. brand of bourbon, is so people don’t chicken out when named because it was confronted by wild turkeys. Town originally distilled on Wild Wild turkeys and domestic turkeys officials encourage residents to Turkey Hill in clang pots, yell, spray the turkeys Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. don’t have much in common. BRED TO BE WHITE with hoses and swat them away SMALLER AND HAVE DARKER, with brooms. FIRMER MEAT AND A MORE WON’T SHUT THEIR GOBS INTENSE FLAVOR THAN FARMED TURKEYS VS BRED TO HAVE UNNATURALLY LARGE STAY QUIET TO BREASTS, CAN’T FLY AVOID PREDATORS AT ALL

CAN FLY, BUT NOT VERY FAR Wild Domestic

Snood: A fleshy protuberance that hangs from the top of the male Gobblers Hens Jakes Jennies turkey’s beak MALE TURKEYS FEMALE TURKEYS YOUNG MALE TURKEYS YOUNG FEMALE TURKEYS

The wild turkey population plummeted in Turkeys are known as Turkeys were first Wild turkeys are the Most of us are familiar the late 19th and early 20th centuries such in the English domesticated in Central official game bird with the common turkey, language because America around 800 of Massachusetts, and but there’s another kind, because of overhunting and habitat loss. turkeys and their close B.C. for their meat, and the state’s division and it’s highly underrated. Restoration efforts that began in the 1940s relatives, guinea fowl, indigenous North of fisheries and wildlife The ocellated turkey of were successful, and today wild turkeys were initially brought Americans began using dubiously claims that, Central America is smaller, have regained and even expanded their into Europe by Turkish turkey feathers in robes “The wild turkey is a has a bright blue head and original range across parts of Mexico, the merchants. and blankets around strikingly handsome flashes iridescent, 200 B.C. bird.” You be the judge. peacock-like feathers. United States and Canada. Turkeys are native to Wild turkeys are Turkeys follow a strict pecking North America, and wild omnivorous and eat order and are known to attack turkeys can be found in seeds, insects, frogs meat turkeys raised birds and even people they deem every U.S. state in the U.S. in 2017. and lizards. subordinate, especially during the spring mating season. People Turkeys are the “It” bird of the season, and who have suffered turkey attacks there’s more to know about them than ideal recommend not looking the oven temperatures and baking times. birds in the eye. Benjamin Franklin was so fond of turkeys Turkeys are Galliformes, he recommended they become our national an order of heavy, ground-feeding bird. But turkeys have a dark side. birds that also includes If you encounter one in the wild, don’t look wild turkeys roamed the grouse, chickens In Brookline, Massachusetts, Wild Turkey, a popular it in the eye… United States in 2017. and pheasants. brand of bourbon, is so people don’t chicken out when named because it was confronted by wild turkeys. Town originally distilled on Wild Wild turkeys and domestic turkeys officials encourage residents to Turkey Hill in clang pots, yell, spray the turkeys Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. don’t have much in common. BRED TO BE WHITE with hoses and swat them away SMALLER AND HAVE DARKER, with brooms. FIRMER MEAT AND A MORE WON’T SHUT THEIR GOBS INTENSE FLAVOR THAN FARMED TURKEYS VS BRED TO HAVE UNNATURALLY LARGE STAY QUIET TO BREASTS, CAN’T FLY AVOID PREDATORS AT ALL

CAN FLY, BUT NOT VERY FAR Wild Domestic

Snood: A fleshy protuberance that hangs from the top of the male Gobblers Hens Jakes Jennies turkey’s beak MALE TURKEYS FEMALE TURKEYS YOUNG MALE TURKEYS YOUNG FEMALE TURKEYS

The wild turkey population plummeted in Turkeys are known as Turkeys were first Wild turkeys are the Most of us are familiar the late 19th and early 20th centuries such in the English domesticated in Central official game bird with the common turkey, language because America around 800 of Massachusetts, and but there’s another kind, because of overhunting and habitat loss. turkeys and their close B.C. for their meat, and the state’s division and it’s highly underrated. Restoration efforts that began in the 1940s relatives, guinea fowl, indigenous North of fisheries and wildlife The ocellated turkey of were successful, and today wild turkeys were initially brought Americans began using dubiously claims that, Central America is smaller, have regained and even expanded their into Europe by Turkish turkey feathers in robes “The wild turkey is a has a bright blue head and original range across parts of Mexico, the merchants. and blankets around strikingly handsome flashes iridescent, 200 B.C. bird.” You be the judge. peacock-like feathers. United States and Canada. good life TIPS FOR BETTER LIVING

Glutinous Rice Balls, Dehydrated Fish & KFC: Holiday Feasts Around

the World Fast-food fried chicken

This time of the year, much of the world In 1974, American fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken unveiled their “Kentucky for Christmas!” is finding something worth celebrating marketing campaign in Japan. The story goes — and when people celebrate, they tend that KFC spread the idea that it’s a time-honored to do it with food. Here is a collection Western tradition to celebrate Christmas with fried of some unique and treasured chicken. Although only about 1 percent of people in Japan identify as Christian, there was an exotic food traditions from a handful of appeal to the campaign, and it took off. Today, the places across the globe to whet your tradition is so popular, it’s highly recommended appetite for the holiday season. to place Christmas Day orders well ahead of time.

Lutefisk Dating back to Viking Scandinavia, lutefisk is now probably more popular among Scandinavian-Americans in the Upper Midwest than its birthplace. Lutefisk is dried whitefish, usually cod, that has been rehydrated by soaking in lye for days. The gelatinous fish dish takes center stage for some families at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

8 | HOLIDAY 2019 Hallacas

In Venezuela, hallacas are only made during the holidays, and making them is an all- day affair. Similar to tamales, hallacas are made from corn meal, filled with a variety of ingredients that change from region to region and family to family, and wrapped in banana leaves. Many Venezuelans attribute the origins of hallacas to colonial times, when slaves and servants filled their cornmeal cakes with the leftovers the colonists didn’t eat.

Tangyuan

In China, during the Lantern Festival, Winter Solstice Festival, weddings or family reunions, you’re likely to find tangyuan. The glutinous rice balls can be sweet or savory and are usually filled with red bean paste, ground sesame or crushed peanuts. Tangyuan are traditionally white, to mirror the moon, but are now often made in a variety of colors.

Jansson’s Temptation No one is entirely sure how this Swedish Christmas casserole earned its name, but one account claims the reason is pious priest Erik Jansson succumbed to the sin of gluttony because of it. The side dish is concocted from potatoes, onions, cream and anchovies.

HEIFER.ORG | 9 good life TIPS FOR BETTER LIVING

Latkes

Today, grated potatoes fried in olive oil are synonymous with Hanukkah. Latkes have their roots in an Italian Jewish tradition of frying cheese pancakes that dates back to the 14th century. After a series of crop failures in the mid-19th century, European Jews began relying on potatoes, which were easier and cheaper to grow. They began making Hanukkah pancakes with potatoes, and the tradition caught on.

Braai Braai is a particular way of grilling meat that is popular among all socioeconomic and cultural groups in South Africa. The proper way to braai is with a wood fire while surrounded by friends and family. Although you can braai to celebrate a number of occasions, it’s almost mandatory during the country’s Heritage Day in September.

Mithai During celebrations like Diwali, the festival of lights, Hindus in India make mithai, a term that covers a range of sweet treats. Mithai are usually made with sugar, flour and dairy with cardamom, rose water, fruits and nuts, or saffron for flavor. The sweets have been a staple in the Indian subcontinent for a long time — mentions of mithai can be found in ancient Sanskrit texts.

10 | HOLIDAY 2019 Kutia

Christmas Eve dinner in Eastern European countries is a 12-course affair. The meal consists mostly of fish, mushrooms and cereals, since Orthodox churchgoers abstain from meat, eggs and dairy leading up to Christmas Day. In Ukraine, kutia is the first and most essential dish. A type of porridge, kutia helps feasters remember the dead.

Coal candy In early January, Italians celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany to end the Christmas season. The festival commemorates the arrival of the Magi to Bethlehem. On the eve of Epiphany, La Befana, a broom-riding old woman in a black shawl, delivers gifts to the good children and lumps of coal to the bad. Luckily for Italian little ones, the coal usually turns out to be candy made with sugar, eggs and food coloring.

Black-eyed peas and collard greens

In the U.S. South, the menu on New Year’s Day is set. Eat the black-eyed peas for a year’s worth of luck and the money-colored collard greens for financial prosperity. The meal is traditionally completed with cornbread and hog jowl (the cheek of the pig) or another pork product.

HEIFER.ORG | 11 asked & answered INTRODUCING PATHWAYS The Difference One Person Can Make Interview by Jason Woods, World Ark editor

Uzo Aduba is an Emmy-winning actor known for her role as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. In her latest project, Miss Virginia, which is based on a true story, Aduba stars as a struggling single mother who launches a movement to provide education for at-risk youth. Next year, on the FX television series Mrs. America, Aduba will play Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to U.S. Congress. For the past several years, Aduba has lent both the little free time she has and her abundant passion for helping others to Heifer International. In both 2016 and 2018, she visited Uganda to learn about Heifer projects firsthand, and she is quick to share the lessons she learned from

Actor Uzo Aduba, visiting Uganda those experiences. In 2018, Aduba also agreed with Heifer International. to serve as Heifer’s ambassador to Africa.

WORLD ARK: You’ve been working environment. It’s enabling families Africa. Can you tell us what this with Heifer International for to dream bigger and think further role entails and what you hope to a few years now. What about into the future than before. Heifer accomplish? Heifer’s mission attracted you? provides generations of change. It’s truly an honor to be an From my experiences through ambassador for Heifer International. UZO ADUBA: I’ve always loved the Heifer, what I’ve learned is I have tremendous faith in this idea of service, and I think Heifer is a that we’re not walking into a organization and their desire to powerful organization. What makes scenario trying to save someone help change the lives of those Heifer different is simply this: they necessarily. Our job isn’t to living below the poverty line. look to offer those they serve a hand change someone. Our job is In my role as ambassador to up, not a handout. That is how each to help introduce a pathway Africa, I raise awareness for Heifer of us can change a life, and that is a for someone to walk down. and its life-saving work that helps cause, a fight, I will always support. communities become more self- Heifer is not only ending hunger You’ve been named Heifer reliant and lifts farming families to a and poverty and caring for the International’s ambassador to living income. My role is to support

12 | HOLIDAY 2019 During her trip to Uganda, Aduba toured a dairy center.

“Grace showed me that one choice that we can make one day in our lives has the potential to affect Aduba and farmer Grace Atusiimirwe connected when they met. lives larger than we can count.” — Uzo Aduba small-scale farmers in Africa and My trips to Uganda made a first-born calf, which is a huge around the world and share my lasting impression — they were gift. By the time of my first visit to passion for Heifer’s mission. inspirational. I met with several Uganda, she had turned one calf I saw that mission in action dairy-farming families. I had the into 20. And now she has 40 cows. for the first time in 2016, when I opportunity to participate in a Grace also learned how to turn met with farmers in Uganda, and Passing on the Gift ceremony. the manure into biogas, which they then again when I checked on I even helped process milk at a could turn into light in their house, the progress of the same project community-owned dairy center. so her son could go back to school. in 2018. One thing I saw that is The most meaningful part of She started a bank cooperative remarkable about Heifer is a lot my journey was meeting farmer with the women in her village, of the people who sign up for it Grace Atusiimirwe. She is a widow then taught other women how to are women. They’re going to take with three children. She never raise cows. She’s a generous giver, care of their family and make sure had formal education growing up. and I hope we all take a lesson it not only survives but thrives. When her husband died, rather from what she has shown us. What I hope people take away than despairing and giving up on Grace showed me that one from Heifer’s work and the stories herself, Grace connected to Heifer choice that we can make one of Heifer farmers is the knowledge International to find a way to take day in our lives has the potential that one person can make a care of her children. She learned to affect lives larger than we can difference and serve to multiply new skills and found a way to start a count. Grace’s impact on her for many people and many lives. new story for herself and her family. family and the lives of the people Her story is unbelievable. Grace in her community is immense. Tell me about your trip to Uganda. learned how to take care of cows. You can feel her power. She What stuck out about the Heifer She received a calf and reared might be the most remarkable projects you saw there? it. She passed on the gift of her woman I’ve met in my life. n

HEIFER.ORG | 13 Spinning Wool into GOLD

Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Andes are reviving ancestral fiber arts with alpaca wool to escape the cycle of poverty and protect the unique highland ecosystem in which they live.

A member of the Heifer project in Tambohaushca, Ecuador, spins alpaca wool into yarn while keeping watch over an alpaca herd as a light drizzle falls. A misty morning in the mountainous village of Apahua, Ecuador.

BY MOLLY MITCHELL, WORLD ARK WRITER PHOTOS BY JOE TOBIASON

aría Juana Chaluisa’s altitude sickness at this elevation, beset description of her by headaches, nausea and fatigue. home, the Quechua In Ecuador, Spanish colonists community of Apahua either enslaved or banished Quechua that sits in the crook people from more livable climates to Mof two snow-capped Andean volcanoes, these higher altitudes in the Andes barely hints at the harshness of it, or the mountains, and many communities beauty. “This is 4,200 meters [almost remain there to this day, inheriting 14,000 feet] above sea level,” she said the legacies of colonialism in the in a shy whisper. “It’s cold here.” form of permanent displacement Living between the Cotopaxi and and extreme poverty. Most people Chimborazo volcanoes at an altitude in Apahua never finish grade school, significantly higher than Peru’s Machu struggle to feed their families and have Picchu marks Chaluisa, 49, with the little or no access to proper healthcare. ruddy cheeks that come from constant The place feels forgotten, with little exposure to cold winds. Apahua lies infrastructure or opportunity. in a rare ecosystem called the paramo, But this bleak outlook is brightening where low temperatures and high as Chaluisa and her neighbors blaze a humidity create a bone-deep chill. In path out of extreme poverty alongside these altitudes, one breathes in about an animal that pre-Incan indigenous 40 percent less oxygen than at sea people bred and Quechua people level. Most people, even locals from brought with them in their exile. Alpacas Michael, 10, hugs one of nearby but lower Quito, are struck by and Quechua have survived together in his family’s alpacas.

HEIFER.ORG | 15 The sponge-like terrain of the paramo is delicate, but alpacas do not harm it due to their padded hooves and gentle grazing.

“They could be breeding stock, they can give us fiber, we can eat the meat and they provide fertilizer for our crops. They’re good for the environment of the paramo, which is the source of water. It’s important for that.” – PACO QUISHPE

the Andes for hundreds of years. as well. Since pre-Incan times, Now, Heifer project participants Quechua communities have been are capitalizing on their knitting, crocheting and weaving relationship with these unique alpaca fiber into the iconic animals to build a healthier clothes and blankets necessary and more hopeful future. for survival in the Andes. In some ways, the unique A Deep Connection connection between the Alpacas are uniquely suited to Andean people and alpacas the Andean highlands, with goes even deeper. Much like padded feet that do not disturb the indigenous population, the the ground beneath them and colonial Spaniards did not value a gentle way of nibbling the alpacas, preferring the merino tops of the grasses, rather than sheep they brought from Europe. yanking their food out by the Colonists slaughtered thousands roots. Their puffy coats protect of alpacas in an attempt to destroy Paco Quishpe, 46, poses with them from the cold and can native people’s livelihoods. But one of the community alpacas. help fellow highlanders survive as Quechua people fled to higher

16 | HOLIDAY 2019 Heifer is helping families raise guinea pigs for a quicker source of income while the alpaca enterprise, a longer term project, develops.

Fava beans, a local variety The paramo is an important Cushion plants in the paramo form of corn and potatoes makes water source for all of Ecuador. reservoirs of water and nutrients. up a typical Andean meal.

COLOMBIA ground, they brought alpacas with supplies. We couldn’t afford them.” them. “Just as the indigenous Frosts and unpredictable were sidelined, expelled, to rains make vegetable farming at Quito Apahua the coldest places, so both the such high elevations risky. And indigenous and the alpacas had when potatoes and fava beans to adapt to this environment,” wither in the cold, unpredictable ECUADOR said Myriam Merino, the alpaca climate, the people in Apahua value chain specialist for Heifer have nothing to eat or sell, he said. Ecuador. “So that’s why they Cultivating alpacas for their fleece are so affectionate with these is a far more reliable business animals, who have accompanied plan, and one that preserves the PERU them in their poverty.” delicate high-elevation ecosystem Paco Quishpe, 46, hopes that’s the source of most of the alpacas will accompany his country’s drinking water. community out of poverty, as well. “They could be breeding stock, to wait. So Heifer helped each Quishpe is the project secretary they can give us fiber, we can community set up a revolving in Apahua, one of nine struggling eat the meat and they provide fund that project participants are communities where Heifer is fertilizer for our crops,” Quishpe tapping to buy guinea pigs, rabbits, supplying improved breeds of said of the alpacas. “They’re chickens and sheep to raise for alpacas, education in animal care, good for the environment of the food and to sell. loans and marketing expertise. paramo, which is the source of At the same time, project “I can tell you, life was getting water. It’s important for that.” participants are building bigger, harder and harder.” he said. “We Building a full-scale alpaca healthier, more productive needed a lot of things. We needed fiber enterprise and establishing alpaca herds by mixing things to supply our family, a steady market for the finished animals they already had with [provide] an education for my products will take time, and breeders Heifer provided. children, to purchase school community members can’t afford Group members are also

HEIFER.ORG | 17 An alpaca sneaks in a family photo of María Juana Chaluisa (49), her nephew Michael (10) and daughter Inés (25).

perfecting their crafting skills 65, left school after third grade to create yarn and handknits for but loves to learn and was eager to high-end shops in Ecuador and start knitting. With this new skill, elsewhere. There are three main he hopes to generate income and markets for their alpaca yarn opportunity for future generations. products. The high-quality yarn “Our dream for the future will be sold to a group of weavers, is opening the door at least for and the coarser fiber will be made our children, so they learn and into decorative handicrafts to then set up a company, so that be sold at local markets. Their our children can work at that ultimate goal is to craft fine quality enterprise,” Pallo said. “I’m ending garments to sell at high-end my life, but I will open doors markets in bigger communities. for the young people to move Though spinning and knitting forward.” in this region are traditionally done by women, the men in Building on Tradition Apahua are also picking up their Inés Chaluisa, 25, always loved needles so they can help churn alpacas for their cloud-soft out marketable alpaca hand- fleece, docile nature and teddy- José Pedro Pallo Cuzco (65) knits. José Pedro Pallo Cuzco, bear looks. Now, she is learning learned how to knit at workshops organized by Heifer. from her mother how to spin alpaca wool into yarn, and “I’m ending my life, but I will open doors she goes to Heifer-sponsored workshops to learn knitting for the young people to move forward.” techniques. Like most women in – JOSÉ PEDRO PALLO CUZCO the community, Inés Chaluisa

18 | HOLIDAY 2019 The highland indigenous people in this region of the Andes are collectively called the Quechua people, a classification that refers to an unknown number of indigenous nations that all speak dialects of the Quechua language, which was spread among native South Americans by the Incan empire.

Family portrait of María Humbelina Miñarcaja (38, right) with her daughter Joselyn Estefanía Casco (11, middle) and her mother, Mañuala Paucar (67, left), in front of their farm plot.

María Humbelina Miñarcaja’s arms overflow with Alpaca yarn hand-spun by Heifer project participants, sweaters, hats and more of her hand-knits. in varying natural colors and thickness. now keeps a spinning or knitting She has taken on this project project in hand at all times. in addition to being a single Down the road in a small mother, an active member in community near Riobamba, several community organizations, master knitter María Humbelina a farmer and a caregiver for Miñarcaja teaches young her aging parents. It is a lot of women what she knows. She’s a responsibility, but she rolls with YOU CAN HELP natural teacher, brimming with the punches. “Well what can I confidence and enthusiasm. “I do? If I’m tired, I’m tired. I’m one FAMILIES IN THE have always been a leader,” she year short of a high school degree, ECUADORIAN ANDES said. “I don’t know [why], but I like but then I had to get to work.” AND AROUND THE to. Ever since 20 years ago, when Miñarcaja is hoping the I was a kid. I like to lead people, I alpaca project will bring in WORLD PRESERVE like to do crafts. I can do any craft.” money she needs to care for a THEIR CULTURE AND The women in her organization household that includes herself, THRIVE. SEE PAGE 27 that are best at spinning make her daughter and her parents. “We the yarn, and Miñarcaja knits haven’t had everything. But we TO LEARN HOW. garments and teaches others struggle, we fight,” she said. “We her patterns and techniques. work with farming with my

HEIFER.ORG | 19 How It’s Made:

It takes a lot of time, knowledge, work, Alpaca care and skill to go from cute alpaca to cozy sweater. Heifer project participants Knits are mastering all of the necessary steps.

2 Care and Keeping Healthy, happy alpacas make for the softest wool. Heifer project participant María Humbelina Miñarcaja learned about their special requirements, like, “How to cut their hooves, and they have teeth that get too long, so you have to file them down so that they can eat conveniently. We give them vitamins, purge them of parasites. Those are some of the 1 things I learned.” Breed for Success Selectively breeding alpacas for the best wool, color and health of the animals is the first step in the journey Shearing and to luxe alpaca fiber. Sorting White alpacas are prized Alpacas are only sheared because their wool can once a year, so it is key for be dyed any color. But the the fiber artisan to make animals also come in natural the absolute most of every shades of brown, black, shearing. The shorn fiber grey and beige. In Peru, 24 can be sorted into seven natural alpaca fiber colors categories, from finest have been identified. Some to coarsest. The finest, community organizations softest classes are used for specialize in certain garments, and coarser wool colors. In Apahua, their is made into handicrafts and specialty is white alpacas. 3 felted jewelry.

20 | HOLIDAY 2019 4 5 Carding, Washing Spinning and Drying Hand-spinning wool into yarn is an ancient and highly After the fiber is sorted by skilled craft, dating back to the Paleolithic era. Spinners category, burs, seeds and gather their fiber on the top of a short staff, or distaff. other detritus the animals have The fiber is then gathered and twisted in one hand picked up are carded with a while being wound onto a spindle with the other hand. fine-toothed brush or cut out It takes a steady and experienced hand to twist the fiber by hand. Once picked clean, enough to make yarn without breaking it and keeping the fiber is washed and dried. the thickness consistent for hundreds of meters. If a batch of wool is going to be The art of hand-spinning was starting to die out in dyed, it happens at this point. this region of Ecuador. Old women still remember the “I learned to wash the yarn – technique, but younger generations weren’t picking that was the last workshop,” said it up. Trainings that pass this skill from local artisans Miñarcaja. “I washed it and I dyed to young people is part of this Heifer project. it with natural plants.” Miñarcaja María Micaela Castro Sisa is a master spinner who and the other artisans in the is teaching others to follow in her footsteps. “These Heifer project use natural dyes two fingers,” she said, holding out her thumb and to color their fiber, like ñachak, a forefinger, “and then I can feel the thickness that’s yellow flower that makes a deep coming out. This hand knows how to feel how thick it is.” blue dye, nettle for green, yucca Castro and the other women in the project are able for yellow, cochineal insects for to do this skilled work while walking around, tending red and blackberries for pink. to animals, household chores and other business.

Knitting, Crochet and Weaving Spinning, along with knitting, crochet and weaving, are all traditions of indigenous peoples. In the face of modern poverty and migration, these arts are being forgotten. The Andean communities Heifer works with are making sure older members of the community share these traditions with the next 6 generation.

HEIFER.ORG | 21 Andean Fashion Tells an Indigenous Nation’s Story

Textiles are integral to Quechua daily life and culture. The striking fashion of indigenous highland Quechua communities María Humbelina hearkens back to their pre- Miñarcaja holds one of her baby alpacas. Incan ancestral history mixed with colonial Spanish “My dream would be to have a [company] in influences, with a dash of 20th century flavor. From my community, like in Peru, but in Ecuador. jaunty bowler hats, gorgeous An enterprise of women who are taking care shawls and elegant high of the alpacas and making the products.” heels, their unique garb is a beautiful showcase – MARÍA HUMBELINA MIÑARCAJA of Andean history and craftsmanship from head parents. I’ve also raised guinea Thanks to a training in Peru, she to toe. Representative of pigs. And now I’m also raising can now expertly classify the cultural identity and their the alpacas and the sheep.” alpaca fiber by quality, ensuring connection to the land on Miñarcaja’s group has 48 coarser fibers are used in blankets members, only 10 of whom are and weavings, while finer, softer which they live, costume men. Many of the men in her fiber goes into the clothing colors and patterns are community left to look for work. projects that can fetch good distinctive to regions When it comes to alpacas, the prices. Miñarcaja now teaches within the highlands. women are in charge. “It feels members of other organizations María Micaela Castro Sisa better, because we all have the how to sort alpaca fiber. courage to not be used, and Finding time to knit between described her outfit like women can speak too. We all of her teaching and caregiving this: “This is the color of know how to speak. We know isn’t easy. Despite waking at 5 the sky, this is the color of how to get ahead,” she said. It’s a.m., Miñarcaja is often not done our blood. And this white is a change from how things with her work until 10 p.m. “I will the color of our snowcapped used to be. “We don’t have to knit when I’m not so tired until Chimborazo. This belt has depend on the men. We are 11 o’ clock at night,” she said. But working and we get money.” her dreams drive her work ethic. the sun, blood, nature and Knitting was old hat for “My dream would be to have black is the earth. This Miñarcaja, but even she is finding a [company] in my community, skirt is for our earth.” opportunities to learn new skills like in Peru, but in Ecuador,” as part of the Heifer project. Miñarcaja said, referring to

22 | HOLIDAY 2019 Here are a few iconic pieces of ancient garb still crafted and worn with pride today.

Bowler hat Faja Shawl Fetching bowler hats A faja is a colorful, wide The ancient fiber are popular with woven belt worn by both craftsmanship of women and men in men and women. Also called Quechua communities Quechua highland chumpi, they look kind of like perhaps shines most communities in Ecuador. cumberbunds and are used visibly in their exquisite They have become part to hold up skirts, support the shawls. These practical and parcel of the overall lower back when carrying garments for keeping aesthetic of traditional heavy loads, securing warm come in many dress even though they swaddled babies and as a forms, usually in aren’t traditional at all, holster for a distaff when expressive bright but became popular in hand-spinning yarn colors whether knitted, the 1920s when British (see page 14). crocheted or woven. railway workers came to the region.

Poncho Perhaps the most Polleras recognizable These wide, garment, the woven pleated poncho has skirts with been worn by embroidered native peoples trims are worn of the Andes by women year- since long round, often two before Spanish or more layered colonialism. They depending on are essentially the cold. They wearable woven are universally blankets, perfect black, but the for keeping out length, patterns the cold and damp and colors of of highland living. the trim vary Some communities from person wear ponchos with to person or signature colors represent or patterns that certain distinct represent their communities. own region.

HEIFER.ORG | 23 How to Tell the Difference Between Alpacas and Llamas

Alpacas and llamas are often mistaken for the same animal, and the confusion is understandable. Alpacas and llamas are so similar because they are both part of the camelid family, which includes — you guessed it — camels, their cousins in the Eastern Hemisphere.

These domesticated Size western camelids evolved Llamas can grow up to 4 feet tall at the shoulder and in the Andes mountains weigh up to 400 pounds, whereas alpacas are more petite at around 3 feet tall and 150 pounds. in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, so they developed many similar adaptations to their cold, harsh environment. But these two species actually have several different physical characteristics and personalities that are unique to them. One is sweet-tempered and the other can be a little rude, Fiber so you’ll want to be able to Llamas and alpacas both grow thick fiber to ward off the cold of their native highland habitat. But llama fleece is tell the difference in case more like hair, while alpacas grow fleece that is much you ever meet one of these finer, softer and thicker. fascinating creatures.

24 | HOLIDAY 2019 Ears Faces Alpacas and llamas both Llamas have have adorable ears, long snouts but in different ways. that stick out, Alpacas have short, while alpaca pointed ears that look faces look like kind of like elf ears. a llama with its Llama ears are longer face smooshed and more rounded, in – in a cute kind of like bananas. way!

Purpose Alpacas and llamas are both domesticated breeds of livestock that were cultivated for different reasons. Alpacas were bred from native vicuñas, their wild camelid ancestors, Personality for their ridiculously soft fiber. Alpaca fiber Alpacas are used to traveling in herds, and the much rarer vicuña fiber are prized so they are typically shy and polite. the world over for making luxe sweaters, Llamas, on the other hand, are more blankets, scarves and anything else cozy independent. They can be assertive and and warm. Unlike sheep’s wool, alpaca fiber pretty rude, to be honest. It’s true that is lanolin-free and therefore hypoallergenic, you’re in danger of getting spat on by and it is not at all itchy to the touch. both animals, but it’s more likely with Llamas, on the other hand, originated the peevish llama, while alpacas are from another Andean camelid, the wild generally sweeter. guanaco. Llama fiber is often sheared and Alpacas’ docile nature means they used for weaving and other fiber arts. More can make great pets. Although they are often, llamas are used as pack animals not native to the United States, these to carry heavy loads on long treks or for hardy animals can still thrive as long as their meat. The more aggressive and they get a good shave for hot weather. independent nature of llamas also makes You’ve got to get at least two, though — them great guard animals for herds of herd animals get lonely! sheep or alpacas.

HEIFER.ORG | 25 “Taking care of the kids, paying for their school expenses, even now it’s hard. Because I’m a woman without any help, I can’t afford to give the kids bus fare to get to classes, and food costs, we can’t make enough money as women.” – MARÍA MICAELA CASTRO SISA

Tres Alpaquitas, a group of Heifer supported artisans in Peru who launched a successful alpaca knitwear company. “An enterprise of women who are taking care of the alpacas María Micaela Castro Sisa, 48, spins and making the products.” wool as she walks down a path in a She also hopes to support her village near Riobamba, Ecuador. daughter’s dream of becoming a veterinarian by making enough school and she smuggles them money to send her to school. home to give to the dogs.” “That’s why she has all those dogs,” Miñarcaja laughed. “She The Master Spinner doesn’t want us to get rid of any María Micaela Castro Sisa, 48, of them. They give her milk and struggled a long time before the cookies, nutritional cookies, at alpaca project. “I live by myself because my husband was abusive. So I gave up on him. I live by myself with my kids. I’ve been separated for eight years. That’s why I’m happy to have this work. And with that, I can keep Castro with her grandchildren. this house. And I’m still alive.” Castro has six children, one a little girl,” she said. Now she’s of whom is disabled. “Taking teaching others this delicate care of the kids, paying for their skill so they can team up to school expenses, even now it’s produce and sell as much yarn hard. Because I’m a woman and handknits as possible. without any help, I can’t afford This opportunity to use to give the kids bus fare to get to her skills to provide for her classes, and food costs, we can’t children and grandchildren is make enough money as women. “ all she wanted, Castro said. She is glad to have a new “Everything is good when option through the Heifer project. there’s enough. Nothing is Joselyn Estefanía Casco (11), loves dogs and wants to be a Castro has been spinning wool difficult. We have to work so veteranarian when she grows up. her whole life, “ever since I was we have daily bread.” n

26 | HOLIDAY 2019 ChristmasSpecial Edition 2019 Dear Friend, lasts for years. Thanks to Heifer’s Every time you choose to give a belief in Passing on the Gift®, the loved one a gift from The Most impact of each gift you give from Important Christmas Catalog in these pages is multiplied several the World, you change lives. times to benefit many families! For 75 years, your Christmas spirit Show your friends, family has supported families as they pull or co-workers just how much themselves out of crushing poverty. you care by giving them one of I have personally seen how the gifts these great Christmas gifts from you give of livestock and training Heifer International — the most bring nutritious food to tables that important gifts in the world. were empty, send children to school who never thought they’d learn With warmest regards, to read and transform struggling farmers into small business owners. Your gift bonds you to a family Pierre U. Ferrari you’ve never met, and the impact President and CEO

Make Christmas Even More Meaningful Take part in the growing holiday tradition of giving gifts that help those in need. Here’s how:

THREE EASY WAYS TO GIVE

Mail the enclosed order form with a check or credit card information to: Heifer International, P.O. Box 8058, Little Rock, AR 72203-8058 Call toll-free: 855.8HUNGER (855.848.6437) Order online: www.heifer.org/catalog

FREE HONOR CARD WITH EVERY $10 PURCHASE For each gift of $10 or more, you may request an Honor Card for your family and/or friends. OPTION 1: Heifer will send Honor Cards directly to you to distribute to family and/or friends. Just indicate how many cards you need on your order form. OPTION 2: H ave Heifer mail your Honor Cards directly to anyone you choose. Call or visit the website for this option. OPTION 3: G o to www.heifer.org/catalog to print out or email your own honor cards. Honor Card orders postmarked by December 10 will deliver by December 24. Missed the deadline? For a fee, expedited shipping is available by calling us at 855.8HUNGER (855.848.6437).

HEIFER GIFT CARDS Not sure what to choose? Surprise someone with a gift like no other: the power to choose a life-changing gift and have an online experience of Heifer’s work and mission. By purchasing a gift card, you are making the Most AMAzing a donation to Heifer and giving your loved one an opportunity to change gift CArd in someone’s life by choosing an animal as a gift. The Heifer gift card makes the World a real difference.

Heifer International GIFT CARD.indd 1 2017 Tip-on Gift Card7/31/17 9:43 AM 2-ply removeable card Prints 4/1 28 TO ORDER YOUR GIFT CALL 855.848.6437 Celebrate the Holidays with Heifers Change a family’s life forever by purchasing a heifer in honor of your loved ones. By giving a family a heifer and training in its care, you’re giving them health and hope. A good dairy cow can produce up to four gallons of milk a day. That’s plenty for a family to drink and share with their neighbors — as well as sell at market. Protein-rich milk can improve the health of sick, malnourished children. And selling extra milk provides much-needed income for food, medicine, Gift of a schooling and more. Heifer: $500 And since a healthy cow Ten-year-old Naomi can produce a calf every year, SHARE OF A Makalani’s family learned families can Pass on the Gift HEIFER: $50 how to successfully raise to help their neighbors lift cattle with the gift of a heifer in Malawi. themselves out of poverty.

Gift of Goats Milk The gift of a dairy goat is a lasting, meaningful Menagerie: way for you to help a little girl or boy on the other side of the world while sharing your $1,000 caring spirit with those closest to your heart. SHARE OF A MILK The gift of a dairy goat can supply a family MENAGERIE: $100 with up to several quarts of nutritious milk a day. Extra milk can be sold or used to make The gift of a Milk Menagerie cheese or yogurt. Families learn to use goat represents a quality-breed manure to fertilize gardens. heifer, two goats and And because goats often have two or three a water buffalo — four kids a year, Heifer families can lift themselves milk-producing animals out of poverty by starting small that provide hard-working dairies that earn money for food, families with the resources health care and education. to provide a better life for What a wonderful way their children. to honor someone special in your life Along with training this holiday for recipient families, season. each animal in the Milk Menagerie will produce Gift of a gallon after gallon of In India, the gift of wonderful, life-sustaining good quality goats Goat: $120 milk that can be sold or from Heifer and the turned into cheese and all-important training SHARE OF A in their care changes GOAT: $10 yogurt. Plus, each animal’s everything for offspring will multiply your families, making them impact even further through healthier and happier. Passing on the Gift.

WWW.HEIFER.ORG/CATALOG 29 Sheep: Shear Joy Warm in winter, cool in summer, waterproof and durable — wool is a valuable product that struggling families can use for clothing or sell for extra income. That is why your gift of a sheep and training in its care is such a wonderful way to share the warmth of the season with someone special in your life. Gifts of sheep are helping to cure hunger and poverty all over the world. And since sheep often give birth to twins or triplets, when you give a gift of a Heifer International sheep, your support impacts many more families over the years to come. Gift of a Sheep: $120 In the Ecuadorean Andes, SHARE OF families rely on sheep for A SHEEP: $10 the woolen blankets and clothes that keeps them warm at high elevations.

Joy to the Twice as Nice: Cattle World Gift Did you know a cow provides more than just nutritious milk to drink? Basket: $1,500 Extra milk can be sold or made SHARE OF JOY TO into cheese and yogurt. Manure THE WORLD GIFT is also used to fertilize their crops BASKET: $150 and improve their harvests. Your gift of a cow will As you bundle up this holiday improve a hungry family’s season, think about giving health and income, and provide the gift of Joy to the World opportunities for success that for a family in need. they’ve never had before. Now, you can double the impact This bountiful gift provides of your generosity by giving the families with two sheep, four gift of a Mating Pair of Cattle. goats, one heifer and two These industrious animals alpacas. The animals provide will immediately go to work for much-needed food and milk, a needy family. A heifer and bull will wool for blankets and clothing, improve the productivity of a struggling and rich fertilizer for their crops. farm. This mating pair will provide The gift of Joy to the World valuable offspring, which can be Mating Pair gives hungry families raised or sold at market. Soon, this nourishment and empowers family will be able to Pass on the Gift, of Cattle: them to become self-reliant — which will turn them into donors $1,000 all while promoting positive themselves. Thanks to your gift of a growth in their communities Mating Pair of Cattle, another family for generations to come. will move from poverty to self-reliance.

30 TO ORDER YOUR GIFT CALL 855.848.6437 Christmas Chicks It’s time to buy your child’s favorite teacher a holiday present — but you suspect that she or he doesn’t need another engraved Christmas tree ornament. How about the Now that they don’t gift of chicks to wish her or him happy holidays and have to fear what say thanks for giving your own “chickadee” the gift of every day brings guidance and wisdom throughout the school year? them, 12-year-old Vet Pheakdey’s Through your gift of a flock of chicks, families from family is closer Guatemala to Zambia can enrich their inadequate diets and happier than with nourishing, life-sustaining eggs. The protein in ever in Cambodia. just one egg is a nutritious gift for a hungry child. Heifer helps many hungry families with a starter flock of 10 to 50 chicks. And since a good hen can lay up to 200 eggs a year, there are plenty of eggs for families to eat, share or sell. Because chickens require little space and can thrive on readily Flock of available food scraps, families can Chicks: $20 make money from the birds without spending much. And chickens help control insects and fertilize gardens.

Knitter’s The Allure of Alpacas Gift Basket: Giving the gift of an alpaca and training in its care offers a unique way to honor that $480 someone on your holiday shopping list who SHARE OF KNITTER’S has simply everything. BASKET: $48 At home in rough, mountainous areas of South America, alpacas are a blessing Over the years, Mom has to families with limited resources. Alpacas knitted everything from provide invaluable sources of income and warm wool sweaters wool, which is prized for making blankets, to stylish mittens and scarves. Now you’d like ponchos, carpet and rope. Plus, their soft to give her something feet and unique grazing methods mean they just as meaningful in live harmoniously in their fragile return. This is what Andean environment and help you’ve been looking for. our project families preserve their limited Our Knitter’s Basket resources. includes four of our fuzzy friends that are keeping Gift of Heifer partner families warm all around the world. an Alpaca: Your gift represents two alpacas, a sheep and an $150 angora rabbit to provide SHARE OF AN families with ample wool ALPACA: $20 Families in the highlands and endless opportunities of Ecuador can spin alpaca wool into yarn to to build better lives. sell at the market.

WWW.HEIFER.ORG/CATALOG 31 Holiday Trees: Saving Lives, Saving the Environment

Thanks to the gift of One of Heifer International’s most important seeds, Ricarda Maradiaga promises is to care for the Earth. We believe Cruz now grows a thriving that for development to be sustainable, we must vegetable garden in Nicaragua. help families raise their animals in harmony with nature. That’s why in addition to livestock, we provide families with trees and the seeds to grow Gift of Tree flourishing gardens. Through training, families learn how to keep Seedlings: their small plots of land healthy and renew the $60 soil for future generations by planting trees, SHARE OF TREE using natural fertilizer and limiting grazing. SEEDLINGS: So may we suggest adding the gift of a tree from Heifer to your holiday $10 gift giving this season?

Hope It Takes a Village Basket: Are you a proud member of a sorority? A civic group? A Sunday school class? $50 What better way to celebrate your What can be more special “village” than by making a gift hopeful to a struggling in their name that will provide unique, farmer than a gift of fast- community-based approaches that help multiplying livestock? many people leave poverty behind? Your gift of It Takes a Village builds The Hope Basket, with upon what we all know — no solution to chickens and rabbits, hunger and poverty can ever take root offers just that to Heifer’s unless we engage communities to come Your gift will bring women together, like this project participants. together to propel their families toward group in India, for specialized trainings in their villages and communities where they prosperity. Through education, training Rabbits are easy to learned how to improve their futures. care for and reproduce and encouragement, Heifer is helping quickly, allowing their farmers find their voices by showing owners to sell the them there is strength in numbers. That’s why your gift will connect many offspring for extra hardworking families together. For example, your gift may help a group of small income once they’ve dairy farmers negotiate better pricing for their milk, as well as set up critical fulfilled Heifer’s Passing infrastructure that enables families to pool key resources and on the Gift promise. share expenses so there are greater profits for everyone. Chickens lay eggs and Not only that, but your gift will foster an even provide manure for It Takes greater sense of community as Heifer helps local vegetable gardens. This a Village: farmers develop groups and meetings where gift of hope goes on $10,000 they can each share the lessons they’ve learned. and on, lasting much This means families have even more support and longer and helping more SHARE OF A resources — and experience even greater success. families than the usual VILLAGE: $100 With your help, a large number of hardworking gift basket ever could. families will break free from hunger and poverty by partnering together—ensuring entire villages flourish.

32 TO ORDER YOUR GIFT CALL 855.848.6437 8 Great Stocking Stuffers Santa visits children all around the world and knows that many children are in desperate need of more than just toys and games. That’s why these stocking stuffers provide less fortunate children with lifesaving nutrition and offer unique opportunities to teach your little ones about the true meaning of Christmas.

Goats provide Duck eggs Sweeten milk, cheese help build a Christmas and butter for healthy diet morning with nourishment. for families a gift of bees all around that will provide the world. delicious honey.

Share of Flock of Honey a Goat Ducks Bees $10 $20 $30 Asmani, Vo Minh Tri, Elsa Margarita Chaman Bangladesh Vietnam Chub, Guatemala

These fluffy When families Heifer shares chicks will sell goose eggs are popular soon grow to and offspring, year after year. provide the they can pay They give a daily gift of for clothes family milk for eggs. and school. years to come.

Flock of Flock of Share of Chicks Geese a Heifer $20 $20 $50 Carla Grisel Rivera Thuy Dang, Michelle Laker, Rodriquez, Honduras Vietnam Uganda

Rabbits The gift multiply of tree quickly, so seedlings will a family can soon grow soon Pass on into a source the Gift. of income.

Trio of Tree Rabbits Seedlings $60 $60 Aaron Menugbor, Marcelina Bautista, Ghana Honduras

WWW.HEIFER.ORG/CATALOG 33 The Holiday Buzz About Bees May we suggest surprising your friends, family and co-workers with the latest buzz: the gift of honeybees to help needy families around the world? Your generous gift will help Heifer provide a family with bees, a box and hive, plus training in beekeeping. This will help families from Uganda to Haiti earn income through the sale of honey and beeswax. Plus, when placed strategically, beehives can as much as double some Gift of fruit and vegetable Honeybees: Honey helps feed families yields through natural $30 — Elsa Margarita Chaman pollination. In this way, Chub, 8, now snacks on honeycomb after school a beehive can be a boost in Guatemala. to a whole village.

Boxes, Bows and Buffalo Gift of Send greetings from your family to a Clean family in need with the gift of a water buffalo this holiday season. Water: In poor communities, water buffalo from Heifer are providing draft power for $300 planting rice and potatoes, milk for protein, Millions of people and manure for fertilizer and fuel. A farmer around the world can plant four times more rice with a still lack access buffalo than by hand — generating added to clean drinking income to use for clothing, medicine, water. In some school and home improvements. So communities, your gift of a water buffalo and training water is scarce. in its care can lead a hungry family out In others, it is of poverty and give them a chance for contaminated. a bright future filled with Fortunately, Heifer hope and free from has solutions to hunger. both problems.

Heifer helps many Gift of a families install Water Buffalo: treadle pumps, practice water $250 conservation SHARE OF A and use organic WATER BUFFALO: fertilizers to Mohammed Ainul Haque is $25 protect drinking proud to see his daughter water to improve Shonavan Khatun contribute their health. to the community’s success.

34 TO ORDER YOUR GIFT CALL 855.848.6437 Pigs as Presents If you are looking for a gift that will leave your friends, family or co-workers squealing with delight this holiday season, look no further than the gift of a pig and training in its care from Heifer International. Heifer animals are like living savings accounts for struggling families, and the pig may well be the most interest bearing. Each gift provides a valuable source of protein, income from the sale of offspring, and natural fertilizer to nourish crops and soil. Pigs need little land and can thrive on crop and garden byproduct scraps. And since an average sow can provide a family with up to 16 Gift of a piglets a year, many Pig: $120 more families will soon SHARE OF In Cambodia, 8-year-old Hearm benefit as your gift is Seyha’s family was living hand passed on. A PIG: $10 to mouth until they received the gift of pigs. Now they have a self-sufficient farm.

Help Transform the World Take a bold step toward ending hunger and poverty with the Gift of Transformation. As Heifer animals produce milk, eggs, fiber and other marketable products, the entrepreneurial spirit is sparked inside each recipient. Increased milk production means families need pasteurization and bottling plants. Those plants need skilled workers. Cheese products need wrapping and branding. Thousands of eggs produced weekly need transportation to markets and restaurants. It’s a cycle of productivity and employment that grows and endures. The small businesses and enterprises created by Heifer projects become the drivers of economic development for entire communities. As each family’s income increases, other families achieve security and prosperity Gift of because of the jobs our projects Transformation: create. The transformation multiplies until dozens, hundreds, $100,000 then thousands of families are SHARE OF uplifted from poverty forever. TRANSFORMATION: We invite you to experience $100 an exciting new level of impact by giving the Gift of Transformation today. You turn small-scale farmers into small business owners.

WWW.HEIFER.ORG/CATALOG 35 Still Fishing For That Final Gift? With well-stocked ponds of fish fingerlings and training in fish- farming techniques, families can quickly increase their daily nutrition and income. When Three Heifer fish farmers Pass on the Schools Gift of fingerlings to others in their community, the impact of your of Fish: support is multiplied even further. $300 Celebrate the holidays with the SHARE OF gift of fish from Heifer and give FISH: $30 new meaning to the old saying, “Teach a man to fish and he will The gift of fish and a fish pond gave eat for a lifetime.” 2-year-old Lina Jared Andrade Silva’s family more protein in Ecuador.

Cooking up Changing the World a Healthier Two-by-Two Here is an opportunity for Planet you, or a great challenge for For most families in the places where your company, civic group, Heifer works, cooking requires club or​ congregation. gathering firewood by hand for Be an “Ark Angel.” The hours each day. Heifer Gift Ark offers hope However, a biogas stove efficiently worldwide to families who runs off methane gas captured from are poor and hungry. animal waste. It saves time spent Your generous gift goes right foraging for fuel and helps families to work supporting Heifer’s prepare food more easily with a clean, entire mission. Each family who reliable heat source. receives livestock from your Gift You can help a Heifer family put Ark will Pass on the Gift of one more time into their farm when you or more of the animal’s offspring purchase a biogas stove. to other families who are in Or you can help a need in their community. whole village by Every gift will multiply purchasing for years to come. What a 20. Biogas Stoves wonderful way to bring joy to the world. Gift Ark: for a Village: $5,000 $1,000 GIFT OF A BIOGAS STOVE: $50

36 TO ORDER YOUR GIFT CALL 855.848.6437 An Empowering Gift for Women Worldwide Chong Chiva’s family was the poorest in her Cambodian village. She was taking care of her home and children while trying to find work as a tailor. Too often she had no cash. “I had to borrow money from money lenders,” said Chiva. “My family was in debt at that time because we needed money for the medications.” Her husband, Moch, shouted at Chiva and threatened her, putting all the burden of the home on her. Then Heifer taught Chiva and Moch about gender equality. “It promotes equal rights, and we have the same share in decision-making for the family,” Chiva Gift of says. Chiva knows her own worth and demands respect. She and Moch started to make progress Women’s together. “I committed to change when I joined the Empowerment: training. I work so hard right now,” said Moch. $25,000 Now, Chiva is unstoppable. She is strong and confident, and makes important decisions for her family. And she doesn’t stop there. She is a leader in her community — serving as both a domestic violence Chong Chiva is SHARE OF so proud that she counselor and vice president of the local cooperative. WOMEN’S provides for her Her goal is to empower other women like Heifer has EMPOWERMENT: family, thanks to empowered her. $100 Heifer.

Truong’s Success Story ...

In Vietnam, 10-year-old Truong Thi Kim Ngan will have a very different life than her mother, who had to stop going to school in eighth grade to work. Her family desperately needed the extra money to survive. “I felt very inferior because my family was very poor,” Truong’s mother said. But she wanted a better life for her daughter. That life became possible when the family received gifts of livestock and training in animal husbandry and Send a Girl gender equality from Heifer. Now Truong’s to School: desk is plastered $275 with certificates proclaiming her “an excellent pupil,” and she Now that Truong is going to school, she is on the path to success. can choose her own future.

WWW.HEIFER.ORG/CATALOG 37 MENAT WORK IN RURAL RWANDA, A NEW WAY OF THINKING HAS MEN STEPPING UP TO DO THEIR PART IN THEIR HOMES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIPS.

BY BETHANY IVIE, World Ark writer PHOTOGRAPHS BY PHILLIP DAVIS

ARAMBI their children. “I was considered VILLAGE, as a slave,” she said. Any crops Rwanda — she managed to harvest went to When asked feed their family, and she was to describe his constantly looking for small jobs relationship to pay her children’s school fees with his and keep the house in order. wife, Sibomana Boniface, 56, Life was a constant struggle. simply says, “We are one.” And Sibomana openly admits that, Kthat certainly appears to be during that time, he knew life was true. Sibomana and Nyandwi difficult for his wife, but he didn’t Beatha, 55, have been married for care. “I would just come back home decades and have a successful asking for food and if I’m told farm, a beautiful clay brick house there is no food I would even beat nestled in Rwanda’s green hills her.” Despite his expectations for and six grown children. They a home-cooked meal, Sibomana are at ease with one another and didn’t contribute to the family communicate freely and honestly. finances or the farm. Instead, he This wasn’t always the case. used any income he earned to “Before joining Heifer, I was just date other women and go to bars. drinking … alcohol without caring When Sibomana was about anything,” Sibomana said. approached by a neighbor in 2016 And Nyandwi can attest. She had and told that Heifer International no help from her husband caring was asking for volunteers to join for their farm, their home or a new kind of group, he agreed.

38 | HOLIDAY 2019 Nyandwi Beatha and her husband, Sibomana Boniface, hold hands in Karambi Village, Rwanda.

HEIFER.ORG | 39 “BEFORE, I WOULD GO ALONE ON THE FARM AND WHEN I WAS HARVESTING I WOULD JUST HAVE THE HARVEST FOR FAMILY CONSUMPTION ONLY. BUT NOW, AS WE WORK TOGETHER, WHEN HE IS EVEN BUSY HE GIVES ME SOMEONE, A CASUAL WORKER, TO HELP ME SO WE TAKE SOME FOOD HOME BUT THE REST IS FOR THE MARKET.” Sibomana Boniface (right) and his – Nyandwi Beatha, Heifer Rwanda wife, Nyandwi Beatha (left), harvest EPOG project participant a cabbage growing on their farm.

He assumed that he would get a someone would have told me about UGANDA DEMOCRATIC TANZANIA cow. He heard about Heifer before [them], I would not have attended.” REPUBLIC OF and knew farmers in neighboring THE CONGO villages joined projects and got THREE KEYS TO SUCCESS livestock for their troubles. With Nyandwi and Sibomana didn’t RWANDA a price tag of up to 2 million know it, but they had joined a Kigali Rwandan francs (more than new breed of Heifer program $2,000), he certainly couldn’t called an Exponential Passing afford to buy a cow for himself. on the Gift (EPOG) project. Unlike Karambi Village So, why not see what Heifer was a traditional Heifer project that about? He and Nyandwi went partners education and training BURUNDI together to their first meeting. with gifts of livestock and other To their surprise, they didn’t find assets, this new model nixes the a cow or even the promise of one. animal gift. Instead of providing multi-generational change that They found that the group only tangible assets, Heifer helps benefits entire communities. As offered Heifer trainings. Though communities form groups of men opposed to struggling alone toward disappointed, Sibomana decided and women who are willing to an unattainable goal, farmers to stay in the group because he work together to improve their mired in poverty can combine suspected that, if he stuck it out, circumstances. Once a group is their talents and resources and he’d be rewarded with the cow formed, members set group-wide do things they never thought he sought at the end of it all. goals and the trainings begin. possible, like purchasing their “My target to join Heifer was to Armed with new knowledge, skills own livestock, setting up their have access to a cow. We did not and a shift in perspective, project own kitchen gardens or even know about these trainings and if participants pursue sustained, providing their communities with

40 | HOLIDAY 2019 A meeting of the Giramata Karambi EPOG group located in Rwanda’s Nyamasheke District.

wells. Then, once their goals are the past, we [Heifer] gave them TANZANIA achieved, they encourage people to what we wanted to give them,” form new groups and pass on their Uwimana said. “Now, it’s them trainings, knowledge and expertise. getting what they want.” At the head of these trainings Uwimana knows Heifer is Heifer Rwanda Social Capital projects without the heifer — or Manager Xaverine Uwimana. any other animal — mark a big shift Education is the first goal for any from the model we’re all used to. project, she said. “Most of the She also knows this new model time, these people, they grow works. In less than two years, up in their village, they don’t go the Rwandan farmers in these to school and they get married projects, once too poor to buy their when they are still very young own livestock, bought 884 pigs. and they have many children. So, “Those people, they came from those things [may] make them zero and today they have 884 pigs. Xaverine Uwimana is the driving force to continue to be very poor.” It’s so impressive! So, I know they behind Heifer Rwanda’s EPOG project. After education and training, are going to make a cooperative a sense of ownership and and they are going to sell their responsibility is the next goal. pigs everywhere in the country or Because this new generation of outside the country,” Uwimana said. SEE WHAT SIBOMANA AND NYANDWI projects in Rwanda doesn’t always In addition to education and HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THEIR WORK include gifts of animals, it’s easier ownership, the next component of WITH HEIFER IN THIS VIDEO. GO TO for farmers to feel full ownership success is gender equity. Women WWW.HEIFER.ORG/BONIFACE over their own successes. “In shoulder the vast majority of the

HEIFER.ORG | 41 “ONE SPECIFIC THING I CHOSE WAS TO GIVE MY WIFE SPACE FOR DISCUSSION AND FOR ADVICE. THE SECOND THING WOULD BE TO SIT WITH MY FAMILY AND MAKE A PLAN AND NOT GO ASTRAY. SO, ONCE WE PLAN SOMETHING, WE WORK TOGETHER SO THAT WE ACHIEVE OUR EXPECTATIONS.” – Sibomana Boniface, Heifer Rwanda EPOG project participant

house and farm work in traditional rural Rwandan households. For After receiving education in projects to succeed, men must gender equity, Sibomana (left) now helps his wife, Nyandwi, do their part and challenge their keep up the house and has own gender biases while women equal partnership in his home. must learn their own value. Gender equity trainings go This realization is key, Uwimana finances, asking her opinion and like this. Uwimana opens with two said, because unless men step listening to what she had to say. questions: “What do you think of up to help with daily work and “One specific thing I chose was men?” And, “What do you think responsibilities, their families to give my wife space for discussion about women?” Answers from will remain mired in poverty. and for advice,” Sibomana said. men and women are usually the “I think that we keep on being “The second thing would be to sit same, Uwimana said. Men are poor because most of the work with my family and make a plan strong and powerful, while women is done by a woman,” she said. “A and not go astray. So, once we plan are weak and “just there to get woman in the house, most of the something, we work together so married.” She follows this up with time she is pregnant and when that we achieve our expectations.” more queries: “Who tends to your she is pregnant, sometimes she Together, Sibomana and farms?” Women. “Who raises your is carrying another baby and she Nyandwi have built a farm and children?” Women. “Who cares is the one to clean, she is the one a partnership to be proud of. for your homes?” Women. And so to cook food and that time when They have a large fish pond that it goes. Through these questions she is carrying a baby and she is provides them with protein to eat men start to realize all the work and pregnant, she is also weak, she or sell and four newly-purchased responsibility their wives shoulder. can’t do much. Men, who are acres of fertile farm land. Not only They begin questioning their view very strong, most of them they has their nutrition improved, of women as inferior to men. are not working, and they are but newfound food security Uwimana said, “When you ask the ones who are free and can makes them feel stronger. what he thinks about women, he do a lot. So, they expect women “Nutrition aside, we are strong said he used to think a woman is a to produce most of the things because there is food security in our slave, for sure. And a woman used and yet they don’t have time.” home,” Sibomana said. “We have to think she is a slave also … because 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds) of the background, because of the A DAWNING REALIZATION of beans in the house, stored.” They education, because of the culture, It was questions posed during have also harvested and dried because of how they’re brought gender equity trainings that almost one ton of cassava, which up, so that is why you have to help made Sibomana re-evaluate they will take to market in October. them to change their mind, to his relationship with his wife. Sibomana credits his family’s change the way they see a woman, Nyandwi started to notice a newfound success to his to change the way they see a man. difference immediately. He started partnership with his wife. “There They just have to see themselves as coming home earlier, he began is significant change because we human beings who have the same to help with the farm work and, work together in the farm and once opportunities so that they can work shockingly, he began sitting we harvest, we know the value of together to complete each other.” down with her to discuss their the harvest. Before, we would cheat

42 | HOLIDAY 2019 A LIVESTOCK- FREE HEIFER APPROACH Hang on folks, we’re about to get technical. Heifer International is using a new model in some of our projects. The idea behind Trainings (pictured here) and community- Exponential Passing on the building activities (pictured left) are Gift (EPOG) is the same: a part of EPOG group meetings. give farmers what they HERE’S HOW IT WORKS: need to lift themselves Groups of 25 to 30 people gather twice a month for and their communities trainings on finance, savings and community building. Each out of poverty. The only group sets a goal for themselves and establishes a savings account into which they all contribute. For example, many difference is that with this EPOG groups in Rwanda’s Nyamasheke District, decided new model, we are not that they wanted to raise pigs to meet local demand for giving away animals or good quality meat. One pig typically costs around 20,000 Rwandan francs (about $21), a difficult sum for a single any tangible assets, only farmer to raise, but together group members can pool their trainings and coaching. funds and quickly raise enough to purchase a healthy animal and the materials for a shelter. This process is repeated until every member receives a pig. To ensure that groups have the knowledge they need to succeed in their decided upon endeavors, Heifer Rwanda provides additional trainings, like animal care, as needed and remains on hand to offer coaching and troubleshooting should problems arise. This approach shows people who once thought they would never be able to afford livestock or other expensive assets that any goal is in reach if they work together. Instead of struggling alone, group members can harness their collective strengths and capital and address any challenges that arise. Instead of relying on a tangible gift to jumpstart progress, the EPOG project gives groups the skills they need to build long-term success on their own.

Passing on the gift to others in need is a component of all Heifer projects, and the new model is no different. Project participants eventually become mentors and guide new groups through the same process, sharing the knowledge they have learned and providing trainings. The process can continue indefinitely, with newly trained project participants organizing and training new groups.

HEIFER.ORG | 43 THINGS6 YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT Once, Nyandwi and Sibomana had no “IF [MEN AND WOMEN] chairs in their home because they had CHANGE THEIR RWANDA no income to buy furniture. Now they have these beautiful wooden sofas on BEHAVIORS, IT WILL which they sit and talk together. CHANGE THE WAY THEY This year marks the RAISE THEIR CHILDREN 25th anniversary each other on the financial side. “ … AND THAT WILL Also gone are the days where CHANGE THE SOCIETY.” of the Rwandan Nyandwi toils in the fields – Xaverine Uwimana, Heifer genocide, a 100- alone. She explained, “Before, I Rwanda social capital manager day killing spree would go alone on the farm and that left more than when I was harvesting I would just have the harvest for family community. He said, “I do teach 800,000 people dead. consumption only. But now, as others about this because I want to Also known as the we work together, when he is become a model of change … I’m genocide against even busy he gives me someone, also a leader of opinion. So, I do a casual worker, to help me so all of that in a way of sensitizing the Tutsi, this dark we take some food home but other people to change.” chapter is the first the rest is for the market.” He and Nyandwi both consider thing that comes to In addition to changing his themselves advisors for their personal relationship with his community and are ready to share mind for many when wife, Sibomana is passionate an unflinching account of their Rwanda is mentioned. about sharing his newfound view past relationship with anyone who on equality with the others in his will benefit from hearing it. They But there’s a lot more also know that, with the skills they have learned and the newfound to Rwanda than that group, nothing is beyond terrible moment in their reach, not the cow they history. The country originally wanted or even a car. For Xaverine Uwimana, and her citizens YOU CAN HELP couples like Sibomana and made impressive, WOMEN IN RWANDA Nyandwi, alongside countless almost miraculous others involved in Heifer AND AROUND THE Rwanda’s EPOG project, aren’t strides in the last WORLD STEP UP AND just individual stories of success. quarter-century. Here LEAD THEIR FAMILIES They are a rising force that are six things you could change the very fabric of probably don’t know AND COMMUNITIES. the country. Uwimana said, “If SEE PAGE 27 TO [men and women] change their about the Land of LEARN HOW. behaviors, it will change the way a Thousand Hills. they raise their children … and that will change the society.” n

44 | HOLIDAY 2019 1 2 3 IT’S VERY SAFE IT’S A GLOBAL LEADER IT’S EXTREMELY CLEAN In 2017, Rwanda ranked as one IN CARING FOR THE It’s the cleanest country in of the safest countries in the ENVIRONMENT Africa, as a matter of fact. This world. Though its proximity Rwanda has been a leader may not seem like much of a to its drastically less peaceful in environmental initiatives wow-factor, but remember that neighbor the Democratic for more than a decade and Rwanda is also one of the most Republic of the Congo is a has a history of putting the densely populated countries concern, 83 percent of citizens environment and climate change on the continent. Rwanda’s still report that they feel safe at the heart of their policies, squeaky-clean streets and walking alone at night. including an unprecedented parks are thanks, in part, to ban on single-use plastics. “umuganda,” a country-wide cleanup on the last Saturday of every month.

4 IT’S HOME TO THE WORLD’S MOST BELOVED ANIMALS 5 What animal have you always IT’S ONE OF THE MOST 6 dreamed of seeing in person? BEAUTIFUL PLACES IT’S A LEADER Odds are, it lives in one of YOU’LL EVER SEE IN WOMEN’S Rwanda’s three national parks. I don’t know what you’re EMPOWERMENT They’ve got chimpanzees, picturing in your mind when Of the 80 seats in the hippos, giraffes, elephants, you think of Rwanda, but let Rwandan Parliament, 54 are leopards, zebras and more me tell you: it’s gorgeous. occupied by women. That’s than 700 kinds of birds! A Smaller than the state of 67 percent! Compare that to third of the world’s remaining Maryland, Rwanda has a rich the United States Congress, mountain gorillas live on geography of mountains, where women hold only 24 Rwanda’s Mount Virunga, one savannahs and lakes (including percent of the seats. While of the two locations in the Lake Kivu, one of the world’s many women in rural Rwanda world where you can safely deepest). Its frequent rainfall are held back by unfair visit these endangered apes in blankets the vast, rolling hills in gender roles and misogyny, person (the other is the Bwindi bright carpets of green foliage attitudes are shifting and Impenetrable National Park in and crops of tea (one of the men are taking more neighboring Uganda). country’s largest exports). responsibility in their homes.

HEIFER.ORG | 45 WHY WE NEED MORE FEMALE JOURNALISTS AT THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER

BY ALICE DRIVER ART BY ALEXA STRABUK

EDITOR’S NOTE: er face is lost in shadows until she peeks out of Alice Driver covers the opening of the tent. migration, human Nayeli is 12, and her rights and gender voice is at a whisper as equality for National she explains why she Geographic, Time, CNN, left Santa Bárbara, Honduras, with her Longreads and other Hmother and younger sister. “Many bad major media outlets. people harassed my mom.” She pauses, She is the author of grasping for words, and then says, “Gangs.” More or Less Dead: We are in Matamoros, Mexico. According to the U.S. Department of State website, the Feminicide, Haunting, security situation in the area “is consistently and the Ethics of violent and dire. Rolling gun battles between Representation in police elements and TCOs [transnational Mexico. Born and raised criminal organizations] occur daily.” in rural Arkansas, Because of the level of violence in areas Driver is now based along the migrant trail throughout Central in Mexico City. America, migration often gets covered as if

46 | HOLIDAY 2019 it were a war, sometimes by those bodily autonomy. Often, women who work in war zones, often by The gender imbalance and girls are only of interest if they men. Stories like Nayeli’s, about in the press pool are willing to recount sensationalist the people trapped among the is reflected in the violence, to relive trauma in detail. violence, can get drowned out. Female journalists have access Nayeli and I are on a strip of land news we hear. to spaces that few men would, and bordering the Rio Grande, and we our stories are more nuanced for it. are surrounded by tents that are broadcasts as compared to the 63 A deeper dive into Nayeli’s situation, filled with asylum seekers like her. percent presented by men. Only 15 for example, reveals that she and The women and girls I meet are percent of foreign policy op-eds in others have spent months living in happy to talk to me and admit that the U.S. were written by women, a tents while they wait to access their when they have spoken to other study by Foreign Policy Interrupted legal right to request asylum. Their journalists, most of them have showed. Women make up about 15 names are on a waitlist kept by U.S. been men. Her experience makes percent of photographers at major Customs and Border Protections, sense, considering the numbers. media outlets internationally. but no one knows how long the According to the Women’s Media The gender imbalance in the wait will be. Nayeli does not know Center study on the Status of U.S. press pool is reflected in the news when her name will be called or Women in the Media, women write we hear. Male journalists often if, upon entering the U.S., she and 41 percent of print articles versus miss out on important but perhaps her sister will be separated from the 59 percent written by men, and seemingly mundane details – issues their mother. She does not know women present 37 percent of evening related to periods, birth control and that women and girls are being

48 | HOLIDAY 2019 denied asylum for claims related and her sister Genesis Nohemy is to gangs and domestic violence. If women are 16. They are from San Pedro Sula, No part of asylum law dictates underrepresented in Honduras. When I meet them in that girls and women must spend journalism, then the August 2018 in Reynosa, Mexico, months in limbo living in a tent in they sit in white plastic chairs in gang-controlled territory where LGBTQ community the sunshine near a patch of grass they are at risk for being kidnapped is even more so. at the Casa Hogar del Niño (Home and trafficked into prostitution, Trans women are of the Child), a shelter for migrant and yet that is the reality. Blaine rarely represented children. “He was a kid,” Genesis says Bookey, a Legal Director at the Center by members of their of her brother, who was murdered by for Gender and Refugee Studies, own community, and members of the MS-13 gang. Wisps discussed current U.S. immigration of wiry hair escape from her top knot policy explaining, “Having a gender their experiences and and frame her face. She explains lens on some of these policies and challenges are often that two months after murdering understanding how these policies marginalized in the her brother, members of MS-13 are disproportionately affecting mainstream media. murdered two of her uncles because women and girls is helpful for the gang thought the uncles would understanding the larger attack seek vengeance for her brother’s on asylum seekers.” The Center for spends in a male detention center. murder. “The gangs said we had Gender and Refugee Studies has The U.S. Immigration and Customs 24 hours to leave the house or we been tracking the effects of Matter Enforcement Transgender Care would all be assassinated,” Ana said. A-B, which vacated an immigration Memo states that the agency will She and her sister decided to flee court decision to grant asylum to a determine a respectful, safe and with her aunt and two cousins, but woman fleeing domestic violence. secure environment for trans when they arrived in San Pedro Sula, Bookey described how “judges are individuals including appropriate members of MS-13 were there and relying on A-B to deny asylum,” medical care; presence of staff with surrounded their bus. They escaped, which specifically affects women and special training to work with trans and now they hope to reach the U.S. children fleeing domestic violence. identified detainees; a tailored and request asylum. They are not If women are underrepresented detention plan as developed by a aware of the conditions at detention in journalism, then the LGBTQ Transgender Classification and Care centers in the U.S. and reports that community is even more so. Trans Committee; and provisions that the children are being denied access to women are rarely represented by transgender detainee has access to basic items like soap and toothpaste. members of their own community, safety, security and proper hygienic Jaqueline Bhabha, a professor and their experiences and challenges needs. This is not the experience of the practice of health and human are often marginalized in the that Pérez has in ICE custody. She is rights at the Harvard School of mainstream media. Frequent targets granted asylum in 2018, but when Public Health and the author of Child of sexual and violent assault at the I see her, she doesn’t want to talk Migration and Human Rights in a hands of men, trans women often about the violence she experienced Global Age explained that part of shy away from male journalists, in detention. According to Allegra the problem with the way migrant leaving their stories untold. Love, attorney and director of the children are being treated stems Michelle Pérez Mendoza is Santa Fe Dreamers Project, trans from the fact that, “The U.S. is the 26 when I meet her in 2017 in women are forced to go to all male only country that has not ratified the San Salvador, El Salvador. She is detention faculties all over Arizona, United Nations convention on the recovering from an assassination Texas and California, where they are rights of the child, which requires attempt with an ice pick. She is at risk of assault or rape. Stories like states to provide representation for a trans woman, and she doesn’t Pérez’s are surprising and important, best interests of the child.” Bhabha believe she will survive the and they take huge investments of described tactics like immigrant violence and discrimination she time and trust-building to capture. family separation as “the use of faces in El Salvador. I follow her Children traveling without human suffering to a political end” as she migrates to the U.S. and parents also need significant and said that such policies showed goes through the asylum process, investments of time and empathy “levels of disregard for the basic including the seven months she from journalists. Ana Abigail is 14, well-being of children.” In terms of

HEIFER.ORG | 49 reporting on such issues, journalists she accessed spaces that the other like myself are unlikely to ever be mostly male photographers of her granted access to visit detention Who tells the stories time either couldn’t or didn’t want centers, especially those for children. of women like Juárez to. You can tell that the subjects The few reporters who have been and girls like her are comfortable with Arbus, that granted access have been prohibited daughter matters and she is in conversation with them, from taking photos, walking outside who photographs respectful of who they are and defined areas and speaking to the Nayeli, Pérez, Ana how they want to be represented. children. Denying journalists like Migrant women and girls are me access to detention centers has and Genesis matters. often photographed and written consequences for mothers like Representation matters. about as victims of extreme Yazmin Juárez, who fled Guatemala suffering, as was the case of Valeria, with her 19-month-old daughter. the migrant toddler who drowned The two were held in a for-profit Pérez, Ana and Genesis matters. with her father while crossing the detention center in the U.S. in Representation matters. Diane Rio Grande in June 2019. To do these conditions where her daughter Arbus, who was born in 1923, wrote women and girls justice, the media contracted a deadly lung infection, of photography, “I really believe that must look to a more diverse group which ultimately led to her death. there are things nobody would see of reporters and photographers, Who tells the stories of women if I didn’t photograph them.” And ones who, like Arbus, will take the like Juárez and girls like her daughter her photos of twins, nudists, dwarfs time to write about and photograph matters and who photographs Nayeli, and trans sex workers prove that things that nobody else would see. n

50 | HOLIDAY 2019 CHOOSE YOUR ADVENTURE! Embark on an educational and fundraising adventure that teaches your students about the world. Pick the FREE program that best suits your class, or create your own.

READ TO FEED® GLOBAL STUDY GUIDE SERIES MILK MONEY 3–6 weeks You choose 1 day–2 weeks Elementary Middle or high school All ages Nurture a love of reading Venture around the world and Connect with students in while helping others with our explore our work with our Tanzania and raise funds so reading incentive program. in-depth interactive guides. they have fresh milk every day. VISIT WWW.HEIFER.ORG/SCHOOLS TO ORDER FREE RESOURCES

Raise money through your school and you could win a trip to visit HCONTESTH a Heifer project! Visit www.heifer.org/schools for details and rules.

Give the Gift of Cows One cow can improve a family’s life … but two cows can do even more! Your gift of a mating pair of cattle will not only give a family nutritious milk they can drink or sell for profit — but also offspring that can be raised or sold at market.

Mating Pair of Cattle: $1,000

ORDER YOUR GIFT THROUGH THE ENCLOSED FORM, OR BY CALLING 855.8HUNGER OR VISITING WWW.HEIFER.ORG/CATALOG. heifer spirit PAINTING FOR A PURPOSE Young Artist Raises $5K for Heifer International by Painting Cards

Interview by Jason Woods, World Ark editor

ith each stroke of her paintbrush, high school Wfreshman Shea Tomac thinks about the people she can support around the world by selling her hand-crafted cards to support Heifer International. In the last six years, Shea, who lives an hour south of Los Angeles in Corona del Mar, has raised about $5,000 from her cards. Since she usually makes sure to In 2016, Shea shared her donate when Heifer is matching Greeting cards from 2013, passion for Heifer with her donations, the total contribution the first year Shea sold them. sister’s second grade class. comes to around $10,000. Since the third grade, Shea When Shea was 8 years old, copy of Beatrice’s Goat, which has been selling her greeting her mother, Jill Tomac, bought her details the story of how the gift of cards during the holiday season. some blank cards to decorate as a a goat from Heifer changes the life Last year alone, Shea raised fun project. of a Ugandan girl and her family. $1,650. This year, her first in “She’s always been really into So Shea decided to sell enough high school, she is setting art,” Tomac said. greeting cards to provide a goat to her sights even higher. After seeing the cards, Tomac a struggling family through Heifer “It feels good to know that I’m told her daughter she liked them International. helping people who don’t have so much, she would like to buy With the support of her family, as much as I do,” Shea said. “For them to send them to friends and her friends and her elementary me it’s not really work to make family. Shea responded that she school, Shea raised $120, enough the cards. I enjoy the process and would like to give the money to to buy a goat. then hearing how hundreds of children who need it. The next year, Shea designed a people are being affected by my When she was young, Shea’s new set of cards and doubled her donations makes me really happy.” grandmother had given her a goal.

52 | HOLIDAY 2019 Every fall, Shea meets with local kindness and compassion artist Deborah Allen, who helps her toward others. And also, through brainstorm new designs and teaches religion, through Judaism, it’s her new techniques she can use for one of the pillars of what you her cards. Last year, she combined do. But in large part, that’s just acrylic and metallic paint to form who Shea is. It hurts her to see a series of California sunsets. To people who are struggling.” finish painting the 250 cards, she This year, Shea will be selling worked every weekend for about her cards at the Corona del Mar two months — around 40 hours Artisan Fair and around the total. This year, she’s already started community. If you’re not in the working on the theme and designs. area and are interested in buying “She wants each card to be a set of hand-painted greeting her best work,” Tomac said. “She cards from Shea, contact us at prides herself in being an artist.” [email protected]. A set Tomac said a lot of people costs $25, plus shipping. have been exposed to Heifer’s All profits benefit Heifer work through Shea, and that drive International. n has motivated other students to Shea holding a package of her handmade greeting cards. take on philanthropic projects. “While I’m in high school, I’ll Two years ago, Shea’s greeting continue to sell my cards every cards served as her bat mitzvah holiday season and continue to project, so she aimed for a much raise my contribution goals for higher amount, $1,100. Last year myself,” Shea said. “I would also after raising $1,650, Heifer tripled like to inspire other people to the donation through a matching donate to this cause.” One way program. Making that donation was she’s interested in doing that is by Shea’s proudest moment because starting a Heifer club at her school. it was specifically used to educate Her mother said that Shea’s girls like her in Heifer projects huge heart is what motivates her. around the world who would not be “I think it’s who she is,” Tomac able to attend school otherwise. said. “As a family, we promote Proceeds from Shea’s cards are donated to Heifer programs.

The theme for the 2018 cards Last year’s cards were painted was California sunsets. with metallic and acrylic paints.

HEIFER.ORG | 53 mixed media FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Book binding: Reading our way back together By Austin Bailey, World Ark senior editor

atchers of politics this calendar year will surely be about the tensions and divisions and society at large remembered. Luckily, plenty of at our holiday tables, on social surely noticed the authors are stepping up with books media and across the country Whungry chasm about the challenges and perks at large. Some of these books between inclusion and division of diversity in race, nationality, will fit nicely on your holiday threatening to swallow up the religion and sexual orientation. shopping list, and some of them United States in 2019. Immigration The immigration question, you might want to gift to yourself. polarized a populace already arguably the most divisive of sliced and diced by issues of race, them all, factors heavily into On Earth We’re Briefly economic disparity and the urban/ Heifer International’s work. Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong rural divide. And the enmity Heifer’s projects in Guatemala, A Vietnam origin story written filtered into every corner, like sand Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras from Connecticut, this short novel in the sheets. Whether we’re more and Haiti all aim to help families earned loads of attention and divided than ever or just paying make a go of it at home. Project praise upon its June debut. The more attention to it is up for the participants are growing coffee book is written in the form of a pundits to quibble over. In the and cardamom, distilling artisanal letter from a son to his illiterate meantime, it’s worth noting that mezcal, dyeing cotton and mother as an attempt to make clashes over Confederate statues otherwise cultivating agricultural sense of his upbringing shaped by rage on across the country and and small-business opportunities mental illness, cultural isolation parents and doctors go toe-to-toe so people don’t have to leave their and salvation in education. in the vaccine debates. Good luck families behind to find work in finding anywhere to escape all other countries. Still, an untold Our Women on the Ground: the anger and charged rhetoric: number of families without such Essays by Arab Women Even the once close-knit crafting opportunities find themselves Reporting from the Arab World community needs darning after with little choice but to leave, and Rockstar journalist Christiane populists and progressives took people in the United States must Amanpour pens the foreword to their battle to Ravelry, a social decide how, or if, we will take this collection of essays by female media platform for the yarn- these families in. Europeans face journalists blazing new trails obsessed (and no longer a safe the same question as immigrants in the Middle East. Much like space for white supremacy). from the Middle East and North Alice Driver, a female journalist Whether you’re retreating to Africa continue to arrive. covering the U.S./Mexico border your corner after a few rounds The 10 books listed here, a mix who is featured on Page 46, the in the pen or simply watching in of fiction and nonfiction, explore journalists in Our Women on dismay from the stands, you could the migrant experience in different the Ground overcome sexual probably use some quiet reading parts of the world and from harassment, physical threats and time. And maybe you want some multiple points of view. Any would other obstacles unique to their guidance on how to navigate be delicious food for thought for gender to capture what would the fervent divisions by which readers starved for understanding otherwise be the untold stories

54 | HOLIDAY 2019 of girls and women in a culture published in 2017 explores that keeps them under wraps. immigration, family and identity.

Good Talk: A Memoir in Exiled: From the Killing Fields Conversations by Mira Jacob of Cambodia to California This quirky, charming and and Back by Katya Cengel poignant graphic novel by an This biography follows four families Indian-American writer married facing deportation 40 years after to a Jewish man and raising a their arrival in the United States. biracial son spotlights the unique Cengel traces their paths of escape tensions in interracial families. from torture and war in Vietnam and Cambodia to their struggle to This Land is Our Land: An build new lives on the West Coast. Immigrant’s Manifesto by Suketa Mehta The Beekeeper of Aleppo Born in India and raised in New by Christy Lefteri York City, the author worked This book follows an artist and for years as an international her beekeeper husband who journalist and witnessed anti- escape war-torn Syria in hopes immigrant backlash around of rejoining family in England. the globe. Mehta surmises that Although it’s a work of fiction, the colonialism and inequality have author draws material from two made immigration inevitable, and summers spent volunteering that we need immigrants for our at a refugee camp in Athens. economy and society to flourish. A Grain of Rice by Nhung The Ungrateful Refugee: N. Tran-Davies What Immigrants Never A 13-year-old and his family flee Tell You by Dina Nayeri Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in There are more than 25 million this book for young adults based refugees in the world, and author on the author’s real experience. Dina Nayeri wants readers to know what their experiences Manuelito by Elisa Amado are like. Herself a refugee from Surging violence in the Guatemalan Iran who fled at age 8 and grew countryside convince the title up in Oklahoma, Nayeri pushes character’s parents to send him back on the characterization to live with his aunt in the United of asylum seekers as criminals States in this graphic novel and troublemakers by sharing geared for readers ages 12 and up. individual stories of people who Manuelito journeys through Mexico have to escape their own homes. by bus and across the border seeking asylum. The author, a longtime The Refugees by Viet Thanh advocate for migrant children, Nguyen sheds light on the experiences of By the author of the Pulitzer Prize- the thousands of children fleeing winning novel The Sympathizer, danger in Guatemala, El Salvador this short story collection and Honduras. n first person WORKING TOGETHER PHOTO BY PHILLIP DAVIS PHILLIP BY PHOTO

“The biggest change that I noticed is that now I am working together with my husband. We were reminded how a couple should live in harmony, how they should love each other.” – Bihoyiki Marry Rose, Heifer Rwanda farmer

Through Heifer trainings, Bihoyiki Marry Rose and her husband, Nsengiyumva Fidel, have learned how to improve their harvests, purchase their own livestock, and boost their finances and health. The biggest improvement they’ve noticed, though, is in their relationship with each other. Thanks to participatory training from Heifer Rwanda, Bihoyiki and Nsengiyumva rethought their views on traditional gender roles. For Nsengiyumva, that means helping his wife with tasks that are usually thought of as “women’s work,” like caring for the children and tending the crops. “We were not helping each other,” Nsengiyumva said. “One would have his task and the other would have her task.” Bihoyiki added, “[Now] when I am out doing some other business, he can take care of the kids.”

56 | HOLIDAY 2019 A lifetime of generous returns ...

FOR THEM AND FOR YOU THROUGH A HEIFER FOUNDATION CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY

When you create a secure Heifer Foundation Gift Annuity, you’ll When Khardiata Alassane Ba and support families around the world like Mariame and Khardiata. her mother Mariame Modi Sow At the same time, you’ll receive a life of generous returns. received chickens from Heifer Just think… International, they didn’t just get eggs that will help sustain them • The rate of return you’ll receive for your gift annuity tomorrow; they received a way to is the highest it’s been in many years. provide their family with a better • You’ll receive an income tax charitable deduction income long into the future. and potentially tax-free annuity payments. It’s all part of Heifer’s work with • As you receive your return, you’ll know families communities to increase income, around the world are doing the same. improve child nutrition, care for Please contact us today, and we can create These the Earth, and ultimately end a personalized illustration for you. rates are world hunger and poverty. great! Heifer Gift Annuity Rates (Rates are based on a single life) Current age 65 70 75 80 85 90 Rate 5.1% 5.6% 6.2% 7.3% 8.3% 9.5% Rates current as of August 2019. The rate you or your beneficiary receive is calculated based upon the applicable annuitant’s age at the time of the gift. You’ll receive a lifetime of For information on annuities or other ways to support Heifer through the Foundation, please generous returns while helping contact Debbie McCullough at 501-907-4922 families around the world. or [email protected].

HEIFER FOUNDATION | 1 WORLD AVENUE | LITTLE ROCK, AR 72202 | 888.422.1161 | [email protected] | HEIFERFOUNDATION.ORG Nonprofit Organization 1 World Avenue U.S. Postage Little Rock, AR 72202/USA PAID Heifer International

Please scan here to donate livestock to a struggling family.

THIS MAGAZINE IS MADE FROM 100 PERCENT RECYCLABLE MATERIALS. PLEASE RECYCLE OR PASS ON TO A FRIEND. 69.RPWAH2019 Give a Life-Changing Gift This Holiday Season

Make an impact this holiday season by giving the gift of change for families and communities around the world. These gifts will create opportunities for families that will continue to unfold for generations — as farmers will be able to feed their families, send their children to school, and pay for essentials such as medicine and housing.

NOT ONLY ARE THESE THE MOST IMPORTANT GIFTS IN THE WORLD, THEY ARE ALSO TAX DEDUCTIBLE.

In India, a gift of a goat meant that 6-year- old Mahima’s family could earn money and have three healthy meals a day. SEE THE CATALOG ON PAGE 27 OR VISIT WWW.HEIFER.ORG/WORLDARK/CATALOG