SUMMER 2019 || HEIFER.ORG

HEIFER VIETNAM Moving on in the PLUS Mekong CAN I RECYCLE THIS? A handy guide for recycling at home. HISTORIES 10 INTERTWINED

BETTER AND WETTER 28 IN SENEGAL'S SAHEL

HOW A HEIFER PROJECT 42 PREVENTS MIGRATION

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 1 4/8/19 9:18 AM JOIN EMMY-WINNING ACTRESS UZO ADUBA AND MAKE A THAT WILL CHANGE LIVES IN AFRICA Uzo became Heifer’s first-ever celebrity ambassador to Africa after seeing firsthand the effect livestock, training and other assistance had on the families she met in Uganda. Join her by giving a special gift that makes a positive change in the world while letting your friends and family know you care. Uzo helped us put together this special collection of because she saw the difference they make. Looking for the right gift for a Birthday. . . Wedding . . . Anniversary . . .

GIVE A HEIFER TO A GIFT OF A GOAT WHAT BETTER GIFT MARK A SPECIAL MAKES EVERY THAN CHICKS FOR OCCASION DAY BETTER YOUR “CHICKADEE”?

Heifer $500 Goat $120 Flock of Chicks $20

A good dairy cow can The gift of a dairy goat is Help hungry families by produce up to four gallons a lasting, meaningful way giving a starter flock of 10 of milk a day – enough for you to help a little girl to 50 chicks. One good for a family to drink or boy on the other side hen can lay up to 200 and share with their of the world while sharing eggs a year, so there are neighbors, and still have your caring spirit with plenty of eggs for families enough to sell! those close to your heart. to eat, share and sell!

To order gifts visit www.heifer.org/catalog or call toll-free: 855.848.6437 Let us know if you want a gift card sent to someone you love to recognize your gift!

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 2 4/8/19 9:18 AM horizons

Dear Determined Humanitarians,

hree years ago, we set a has the potential to a ect lives ago as we return to the parched refi ned goal within our larger than we can count,” Aduba regions of West Africa where a mission to end hunger and said. “Our job is not to change well Heifer helped drill is now Tpoverty: to move small- someone; our job is to introduce bringing fresh water for crops scale farmers to a living income. a pathway for someone to walk and livestock. And in a nod to our It’s an important di erentiator for down.” That’s precisely what past, we also feature a historical Heifer, but it unites us with others we do at Heifer International. perspective in an interview who have pledged to help achieve In this issue we’ll take a look with writer Peggy Rei Miller. the Sustainable Development at one of our early successes She shares interesting tidbits Goals, specifi cally those of zero of introducing new pathways as well as some insight into the hunger and no poverty by 2030. to families that are helping us evolution of our organization Though the SDGs are lofty, we achieve our goals and the SDGs: over the years, from a relief e ort believe they’re truly attainable. our programming in Vietnam, to community development We also believe that each one of where we’ve worked since 1987. and into market systems. you can play a part in helping While our work there is set to As you peruse this issue, I shift the momentum so that we come to a close at the end of June, hope you’re inspired by the do achieve these goals — it’s just our projects are on a trajectory progress we’ve made over the a matter of how you frame your to exceed the living income last 75 years. If so, I encourage own goals. No one has illustrated benchmark by at least $1,000. you take a cue from Aduba and this idea as eloquently as our own It’s an early achievement in support our work going forward ambassador to Africa, Uzo Aduba. reaching our living income goal, so we see an end to global hunger Speaking at the annual Social and I fi nd this to be a true Heifer and poverty in our lifetimes. Good Summit last year, Aduba success story at the macro level. refl ected on how individuals In the spirit of showcasing Yours for a better world, could replicate in their daily progress and achieving goals, lives the work of large-scale we also o er a photo essay from organizations. “One choice that Senegal. You’ll see the very same Pierre U. Ferrari we can make one day in our lives communities we featured a year @HeiferCEO

HEIFER.ORG | 1

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 1 4/8/19 9:18 AM 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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Celebrate knowing that you’re giving someone else a reason to celebrate, too. Whether it’s your birthday, your wedding day or you just want the opportunity to do good, fundraise for Heifer to create opportunities for families in need.

VISIT WWW.HEIFER.ORG/FUNDRAISE TO CREATE AND CUSTOMIZE YOUR PAGE!

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 2 4/8/19 9:18 AM table of contents | Summer 2019

Histories Intertwined SUMMER 2019 || HEIFER.ORG Author and historian Peggy Rei Miller 10 began investigating the stories of post- World War II seagoing cowboys as a way to learn more about her family history. Her research also led her to dive deep into the early days of Heifer International. Moving on in HEIFER VIETNAM Moving the Mekong on in the 18 After more than 30 years, Heifer PLUS Mekong CAN I RECYCLE THIS? A handy guide for recycling at home. International is ending the Vietnam HISTORIES 10 INTERTWINED program, but the farmers and BETTER AND WETTER 28 IN SENEGAL'S SAHEL HOW A HEIFER PROJECT organizations involved in the projects 42 PREVENTS MIGRATION continue to thrive and carry on the spirit of the work into the future. COVER Better and Wetter Bui Thi My Nhan with one of the in Senegal’s Sahel thousand chickens she’s raising. 28 Photo by Phillip Davis In the dry Sahel region, water is scarce, making farming and daily life extremely Top: di¤ cult. Heifer Senegal is making sure Khardiata Alassane Ba and her families and communities have water mother, Mariame Modi Sow, show oŒ eggs from their hens. for human and animal consumption, Photo by Xaume Olleros crops and daily chores, as well as a reliable source of income and nutrition.

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19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 3 4/8/19 9:18 AM letters READERS RESPOND

was the regional director, and us up. We visited the recipients and the o¤ ce was in Bridgewater, Prentiss Institute. If I recall, a man Massachusetts. At that time, we by the name of James Norman received all contributions from was in charge of the livestock New England, prepared receipts program there. That was before and thank you letters, shipped Willis McAlpin arrived. I am trying to educational materials, spoke to locate my report on that shipment. churches, congregations and ROSALEE SINN schools, visited donors, and Plymouth, Massachusetts arranged for animal shipments Heifer sta 1965-2004 gathered on farms in New England. Prentiss Institute was one program that New England supported. First with shipments, Q&A SUMMER via the United States Post O¤ ce, In this issue, we share with boxes of 100-day-old chicks. a recipe for summer We would pick up the boxes at produce. Do you have a the hatchery, open them, put a favorite recipe that uses IN DEFENSE OF OVERPACKING quarter of an apple in each of the fall vegetables? If you I loved Bethany Ivie’s article in the four sections, tape them up and do, we might publish it Spring 2019 World Ark. I’m sending take them to the post o¤ ce. I don’t for the next issue. it to my sister-in-law — they love recall that we ever lost a chick. to travel, and my brother gives her Then, about 1967, we arranged a hard time about overpacking. for a freight car of cows and sheep, Bethany, you go, girl. plus a dentist chair, a piano, and JULIA CRAIG clothing and shoes to be on the Bothell, Washington rail from Boston to Prentiss. My For more World Ark content, husband, Paul, and I and Robert follow us on Twitter FROM MASSACHUSETTS TO Mayhew were on the freight car @world_ark. MISSISSIPPI AND BACK with the animals, a stack of bailed You can also follow our writers: World Ark Spring 2019 arrived on hay separating us, but allowing us @austingbailey, @mollycmitch, a snowy day and brought back to feed and water the animals en @jason_m_woods and many memories. Thank you route. I think it was a three-day @The_Ivie_League. and your writers once again. trip. On one of our stops, the rail About Prentiss, Mississippi: I company put on a caboose for started my journey with Heifer us. We fi nally arrived after several in 1965, working in the New delays and being put o on another VISIT US ONLINE England o¤ ce. Robert Mayhew track until another engine picked For more stories from the field, tips on how to take care of the environment, recipes and other great WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! reads, visit the Heifer Please send your comments to [email protected]. International blog. Just go to Include your name, city, and a telephone number or email Heifer.org, and click “blog” address. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may at the top of the page. Let be published online as well as in print. Because of the volume us know what you think at of mail we receive, we cannot respond to all letters. [email protected].

4 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 4 4/8/19 9:18 AM table of contents | Summer 2019

04 LETTERS Readers respond TELL US YOUR 06 FOR THE RECORD FAVORITE WORLD Can I Recycle This? ARK STORY AND 08 THE GOOD LIFE USE HASHTAG Summer veggies recipe #HeiferWorldArk 36 HEIFER SPIRIT Indian motorcycle diaries

42 HEIFER BULLETIN @Heifer Preventing migration in Cambodia

46 MIXED MEDIA @HeiferInternational Girls Burn Brighter review 48 FIRST PERSON @HeiferInternational Plans for the Future

MANAGING EDITOR World Ark is the educational, infor- organizations, and of Global Impact. Austin Bailey mational and outreach publication of Federal and state employees may Heifer International. Its purpose is to designate gifts to Heifer through pay- further Heifer’s goals to end poverty roll deduction by entering CFC #12079. SENIOR EDITOR and hunger while caring for the Earth Jason Woods and to raise awareness of the issues © 2018, Heifer International. Passing involved in this work throughout the on the Gift® is a registered trademark WRITERS CONTRIBUTORS world. Heifer International is qualifi ed of Heifer International. Opinions ex- pressed in World Ark are those of the Molly Mitchell Liz Ellis as a under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Rev- authors and do not necessarily refl ect Bethany Ivie Veasna Prom enue Code. Contributions to Heifer the views of either the magazine or PRESIDENT AND CEO Peggy Rei Miller International are tax-deductible to the Heifer International. Pierre Ferrari DESIGNERS extent permitted by law. Pooi Yin Chong PUBLISHER John Houser Since 1944, Heifer has helped 34 million Annie Bergman families, directly and indirectly, move ® toward greater self-reliance through The FSC Logo To change or remove the gift of livestock and training in envi- identifi es products an address, email ronmentally sound agriculture. which contain wood [email protected] from well managed 1 WORLD AVENUE Heifer International is a member of or call toll-free forests certifi ed in LITTLE ROCK, AR 72202, USA InterAction, the largest alliance of accordance with the EMAIL: WORLDARK LIST. 877.448.6437. U.S.-based international development rules of the Forest HEIFER.ORG and humanitarian non-governmental Stewardship Council®.

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19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 5 4/8/19 9:18 AM for the record FACTS & FIGURES

A WORD OF CAUTION Keep in mind that it never hurts to check with your local recycling station to see what can Disposable Pizza boxes Receipts and can’t be recycled – some recycling facilities paper cups can handle more types of materials than others. NO! MAYBE! Made of paper, NO! And whatever you’re recycling – make sure to but thermal paper rinse all food residue before putting it in your bin. RECYCLE Usually coated in Bisphenol A (BPA) The EPA estimates that In most cases, you can’t recycle You can recycle a pizza box that has of the American waste stream75% is recyclable, your cup because it’s lined with never been used. Contaminates the rest but we only recycle about 30% of it. polyethylene to hold your liquid better. Once the box has been coated in of the recycled paper Some cups don’t have the liner, but grease, most (but not all) facilities will with the chemical. A HANDY GUIDE for it’s really hard to tell the difference, say it’s too contaminated to recycle. recycling at home. so you’re safer just throwing it away.

This is probably the most complicated question on the list. And it’s arguably the most important — after Bags of all kinds Glass is infinitely recyclable — however, some food, plastics take up the most space in municipal (including shopping, packaging city recycling programs don’t accept it; it’s hard to landfills. So, let’s break it down. and zip-lock) transport because it’s heavy and breaks easily. NO! You also generally cannot recycle lightbulbs.

Bottles, jars YES! NO! and jugs YES! Although you can’t put it in your home bin, you might be able to find a drop-off location that accepts them.

Styrofoam NO! That’s a hard “no.” ONE MILLION plastic bottles are bought EVERY MINUTE around Like glass, you can the world and less than half of those THE GENERAL RULE FOR recycle metal cans YES! bottles end up getting recycled. ALL PLASTICS: pretty universally. Go for it! 1 2 Yes, recycle it.

Cups MAYBE! 3 6 7 Probably not recyclable. DID YOU KNOW? has the best recycling rate in the Check with your local collection world and recycles of all its waste. 4 5 service to see if they will accept it. 66.1%

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 6 4/8/19 9:18 AM A WORD OF CAUTION Keep in mind that it never hurts to check with your local recycling station to see what can Disposable Pizza boxes Receipts and can’t be recycled – some recycling facilities paper cups can handle more types of materials than others. NO! MAYBE! Made of paper, NO! And whatever you’re recycling – make sure to but thermal paper rinse all food residue before putting it in your bin. RECYCLE Usually coated in Bisphenol A (BPA) The EPA estimates that In most cases, you can’t recycle You can recycle a pizza box that has of the American waste stream75% is recyclable, your cup because it’s lined with never been used. Contaminates the rest but we only recycle about 30% of it. polyethylene to hold your liquid better. Once the box has been coated in of the recycled paper Some cups don’t have the liner, but grease, most (but not all) facilities will with the chemical. A HANDY GUIDE for it’s really hard to tell the difference, say it’s too contaminated to recycle. recycling at home. so you’re safer just throwing it away.

This is probably the most complicated question on the list. And it’s arguably the most important — after Bags of all kinds Glass is infinitely recyclable — however, some food, plastics take up the most space in municipal (including shopping, packaging city recycling programs don’t accept it; it’s hard to landfills. So, let’s break it down. and zip-lock) transport because it’s heavy and breaks easily. NO! You also generally cannot recycle lightbulbs.

Bottles, jars YES! NO! and jugs YES! Although you can’t put it in your home bin, you might be able to find a drop-off location that accepts them.

Styrofoam NO! That’s a hard “no.” ONE MILLION plastic bottles are bought EVERY MINUTE around Like glass, you can the world and less than half of those THE GENERAL RULE FOR recycle metal cans YES! bottles end up getting recycled. ALL PLASTICS: pretty universally. Go for it! 1 2 Yes, recycle it.

Cups MAYBE! 3 6 7 Probably not recyclable. DID YOU KNOW? Germany has the best recycling rate in the Check with your local collection world and recycles of all its waste. 4 5 service to see if they will accept it. 66.1%

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 7 4/8/19 9:18 AM good life TIPS FOR BETTER LIVING

An Easy Summer Recipe for All Your Farmers Market Veggies By Liz Ellis, World Ark contributor

f you’re like me, summer is your want to keep as one of your go-to, they are part of the cooking process, favorite time to eat good food. easy weeknight dishes. For me, the it’s more likely that they will dig in And if you’re lucky enough best recipes are always the ones that I with smiles at dinner. Ito have access to farmers can adapt to whatever I have, and this Finally, having cooked for people markets and CSA shares, there are dish is great with any of the beautiful (including myself) with all sorts of endless fresh goodies to be enjoyed veggies from your garden or market. dietary preferences, this recipe is throughout the warmer months. Even better, this is a dish that the super easy to adapt. Using gluten- Sometimes though, the trick can kids will love! It’s sort of a healthier, free or paleo is a simple way be how to utilize anything and more colorful version of mac ‘n’ to change the recipe. Try making everything that’s fresh without having cheese. Ask the kids to help by picking a cashew crème sauce if you are to find a special (read: “fussy”) recipe. out the veggies, chopping them or interested in a vegan version of this If this sounds familiar, this pasta even arranging them according to dish. If you give this a try, let us know primavera is a recipe that you will which should go in the pan first. If how it turns out!

8 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 8 4/8/19 9:18 AM Farmers Market Pasta Primavera Makes 4 servings An Easy Summer Recipe • 4 cups assorted vegetables (asparagus, mushrooms, snap peas, carrots, cherry tomatoes — any combination), for All Your Farmers Market Veggies cut to bite size • 2 tablespoons olive oil • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter • 1 sweet onion, chopped • 2 cloves garlic, minced • 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock • 1/2 cup heavy cream • 1 pound small cut pasta (, rotelle, ) • 1 cup finely chopped fresh spring herbs (parsley, basil) • 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese • Salt and pepper to taste A Perfect

1. Sauté the assorted veggies. Start with the ones that take a bit longer to cook, like carrots, and add in the softest ones Pairing last (like cherry tomatoes). Set aside when they are tender, This pasta primavera recipe pairs well with but still a bit crunchy. Winemaker’s White from Maryhill Winery in 2. Start boiling water and cook the pasta according to the Goldendale, Washington. Maryhill Winery in package. Washington State has been a proud supporter 3. Meanwhile, heat the oil and butter in a large sauté pan. of Heifer International for more than a decade. Add the onion and cook until it softens. Their latest support comes in the form of a 4. Add garlic, stock and cream, and bring the mixture to a custom wine label, available in both Winemaker’s simmer. Allow the mixture to thicken for a minute or two. Red and White. Two dollars from each bottle 5. Add in the veggies and cook them until they are heated sold will benefit Heifer International. through. www.maryhillwinery.com 6. Drain the pasta and stir it into the mixture. Add a few tablespoons of pasta water if needed. 7. Plate the dish and top each serving with the fresh herbs and parmesan. 8. Enjoy!

Liz Ellis joined Heifer International in 2006 as the culinary coordinator at Heifer Farm in Massachusetts. Since 2015, Ellis has been a community engagement coordinator, currently representing the north central U.S. region.

HEIFER.ORG | 9

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 9 4/8/19 9:18 AM asked & answered PEGGY’S PERSPECTIVE Histories Intertwined Interview by Jason Woods, World Ark editor and photos courtesy of Peggy Rei Miller and the Heifer International archives

eventy-five years ago, farmer and member Dan West started Heifers for Relief, the organization that evolved into Heifer SProject and is now called Heifer International. After his volunteer service in the Spanish Civil War, West returned determined to create a lasting solution to the rampant hunger he saw among refugees. His plan: instead of giving a cup of milk, donate a cow. Writer and historian Peggy ReiŠ Miller can’t remember a time when she didn’t know about Heifer. When she was a child and West was in his 60s, the two were members of the Church of the Brethren in congregations in Illinois and Indiana respectively. Miller remembers West’s involvement as a leader in regional youth events. “[Heifer] was always a part of our knowledge,” Miller said. “We just grew up with it.” Later in life, Miller discovered that her grandfather served as a seagoing cowboy, one of a group of men and a few women who volunteered to tend to the livestock shipped from the United States to other countries by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and then Heifer Project after World War II. In 2002, Miller began interviewing men who served as seagoing cowboys as a way to find out what her grandfather’s trip would have been like, and that work snowballed into more interviews, research and writing about the cowboys and Heifer. In 2016, she published a children’s book titled The Seagoing Cowboy. As we celebrate our 75th anniversary, Miller shares her thoughts about the seagoing cowboys as well as Heifer’s early years and evolution over time.

10 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 10 4/8/19 9:18 AM Heifer founder Dan West (left; pictured with wife and children on the right)

WORLD ARK: When did you I can’t say a lot. But just a very And I was interested in writing fi rst hear about Heifer? majestic, tall, stately person who for children at the same time. So I carried a very serious demeanor. decided I wanted to write a novel PEGGY REIFF MILLER: for young adults, and I thought, When I was a child. [Laughs]. I When did you fi nd out “What a great topic. A seagoing mean, I grew up in the Church of the your grandfather was a cowboy going to .” So then Brethren. It was always a part of our seagoing cowboy? I started interviewing men who knowledge. We just grew up with it. I didn’t know until after he died, I knew had been cowboys. And Of course, Dan West was a actually. He died around 1969. one cowboy led to another and huge leader in the church. Had Some years after that, I don’t even another, and, you know, the history an incredible interest in youth, remember when, my father gave me just draws you in. And I realized and he was a leader at some of the an envelope of Grandpa’s pictures that you couldn’t tell the seagoing regional youth events I attended. So from his trip. I knew there were cowboys story without also telling there was always that knowledge. some Polish dolls in Grandpa’s attic the Heifer Project story. Because And my roommate in college that we played with when I was a the two histories are intertwined. was the daughter of Heifer’s kid. And he had a cane, a wooden, You know, at fi rst, they were executive at the time, Thurl carved cane from Poland. So those separate. The seagoing cowboys Metzger. It’s just something pictures really put it all together for were a program under the Brethren that’s always been a part of me. me. Because at that time, I knew Service Committee to provide about seagoing cowboys and was the cattle attendants that UNRRA What was Dan West like? kind of curious about the history. needed—the United Nations Relief For a teenager, when he was in So that’s really what got me started and Rehabilitation Administration. his late 60s, very intimidating. in digging into it, trying to fi nd out UNRRA isn’t the same as today’s I didn’t really know him well, so what Grandpa’s experience was like. U.N., it was kind of a precursor.

HEIFER.ORG | 11

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 11 4/8/19 9:18 AM asked & answered PEGGY’S PERSPECTIVE

Abraham Rei , Peggy Rei Miller’s grandfather, served as a seagoing cowboy. Pictured: his Merchant Marine card (top left), seagoing cowboy card fi le (right) and a signed photo from his 1946 UNRRA trip to Poland.

Heifer Project leadership seagoing cowboy program was What’s the most surprising thing had been trying to convince directly under the Heifer Project. you’ve found digging into the UNRRA to some of the history of the seagoing cowboys? Heifer Project animals. Because That’s interesting that you knew That’s a hard question. There’s this was after World War II about the seagoing cowboys no one specifi c thing, but overall, when shipping wasn’t available, before you knew you had a for me, I think it was the power of except through the military and family member who was one. the internet to make connections. organizations like UNRRA. We never talked about it. And we Because I started my website in The seagoing cowboy program kids didn’t know to ask. That’s 2008, which was kind of fairly early was under the Brethren Service been one of the really interesting on in terms of websites and blogs Committee to begin with. And things about my work. There and so forth. And I had no idea Heifer Project was under the are a lot of families that have when I started that website what was Brethren Service Committee. They been in that situation, that in store for me. And since then, it’s were parallel. And UNRRA had discovered. And they’ve been just been one surprise after another. about 12 of their 360 shipments really grateful for knowing more Because as I posted more and more carrying Heifer Project animals. about what their relative did material, I began to get requests Then when UNRRA disbanded after through my work. That’s been from people for information. You just two years of service, Heifer one of the biggest motivators for know, from families of seagoing Project continued, and then the me in continuing for 17 years. cowboys, from students, from

12 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 12 4/8/19 9:18 AM Hope the cow was delivered to Poland with 334 other heifers via Finding the Stanislaw Debert the S. S. William S. Halsted in 1946. family, which received a heifer from the Heifer Project and a Cornelius Queling was one of horse from UNRRA in late 1945, many German Heifer recipients in was the highlight of Miller’s 1950. Miller met him in Nierswalde, research trip to Poland in Germany, in September 2013. October 2013.

elementary school through that I had found in Heifer’s archives Upper Silesian Museum. So I was graduate students who were writing about the shipments to Poland, able to go over, and I fed them papers, Heifer International staœ , one of her friends was able to information for the exhibit, and when they would get inquiries from track down one of the recipients I was able to go over and see it. families of seagoing cowboys and of a heifer in 1945. That was in And then the most recent needed information, they would 2013, and he was just turning surprise was contact from Japan contact me. And it would work 90 at the time. And I had just an public television that led to the the other way, too, when people amazing interview with him. piece that was in the Holiday were sharing information for me. And then another request came issue of the World Ark. You know, And the biggest surprises were from a museum in Germany that I never know where the requests the international connections. led to an exhibition about the Heifer are going to come from. It’s just … Because that led to trips to Poland Project deliveries after World War that’s been the biggest surprise of and Germany and Finland for me. II to the German-speaking people all, I think. Seventeen years ago, In Poland, it was an architectural from Silesia and the seagoing when I started this, I would never history graduate student who cowboys that delivered the heifers have dreamed that I’d have all these contacted me for permission to use to them. That was one of those international connections related photos in an article that she was Heifer trips through UNRRA. to the work that I was doing. writing. We developed an email This German museum is All because of my grandfather’s relationship, and using materials about Silesia. It’s called the packet of photos.

HEIFER.ORG | 13

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 13 4/8/19 9:18 AM asked & answered PEGGY’S PERSPECTIVE

Dan West stood by the conviction to do as much for peace as a soldier does for war.

A color slide of Faith, the fi rst heifer donated, with the donor, Virgil Mock (left), and the boy who raised her, Claire Stine (right).

Wilbur Stump, the fi rst seagoing cowboy Peggy Rei Miller interviewed, tending to a heifer on the Zona Gale. Children from the Vila Skaut orphanage in Konstancin, Poland, stand by four seagoing cowboys and Hope, a cow donated by the Heifer Project, on Christmas Day 1946.

14 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 14 4/8/19 9:18 AM Do you have any favorite of Faith, the first heifer, and her It’s moved the next step now stories that you found? donor, Virgil Mock, and the teenage in terms of the marketing angle. I do. Story-wise, I think one that boy who raised her, Claire Stine. Using cooperatives and marketing stands out — well, there would be That’s one of my favorites. to ensure that there’s sustainability three. The first, Heifer founder Another is the heifer Hope for these communities that take on Dan West’s story of his experience that was given to the Konstancin the Heifer project model. So it’s an serving within the military as a Orphanage outside of Warsaw, amazing development in terms of conscientious objector in World War Poland. It’s a picture taken on the purposes and the outcomes. I. And that led him to the conviction Christmas Day 1946 that shows And then, I think another that he wanted to do in his life as Hope, who had only been there change, originally it was a Christian much for peace as a soldier does for maybe not more than a week, organization. It was started by the war. And that was a large part of his and children from the orphanage Church of the Brethren, within motivation in starting the Heifer and four of the seagoing cowboys a couple of years, it became Project and many of the other things from that trip who stayed behind ecumenical, which was the goal that he ended up doing. So that’s in Poland to do kind of a tour for from the start on the part of the probably my favorite of all stories. the Brethren Service Committee. Brethren Service Committee. The Other favorites would be So they were able to visit this gifts of animals that were given seagoing cowboy stories about orphanage and that’s the heifer were given in the name of Christ, the impact that their trip had on that I kind of modeled my picture not to proselytize but simply to be a their lives. For some of them, these book on. That’s a favorite one. form of service given in the love of younger cowboys, for some of them, And then one of seagoing Christ. And that was very important they changed their college major cowboy Wilbur Stump, taken to Dan West all through the years. when they came home. To social with him and the heifer he was But when Heifer incorporated work, or they went into the ministry. tending on the Zona Gail on his in 1953, the tie with the Brethren And many of them became peace trip to France. Wilbur was one of Service Committee was broken. activists. My favorite story of all the first seagoing cowboys that Broken sounds like a negative with that is Harvard theologian I interviewed. So that’s always term, I didn’t mean it that way Harvey Cox, who was a seagoing been kind of special one for me. because the Brethren Service cowboy, and he tells about his Committee was very supportive of experience in his book Just As I Am. In your view, how has Heifer incorporation. Heifer was still faith- And it’s an incredible story about changed over the years? How is based at that point, but as the years how seeing the destruction over it similar or diŠerent than the progressed and board members there in Poland made him have the organization that started in 1944? were added for their expertise and conviction that there could never Well, it started out simply as a relief not just simply because of their be another war, and he became organization, just to provide relief denominational connections, a peace activist. And it tells more to people who had been hurt in the church connection gradually about that in his book, too. It’s just the war. And then it evolved into fell away, and Heifer is no longer an amazing story, a 16-year-old development, where the training a faith-based organization. who secretly wanted to be a part aspect was added. Then, as the Another change that I’ve seen is of the war but was too young and development aspect continued the personal connection between ended up being a peace activist. with the introduction of the 12 donor and recipient. In the early Cornerstones, Heifer evolved into years, that personal connection What are some of your favorite community building. I mean, the was there. Either directly, from Heifer historical photos? transformation that takes place donor to recipient, or through There are three basically. One is a in communities through those the denomination, who had a color slide that I found in Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones is just amazing. connection that set up the recipients archives that I had no idea existed The stories that Heifer has told. and overseas relationship through

HEIFER.ORG | 15

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 15 4/8/19 9:18 AM asked & answered PEGGY’S PERSPECTIVE

Members of the Schulz family stand next to the cow they received in Lubeck, Germany, in 1956. In 1945, the Russian military forced the family to fl ee their native Poland. An East Prussian settler with the heifer that was donated to his family from the Heifer Project. The Labatzki family children with a cow donated from the Heifer Project in Friedrichskoog, March 1956.

a denominational agency or backgrounds. Heifer’s shipments But as Heifer grew and the whatever. But there was more of a were mostly to help those displaced program expanded, it wasn’t personal connection. And that was farmers. And the Brethren Service possible to keep up that donor- especially strong during years of Committee had an o¨ ce building to-recipient relationship. the German shipments. There was they built in Kassel, which they a decade in the 1950s when Heifer called Brethrenhaus. And there So what are you working on made shipments to the German- was a Heifer Project o¨ ce as part of now, and what’s next? speaking displaced people from that. They encouraged recipients Well, I’ve been working on and hope Eastern European countries who to write thank you letters to the that this year I can really focus on were sent back according to the donors. So there were a lot of a book about the fi rst decade of Potsdam Agreement, sent back international relationships between the Heifer Project. I spent the two to Germany at the end of World these families that developed, past springs, three months in 2017, War II. So there were like 10-12 and some of those still hold today. two months in 2018, at the Heifer million of these displaced persons There’s an incredible two boxes Ranch to kind of sequester myself. that Germany had to resettle. And full of material in the archives that I took all the minutes from the many of those had come from farm contain these thank you letters. Heifer Project and Brethren Service

16 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 16 4/8/19 9:18 AM Seagoing cowboy Richard Tobias delivered twin calves on this trip to Germany in September 1956. The mother heifer was donated by his church. Donald Baldwin talks with Japanese-American farmer Dale Sakuma in Burlington, Washington. Sakuma donated a heifer to be sent to project participants in Japan.

Two heifers arrive at the Vila Skaut orphanage in Konstancin, Poland.

Committee meetings up through to watch that evolution of going Project animals free of charge. incorporation in 1953. And I put into sta¨ ng and the committee. So with that free shipping gone, all of those actions in a timeline. It was all volunteer work on the that was a critical point where That gives me a framework to work committees. And the dedication of there was discussion about, you with now. That’s my goal for this the people. And the di¨ culties that know, should we just bless what year, is to hopefully get a fi rst draft they ran into. I mean, there were a we have done and wrap it up? written. It’s a big undertaking. number of times, just in that 10-year But there was so much period, where they talked about, commitment, I mean the stories What are the most interesting “Can we go on? Should we close?” that the seagoing cowboys brought points on the timeline When UNRRA disbanded, that was home about the tremendous you’re working from? a critical point because their free need in Europe helped fan the Well, those fi rst years were really shipping was gone. Because their fl ames. And the people who had fascinating in terms of the number agreement was that the Brethren already donated so many hours of people that were involved. I Service Committee would recruit just wanted it to keep going. It’s mean, it was very much a volunteer UNRRA seagoing cowboys, and in an amazing story of commitment organization at the beginning. And return, UNRRA would ship Heifer and dedication and trials. ■

HEIFER.ORG | 17

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 17 4/8/19 9:18 AM Moving On in the Mekong

The countless tributaries that crisscross the Mekong Delta are a major means of transportation.

For more than three decades, Heifer Vietnam has given farmers the tools they need to feed their families and make their farms profi table. This year, Heifer Vietnam farmers are set to exceed the living income benchmark — $4,500 in the Mekong Delta — by at least $1,000. Overall, in the last 20 years, poverty rates in Vietnam have fallen from nearly 60 percent to 20 percent. Heifer’s work in Vietnam will end this year, but the future is bright for project participants in the country, as incomes continue to rise and institutional and provincial government partners continue to strengthen rural communities for years to come using the Heifer model.

18 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 18 4/8/19 9:18 AM Mekong

Bui Thi My Nhan and her husband, Vo Thanh Khoa, raise a thousand chickens at a time, making a good profi t.

By AUSTIN BAILEY, World Ark editor Photos by PHILLIP DAVIS

towering spread simply because the family didn’t and thatch, the new addition of cookies, hot tea have the money to buy a door. gleams with pristine tile and and fresh fruit on Farming small amounts of rice, a sparkling metal roof. As in a lemon-colored coconuts, pigs and chickens kept most homes in this region, a lace tablecloth husband, wife, mother-in-law and few stairs lead from the ground welcomes visitors son fed, but paid for little else. up to the house, and everyone atA the home of Vo Thanh Khoa In 2011, Vo Thanh Khoa and shucks oŠ shoes before climbing and Bui Thi My Nhan, in the Bui Thi My Nhan joined with 14 them so as not to track in dirt. Tra Vinh province of Vietnam. of their neighbors on a Heifer The new living area makes Temperatures in the Mekong project. They had raised free-range a clean, comfortable spot for Delta stay balmy year-round, so chickens before, but with the new 7-year-old Vo Minh Tri to study. the common room of the house project they penned the birds, is open to attract any breeze, its vaccinated them against disease tile fl oors cool against bare feet. and kept them on a bed of rice bran The bounty on the table refl ects and microorganisms. The special the bounty in the yard, where a bedding mixture kept the pens thousand chickens scratch and from getting smelly and, once it cluck underneath tall net tents. mixed with the chicken litter, could Cows rest under trees in the back. be sold as fertilizer. The family With its tall ceiling and soon added beef cattle to the mix. sparkling white tile walls, the airy Within a few years, their home is a welcome respite from income doubled and so did the the muggy heat and dust. The size of their home. While the house used to be open all the time, original structure was cement Vo Minh Tri, 7, has a new place to study.

HEIFER.ORG | 19

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 19 4/8/19 9:18 AM Rice paddies make up a large portion of the landscape outside Can Tho City.

Farming communities that adopted the Heifer model will continue to share knowledge and animals in a ripple of giving with no foreseeable end.

This success story is a typical one for Heifer project participants Narrow paved paths allow motorbikes to access neighborhoods o main roads. in Vietnam, who have been turning gifts of chickens, beef cattle, dairy cattle and training into JUNGLE COWS neighborhoods, jungle and the money for home improvements, The ingredients for successful countless tributaries that reach into savings and economic security farming – water, sunshine and every part of this region. Women since 1987. After 32 years, Heifer frequently replenished soil – all in matching fl owered tops and International will close its o’ ces exist in abundance in the Mekong pants cut elegant silhouettes in in Vietnam in 2019. The work, Delta, where annual fl oodwaters their iconic non lai straw hats. however, will continue. Farming quench tired fi elds with mineral- The region grows more rice communities that adopted the rich silt. The ubiquitous rice than it needs and exports it to the Heifer model will continue to share paddies glow a nearly fl uorescent rest of the country. And in recent knowledge and animals in a ripple green, and palm trees mark years, some farmers in the Mekong of giving with no foreseeable end. the boundaries between fi elds, have added another product to

20 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 20 4/8/19 9:18 AM Duong Ut Mao pampers her Holstein mixes, even chopping their food for them.

their repertoire that’s increasingly in demand, both locally and as an export: milk. Veer oŠ the main roads into the rice paddies and jungle and you can fi nd thriving Heifer dairy projects in the hidden communities around Can Tho City. Boats were long the main form of transportation in the Mekong region. Today, though, motorbikes stream down roads and onto the narrow concrete paths that reach into the neighborhoods hidden behind curtains of dense jungle. The home of Tran An Sarinh and Duong Ut Mao stands where a narrow cement track gives way to an even narrower dirt path. The fl at front yard rolls Tran An Sarinh runs a chopping machine that makes fodder more easily digestible. up to a waterway bustling with boats carrying fruit, ducks and activity happens around back 13 black-and-white Holstein mix other farm goods to market. in a palatial open-air dairy cattle cows who spend their days here, The small wooden home seems operation the size of a fast-food munching fodder and enjoying quiet and lonely in comparison, restaurant. A slanted concrete pad the shade of a 20-foot metal roof but that’s only because all the provides a sanitary base for the that keeps the sun away and the

HEIFER.ORG | 21

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 21 4/8/19 9:18 AM The cows live in a specially designed bovine mansion with high ceilings for air fl ow and cement fl oors for hygiene.

Duong and Tran sleep in a loft inside their cow so they can hear if a cow goes into labor or becomes ill during the night. A mechanical milker makes the work go quickly.

Beef takes a long time to see dividends, but for dairy you can get income daily.” – Phan Minh Hieu, Heifer animal well-being coordinator

air circulating. These beauties keeps the cow shed manure-free look like they would be more at and visitor-ready at all times. home in the pastures of Wisconsin The babying goes on 24-7. than in the balmy tropics of Duong built a loft bed with lacy southern Vietnam. In fact, the pink mosquito netting at the cows are a cross of Holsteins and corner of the dairy and sleeps a local breed, giving them some there every night, just in case a good adaptations to their tropical cow goes into labor or gets sick. climate and conditions while Her husband stays with her in the helping them produce the copious loft, so a grandmother sleeps in the amounts of milk that Holsteins are house with the couple’s 15-year- known for. While they’re relatively old son and 10-year-old daughter. hardy, Duong admits she does When the cows do need her pamper her Holstein mixes with care in the wee hours, Duong has mosquito netting, a chopping many years of experience to call machine to make their fodder upon thanks to her Khmer heritage. easier to digest and a three-times- While dairy farming is still not Tran delivers milk to a collection a-day cleaning regimen that common in her country in general, center via motorbike twice a day.

22 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 22 4/8/19 9:18 AM FAST FACTS ABOUT VIETNAM Vietnam is an oblong country toll among the Vietnamese countries. In the 1990s, the only 30 miles wide at its narrowest people was 2 million or higher. In Vietnamese government point, but it looms large in the Vietnam, the war is known as the reestablished economic American psyche. Nearly 60,000 Resistance War Against America. relationships with Western American soldiers died in the In 1975, a reunited Vietnam countries, and its economy Vietnam War, while the death limited trade to fellow communist has since strengthened.

CHINA VIETNAM Hanoi

LAOS

SOUTH CHINA SEA

THAILAND

Pho, a soup Vietnam is o cially CAMBODIA with countless an atheist state. In garnishes and practice, however, most Vietnamese people Mekong variations, is a popular Delta street food in Vietnam practice a combination The Vietnamese Ho Chi and can be eaten any of Confucianism, unit of currency is Can Tho City Minh City time of day. Buddhism and Daoism. called the dong.

milk has long been a part of the says she’s confi dent farmers have Khmer diet, and Duong and many the knowledge and equipment other of the participants in Heifer’s they need to be successful even dairy projects here are combining after Heifer International ends its their experience and expertise Vietnam program this year. “The with new training and technology prices are good and the market is to capitalize on the growing market stable,” Phan Minh Hieu said. She for dairy products in Vietnam. is among the growing number of Duong and Tran rise early each parents in Vietnam who are now morning to milk their cows, then buying milk for their children, a Tran sets oŠ to deliver the milk to cultural shift with both nutritional a cooperative collection center, a and economic benefi ts. Unlike process he repeats each evening. beef cattle farmers, whose long- Two large dairy companies, term investments come with Vinamilk and Dutch Lady, buy milk delayed payoŠ , the Khmer dairy from the cooperative, providing farmers are constantly motivated a reliable income source for the by nearly immediate returns on farmers. Phan Minh Hieu, an their investments. “Beef takes a animal well-being coordinator long time to see dividends, but who has worked with dairy for dairy you can get income The family keeps their animals farmers in the region for years, daily,” Phan Minh Hi said. comfortable and well-fed, and it shows.

HEIFER.ORG | 23

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 23 4/8/19 9:19 AM Integrated farming methods Life blooms on every corner of the farm. utilize animals and plants.

Vegetables are the focus, but the family raises cows, too.

There’s no doubt Nguyen Van Dua and his wife, Huynh Thi Loan, have green thumbs.

LAND OF PLENTY Vietnamese cuisine brims with fresh herbs and vegetables, and a chef would likely fi nd every single ingredient he or she might need growing fresh and abundant on the farm of Nguyen Van Dua and his wife, Huynh Thi Loan. The farm itself takes up only a couple of acres, but it’s so jam- Cow manure is composted into fertilizer. packed with productivity that the family is enjoying fi nancial security for the fi rst time. equipment. Nguyen Van Dua manure and incorporating lots Success seemed elusive and Huynh Thi Loan soaked up of clever and e’ cient tricks into before 2013, when the family of all the know-how they could at their operation, the family more fi ve divided their eŠ orts between trainings on business planning than doubled their income. rice and vegetable farming on and how to boost soil fertility, That extra money went directly less than one acre of land. Along and they became star students. back into the farm. The family with 25 other families, they The couple opted to stop farming doubled their land holdings and signed on to a Heifer project that rice and focus on more labor- built an extensive irrigation system oŠ ered members training in intensive but also more lucrative that saves countless hours they how to boost farm production vegetable farming. By fertilizing used to spend hauling buckets of and loans to buy seeds and farm their soil with compost and cow water to each plant. The irrigation

24 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 24 4/8/19 9:19 AM LIFE ON THE WATER

The Mekong Delta at the very southern tip of Vietnam is not quite land and not quite river, but a soupy mix of the two. With its highest points still less than 10 feet above sea level, the entire delta sees annual fl oods that swallow towns and villages, regularly and to no one’s surprise. The river and tributaries, along with manmade canals and fl ooded rice paddies, shape the land and the lives The Cai Rang Floating Market of all inhabitants. Elevated attracts locals and tourists. roadways are built to peek just above the annual fl oodwaters, and rice farmers rely on the huge nutrient-rich silt deposits brought in by the river to keep Mekong Delta soil productive enough to keep churning out enough rice to feed the entire country, plus some. Boats have always been the main means of transportation in this region. But more than that, boats are, for many, home. Waterways bustle with Boaters can fi ll their gas tanks Snack boats cater to houseboats where multiple without leaving the river. hungry shoppers. generations of families live and work. Toddlers learn to under the gaze of an enormous was even a decade ago. But it still paddle and swim at the same golden statue of Ho Chi Minh. bustles with boats piled high with time they’re learning to walk. From 5 to 8 a.m., this section of pineapple, mangos, durian and The water is also a source the river splashes with parades other tropical fruit. Vietnamese of food, livelihood and of Western tourists packed into women in traditional conical hats waste disposal, although the canopied motorboats for the paddle canoes-turned-cafes to government is working to curtail 45-minute commute to Cai Rang. customers eager to buy bowls of the latter. Visitors crowd in to Traditional grocery stores steaming for breakfast. see the interplay of all of these and markets in Can Tho City Other fl oating snack shops elements come together in are beginning to squeeze out o˜ er co˜ ee and rice cakes. the Cai Rang Floating Market. the fl oating wholesale bazaar By 9 a.m., the sun and Passenger boats launch that clogs a half mile section heat the vendors away, throughout the morning from of the river each morning. The and the tourist boats head the boardwalks of Can Tho City, market is much smaller than it back to Can Tho City.

HEIFER.ORG | 25

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 25 4/8/19 9:19 AM REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: DURIAN, THE FRUIT YOU’LL LOVE

Jackfruit rinds can be made into tea. TO HATE

The family built their own biogas system.

Maestros of industry, Nguyen Van Dua and Huynh Thi Loan are geniuses at squeezing the most out of every resource. All-natural pest control really works.

further boosted production, a diluted mixture of garlic and when the family and chiles splashed on the switched to completely crops, erase any need to organic farming, the prices buy chemical pesticides. they got for their produce Similar approaches went up, too. The farm’s most are working well for other recent additions are a biogas members of the group, and operation that turns cow the $2,500 revolving loan manure into fertilizer and fund continues to help the one that uses natural gas for farmers to boost productivity, cooking and lighting. and the high quality of their Maestros of industry, vegetables ensures a strong Nguyen Van Dua and Huynh market. A few times a week, Thi Loan are geniuses at Nguyen Van Dua and Huynh squeezing the most out of Thi Loan host aspiring every resource. A pile of vegetable entrepreneurs jackfruit peels dry on a cloth who make a pilgrimage to in front of their modest see the clever planning and wooden home, soon to be handy contraptions that ingredients for a tea they will churn out such enviable sell. Handmade lantern-like profi ts. The group is now pest traps that attract and working on the next step, capture insects are set out creating a logo they can put among the rows of onions, on stickers they will use to beans and bitter gourds. brand their produce in the These traps, combined with marketplace. ■

26 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 26 4/8/19 9:19 AM I could have imagined. Like a putrefied, bloated organ harvested from a week-old corpse. I grabbed a banana from my photographer’s hand and shoved it in my mouth in a desperate attempt to erase the flavor of death. Unable to put away any more of the durian, we accepted a Styrofoam clamshell of it to take with us. And even though we stowed it in the trunk, the smell quickly infiltrated and overwhelmed the entire car. My clothes and To be fair, cheese smells pretty will smell as if you’d been French- suitcase reeked of it for days. awful and Americans happily put kissing your dead grandmother.” Why does this fruit that’s so away an average of 35 pounds Sound enticing? You’ll find beloved in Vietnam, Thailand, of it per person per year. So plenty of opportunity to sample China and Indonesia remind me please know that I mean no durian in Vietnam on the road (and many other Westerners) o˜ense, and in fact I applaud from Ho Chi Minh City to Can of adolescent boys’ sweaty and envy the sophisticated and Tho City in the country’s verdant, tennis shoes stu˜ed with healthy cuisine of Vietnam. Pho balmy South. High temperatures old coleslaw? The answer, is unfailingly delicious. Fresh and humidity keep this tropical apparently, lies in the di˜erent fish and spring rolls and tropical region lush and green, and ways people’s brains interpret fruit for dessert? I’m all in. roadside fruit stands are well olfactory sensors. Apparently, But durian? supplied with mountains of the complex components that Most Americans have never spiky, oblong durian pods. make up durian’s unique aroma heard of the delicacy that’s so Friends had warned me that are similar but not identical to popular and revered in Southeast durian smells worse than it tastes, noxious smells like sulfur and Asia that it’s known there as so I screwed up my courage turpentine, so brains like mine “the king of fruits.” It’s certainly as a fruit vendor sliced into lump durian into the do-not-eat the most pungent. The smell is two durians before finding one category. Other brains, possibly so distinctive, so pervasive and she deemed ripe enough. The more sophisticated or maybe lingering, that durian is banned smell was repellant, like rotten just more practiced, interpret on public transportation in garbage soaked in fingernail the aromas di˜erently and find Singapore. In November 2018, an polish remover, or a dumpster them pleasant and appealing. Indonesian plane hauling durian full of dead dogs on a hot day. A friend who lived in China for in the cargo hold was grounded The vendor chopped the durian a year told me the trick is to keep when passengers refused to in half, then extricated the eating durian. By the third taste, board because the stench. plump yellow fruit that popped she said, you’re hooked. I never Teams of scientists have out cleanly from the pod. The made it that far, but plenty have. devoted countless hours in the texture of the fruit is custard-like, Durian fan clubs abound on the lab to figure out what biochemical but with a smooth, dry skin. web, and so do opportunities to compound cocktail gives durian It tastes better than it smells, it tour fecund durian farms across its famous aroma. The unique fruit tastes better than it smells, it tastes Southeast Asia during harvest invites passion from both devotees better than it smells … I repeated season. Do you have what it takes? and detractors. Famous fallen this over and over in my head as I A disclaimer written in bold warns foodie Anthony Bourdain was a fan, went in for a taste. But my friends that these special tours aren’t for although he acknowledged durian were wrong, I had been tricked everyone. “Prerequisite for travel: had some drawbacks. “Your breath and the taste was far worse than You must not dislike durian odor.”

HEIFER.ORG | 27

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 27 4/8/19 9:19 AM Better and Wetter in Senegal’s Sahel

Daily life in the community of Nakara, Senegal, is not easy, and it takes a whole family pitching in to make it. But for thousands of families in the northeast of Senegal, fi nding clean water will no longer be a problem.

PHOTOS BY XAUME OLLEROS

n between two iconic landscapes, the vast Sahara Desert to the north and the tropical grasslands of the savanna in the south, sits Africa’s Sahel region. Stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red ISea, the Sahel is nearing a population of 100 million people. Although life has never been easy in a place where rain isn’t seen for eight months of the year, the e ects of a growing human population led to increased soil erosion and desertifi cation starting about 50 years ago. In the community of Nakara in northeast Senegal, as in most places in the Sahel, water is a scarce commodity, and it takes a lot of time and e ort to procure. Every day before and after school, 10-year-old Khardiata Alassane Ba helps her mother, Mariame Modi Sow, with the chores, which include gathering water wherever it can be found. Heifer International is providing 3,500 people in communities like Khardiata’s with year-round access to potable water for their families, Khardiata Alassane Ba, animals and crops. The project will also double the incomes of 600 collecting rainwater from a puddle outside of Nakara. farming families. ■

28 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 28 4/8/19 9:19 AM HEIFER.ORG | 29

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 29 4/8/19 9:19 AM 19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 30 4/8/19 9:19 AM Collecting water is a chore that takes up a lot of time and energy for women and girls who live in the dry Sahel region.

“Almost every day, you go and look for donkeys,” Khardiata said. “When you come back, you take a donkey cart. If you don’t have a bucket, you need to do everything to get one. Take it and go get water.”

In addition to water for drinking, families must find water for cleaning, tending to animals and other activities. Khardiata and her mother also collect water to mix with cow manure to make biogas, as pictured on the bottom of the page on the left.

In the near future, families in Nakara will have a cleaner, more accessible source of water through the Heifer Senegal project. A well is under construction between Nakara and Younoufrere, another Heifer community.

Pictured above, men unload pipes, which will carry water up from a nearly 400- foot borehole. Since the well is so deep, a traditional handpump won’t do at all. So a generator is brought in to pump the water up far under the ground.

The generator for the well will be solar powered. Once the well is finished, it will provide clean drinking water for two communities. The water will also be used to irrigate vegetable gardens and keep animals healthy.

HEIFER.ORG | 31

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 31 4/8/19 9:19 AM 19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 32 4/8/19 9:19 AM Khardiata and her family also received chickens from Heifer Senegal. The eggs provide both income and valued protein in their diets.

Additionally, families in Nakara received hair sheep, which Khardiata sometimes milks with the help of her friend Aminata Harouna Sow, pictured on the bottom-right of the opposite page.

On a daily basis, Khardiata helps her mother with a variety of chores, which can include gathering firewood, cooking, cleaning or planting vegetables.

HEIFER.ORG | 33

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 33 4/8/19 9:19 AM 19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 34 4/8/19 9:19 AM FOR MORE ON KHARDIATA AND HER COMMUNITY, VISIT HEIFER.ORG/SENEGALWATER AND WATCH THE SHORT VIDEO, “DREAMS FROM THE DESERT.”

Before the sun comes up, Khardiata starts her day with ablution and morning prayers. Afterward, she begins helping her mother by sweeping the ground around the house. In the afternoons, Khardiata prepares and eats lunch with other women who live in Nakara.

Some days, Khardiata uses a wooden notebook to learn the Koran during her informal religious schooling. Unfortunately, her family cannot yet aŠord to send her to the community’s school, pictured on the upper right.

For a child to attend primary school in Nakara, it costs the family about $80 a month, a fee Khardiata’s family cannot currently pay. But that will change soon through the family’s involvement in the Heifer Senegal project.

HEIFER.ORG | 35

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 35 4/8/19 9:19 AM heifer spirit GIVING RESOURCES, GIVING SELF

Khardung La Pass and Back Again: A Biker’s Tale By Molly Mitchell, World Ark writer, and photos by Gunjan Mahanta

For Pranjit Talukdar, his road to working in international development and eventually Heifer India began on a motorcycle, riding the highest road in the world. Talukdar told us in his own words about the ten stops he made on his route to Khardung La Pass and back again, his misadventures along the way and how that road led him to change his life’s path as well.

1  NEW DELHI “Then I took a trip,” he said. thing, and there was nothing new.” “I was in the banking and fi nancial “What inspired me actually was that Talukdar decided to take o† on sector,” Talukdar said. “I did my I watched The Motorcycle Diaries his own extreme motorcycle trip: MBA like everybody else, and with Che Guevara, who did a trip riding Khardung La Pass, the highest I joined the bank and started across South America when he was motorable road in the world at 18,380 doing portfolio management, turning 30. To fi nd himself. He was feet above sea level. He was used to fi nancial management and so a doctor, and when he came back, riding a small motorcycle, but for on. So, I was doing pretty good. he became Che Guevara. I thought, I this trip he needed a bigger one. He My dad’s a doctor and my wife’s a was turning 30 and that was a good showed up at a friend’s house two lawyer so I know how rich I could idea. I was doing fi ne, but my boss’s days before his trip with no supplies have become!” he laughed. boss was doing exactly the same and no bike. His friend saw that

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19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 36 4/8/19 9:19 AM Talukdar was bound and determined way out from New Delhi on a hot early in the morning, but at 2 p.m. to make the trip, so he was willing to July day. After the fi rst leg of the he and his friend were still enjoying lend his Royal Enfi eld Bullet and give trip, they were already sunburned. the food scene in Manali. But they Talukdar some guidance for the trip. “So, we tried to cover ourselves learned that major construction “He said, ‘So what do you have?’ because after that fi rst part it was was scheduled to start that very day I said, ‘I don’t know, I have nothing. getting colder,” Talukdar said. on the road they needed to take. But I am going to go. I will go.’ He “And I said, ‘No! We cannot said, ‘I know, I can see that.’” 2  MANALI stay! We have to go!’ So we went. “Because we were all from the “When we reached Manali, we were In the rush we forgot to fi ll our By Molly Mitchell, World Ark writer, and photos by Gunjan Mahanta army school, he knew how much I’d very happy. We had covered halfway. petrol tank. And we went up. follow. So he drew the map of which We were so thrilled we stayed “When we climbed up the places I must stay at night. He said to overnight. And the next morning mountain, we realized our petrol use as much of the daylight as you we shopped. Because apparently my had gone into reserve. There was can. Start early in the morning, and brother’s friend was not carrying no petrol and we were in reserve halt before the sun sets. Do not, do warm clothes. He was not prepared! already. So we [found a shop] and not, ride at night. Because there’s no He was playing video games when we fi gured out that we could buy road. No one will be able to fi nd you I pulled him out!” Talukdar laughed. petrol on the black market. Which if you get lost. He said to take enough “So we shopped for warm clothes. is in those bottles you can get petrol to fi ll your tank and an extra While we were doing that, we which are not very good petrol but gallon. There’s a place called Tandi, started eating. We’re both foodies, at least it will last. We bought about and that’s the last petrol pump. so we got some good food.” four bottles which could take us to There, you refi ll. ‘Til then, there’s Talukdar had planned to leave Tandi. So we got happy again!” nothing. After Tandi there is nothing. Again, refi ll your extra tank, and then go. Take your tent, extra tires, learn how to fi x your bike. So I said okay.” Takular and the friend he took with him would end up breaking almost all the rules on their devil-may-care journey. “I practiced one day, it went fi ne. I rode back to the o— ce on his big bike. I was so thrilled. That was the night my sister-in-law threw a party. I didn’t realize I was partying ‘til 3 a.m.!” he laughed. “So I said, ‘Oh damn, I was going to leave at 6.’ So we went to sleep. At 6:37 a.m., we left. “I went with my brother’s friend. I should not have been travelling with a pillion, because the roads are really steep. But I did not have an option. He said, ‘I can go with you, but I do not know how to ride a bike. I can only hang on to you. If we go down, we go down together. Let’s go!’” Sharp switchbacks and narrow roads are part of what makes They started on their carefree the journey to Khardung La Pass a treacherous challenge.

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go and try the top [route] fi rst.’ He got o† and went to go check if there was a road there. He came running down! He said he was walking, and he could see that there was some water, there must be a water fl ow. He thought it was small enough to ride through. When he was about to step, he saw a big tree fl owing by. He said if the current was so strong that it could take a tree, then we’ll be caught! He said, ‘Hell no! Take the other one!’ So, the other way we went and kept going.”

4  KEYLONG “We kept riding at night. We had no option. If something had happened to us, no one would fi nd us. We were so happy to reach Keylong. Not only did we reach Keylong, we found a hotel and there is a wine shop near In between Rohtang Pass and Kehlong, the bikers hit snow it. Can you imagine? So I said, ‘I and extremely cold temperatures. think we have earned ourselves a drink.’ And it was so cold. So we got rum. We had to! We lived! We 3  ROHTANG PASS “Then we got very hungry. We thought we would not make it! “After that we crossed Rohtang Pass, stopped in one small bar and asked “So, we lived, and we had our which is where the most tourists for some food. Chapati roti and share [of rum] and we had some go. After that there is nothing. The mutton. It was so … it was the tastiest good food. We went to check our moment we crossed Rohtang Pass, mutton I ever had in my life. Man, we bike, and we realized the shocker the snow started. It was freezing ate. You’re told not to each so much was broken. We found a guy who cold. It was bone-chilling. We put on because it will not digest because the knew how to make bikes, and he had everything we were carrying. I put air is going to be thin, but we were a whole bike. We bought his shocker on, I think, three jackets, and [my starving and got such good food! from his bike and changed out the friend] also started putting on jackets. We ate. We did not realize by the old one for the new one. So we got “Then, we wanted to have a time we fi nished it was about 7:30 our petrol fi lled, and this time we had cigarette. The Zippo would not light in the evening, and it was dark. So, our extra gallon fi lled. And we rode.” because our hands were frozen. we thought, can we stay here? They The cigarette was in my mouth, [my said, ‘No no no, you have to go.’ 5  SARCHU friend] was trying to light it and I “We were told not to drive at night. “This ride was long. Very long. We was trying to pour the gas from the But then, we had nowhere to stay. kept going. And we reached a place top. The gas fell on my hand and lit a So, we started riding at night. And called Sarchu. There you have to fi re there! He said, ‘It lit your hand!’ I there were times when we did not [camp]. Sarchu is like a valley. It’s said, ‘I cannot feel it!’ It was so cold! know which way to go, because we surrounded by mountains. It’s … “I lit my cigarette, and we [couldn’t see in the] fog. So I said, it’s very cold. It’s,” Talukar laughed, fi lled our Zippo. So we went. ‘You know what, I think you should “It’s killing. It’s pretty cold. And

38 | SUMMER 2018

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 38 4/8/19 9:19 AM the good part is, there is one wine ‘I don’t know. I am not stopping this Talukdar sighed heavily. “We thought shop there. They know the truckers bike until 21 loops. Do you realize we’d die. We pushed the bike across and the army guys, they need that. [how hard it is to] kick start? You do that part. There was no other way. So did we. We had Maggi [instant not even know how to ride a bike?’ “Then, when we came to a little noodles], and for the night we had “At one point [a truck pushed us] steady part, then we realized that my some rum. And we spent the night.” and we skidded and we fell. We fell bike was actually broken [from when towards the hill. But the moment it fell]. I could only go in fi rst gear. So 6  GATA LOOPS we fell, as if he was waiting for this I said, ‘We are dead. What do we do?’” “Next morning. The Bullet that I moment, he grabbed the bottle and Talukdar fi gured out a work- borrowed from my friend, it was an ran into the forest!” Talukdar laughed. around for manipulating the gears old Bullet with the old system. Since “The truck drove o† , and I got on the bike and pressed on. it was so cold, it wouldn’t start. I had up and pulled up my bike. He came “Suddenly,” said Talukdar, “The to kick it about a hundred times to back and afterwards we climbed. ‘Til road fi nished. There was no road start it, and fi nally it got warm and it then we were complaining about after that. After that what happened started. The moment it started, I said the gravel and how the road’s not was, there was a riverbed where I got let’s go on. We found roads … small good. But then suddenly the bike stuck. There was water which falls, and narrow, but roads you have to went into sand. And I realized it was and they had cut out a road there. take [Gata Loops – a road famous for the desert. It was a river bed. It was a But when [the water] keeps falling, it its 21 switchbacks] to go up. I said huge stretch of land. Then we looked becomes too deep. So my bike was we’ll stop at 21 loops. The moment for gravel, because [on gravel] we too heavy to come out. It got stuck. we started climbing, my friend had could ride the bike. We could not ride “There were a lot of bikers during nature’s call. I said, ‘I cannot stop.’ He the bike anymore because there it that time. They were waiting because said, ‘You know I have to go.’ I said, has to be pushed through the sand.” they were also stuck one by one, and they pulled themselves out and somebody else helped them out. They saw us, and they helped us out. So, we learned how to come out of a waterfall if you get stuck,” Pranjit laughed. “Next day we got stuck alone! So we had to get o† the bike and put a stone underneath. We did not stop the bike. If the ignition stopped, then it would be very di— cult to start again. Twice we got stuck and came out.”

The view of Tanglang La Pass showcases the stark landscape in the Himalayas . It is imperative to be prepared, because populated Pangong Lake was a highlight places to stop are few and far between. of Talukdar’s trip.

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7  TANGLANG LA PASS: 17,480 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL “After that, the road suddenly fi nished. There was no road after that. Just trodden path, and it was climbing up. That was the toughest climb. And when we reached the top, it was Tanglang La Pass. It was the second-highest motorcycle road in the world. So, we climbed it. When we reached it, we saw there were other bikers who were fi nding it di— cult to breath because it was so high. We were so happy reaching there, we stood there, and we smoked again. We celebrated! We had to do something! We carried medicines to get us acclimated. But then our journey was so troublesome,” Talukdar laughed. “We did not get to Talukdar and friends spent a day at Pangong Lake, which lies at 14,270 feet. use them! I said forget about getting acclimated, we have to reach there somehow! So, we reached there, to go to Khardung La Pass. went to Pangong Lake. There we we smoked and we were happy “Before we could go to a hotel, met my friend Victoria from Boston for some time. We helped some we went to a garage. We said, ‘Can and her brother Steve. They were other people who were trying to get you fi x our bike please? Because we also there, but they were in a car. acclimated — helping them breathe, have been pulling our bike!’ To climb So we took a dip there. We took a sharing medicine and water, stu† up was okay – fi rst or second gear. picture in the Chang La Pass, which like that. We thought that we had To climb down you have to get into is the third-highest motorcycle climbed up so high, that going neutral or do something because road. We went to Pangong Lake down would be easier. We were you cannot be in second gear to and spent the night, we had fun.” on the bike but there were times come down. And on the plain, you you had to push, pedal through it have to do something about it. He 10  BACK AGAIN because we were so high. So, we said that when we fell, the pedal on “The problem was when we came thought going down would be much which the foot rests has bent, so it back, we had missed one day. We easier. But then, it was not easy.” was stopping the gear. So he fi xed it. had to stay one day extra to go to We were all set to go for Khardung Pangong Lake. Those days I was in 8  KHARDUNG LA PASS La Pass. We found a hotel, we stayed the bank, and we could not get such “There was no road even while going at the hotel for the night. Next easy holidays. I had just 10 days, down. So now we had to hold on morning, we went to Khardung La I had to get back. So … now I had to our brakes very hard. The road Pass. So there we were. We had our wasted one day, and I had two days was quite curvy, so we took many own time, and we celebrated there. left. “And I said, ‘There is a problem. steep, blind turns. When we came We’ll have to drive overnight.’ We down that hill, after that it was easy. 9  PANGONG LAKE had to drive through. We could not There were good roads entering into “[We heard] that there was a lake. If stop anywhere. Because what will Leh. So we reached Leh, where we you do not go to this lake, your trip you do? We had no other option. would stay until the next morning is not complete. So the next day we “I would never advise anyone to

40 | SUMMER 2018

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 40 4/8/19 9:19 AM reach home, and then we will rest.’ it did because … I don’t know if it “It was the wrong decision. The makes sense, but it helped me to moment we got onto the highway, see. My life was mostly doing Excel we were so tired I was not able to sheets then. And numbers and keep my eyes open. We would ride portfolios and shares, which will for 10 minutes, smoke, if we could make money and investments, get tea we would have tea, wake which will make money. I do not up, have some water, ride another know why, I do not know how, I Gunjan Mahanta (far left), Pranjit Talukdar (middle left), and friends ten minutes. That’s how we came. do not have a specifi c answer. But Victoria and Steve at Pangong Lake. When I fi nally got home, it was 4 a.m. then when you give so much time My wife opened the door, and she — you have nothing else to do, all could not recognize me for some you can do is just ride,” he laughed. time. When she fi nally recognized “And I also … the thing is, when me, she said ‘… I think you need I moved from the banking sector a shower. Let’s talk after that.’ from the position I was pretty good “But then, it was quite amazing. at, it was a risk. I got a little brave to The places that you saw — it was so take risks. I think it is worth taking beautiful. There are places where a risk, and I got a chance from Talukdar and friends also visited you can just sit on the bike while doing the same Chang La Pass, the third-highest motorable road in the world. riding, and you can just open your thing. I could use my expertise. hand and you are able to touch ice “First thing they did, they sent on both sides of the road. You just us to Rajasthan to the hottest do that again. No one should ever open your hand, and you can touch place. They work for child rights. do that. But we did. And now I fi nd ice. It’s beautiful. It’s clean, it’s so And we were a bunch of guys myself so foolish. I was taking a clean, it’s so fresh, it’s so beautiful. who came from corporations. chance for what, for a day in the It’s worth taking a risk. But you And we were complaining all day bank? So, we drove overnight. We should not do it alone. It was quite about the AC. How come the AC drove the entire trip. And it was an experience. Now I know the is not strong enough, the hotel is scary. That trip was quite scary. tracks, now I know the mistakes. not good enough. And we went “When I reached Rohtang Pass, Talukdar said this trip there where there was no light, we were dog tired. We could not a† ected his life and choice of no current, no system of AC. And have driven anymore. And it started profession in a profound way. those children were so happy! Their to drizzle. We parked the bike, and “After I came back from that after happiness was infectious. You we slept. Right there, sitting and about fi ve or six months, I left my cannot complain, sit there and say sleeping the way we could make job and came into the development that it’s hot. We used to complain ourselves comfortable. We slept for sector. I joined Save the Children. about everything in life. But then some time, got up and we went to “You spend so much time we see their houses, and they are so freshen up. We were so dirty and with you. [When] you work in a happy. And living better than us. ugly looking! We were in bad shape. corporate land, you do not spend “So, the paradigm shift happens, “So we came again through time with yourself, do you realize but it happens gradually. You see and stopped again in Chandigarh. that? You follow a timetable, you that you are making people happy. When we reached Chandigarh, we do not spend time with yourself. What you were doing earlier, stopped in the same hotel. We had I spent a lot of time with myself; I your clients used to shout that some chicken soup. We felt good. I did not want to give it away again. the profi t could have been more. don’t know why — I should not have I wanted to keep that with me. Now these people are happy. It thought like that — but I thought “Yes, I think it did [a† ect his makes you feel good. It’s kind of ‘Why wait? Let’s save this day. Let’s decision to leave banking]. I think addictive. So you stay. So I stay.” ■

HEIFER.ORG | 41

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 41 4/8/19 9:19 AM heifer bulletin NEWS FROM THE FIELD How a Heifer Project Prevents Migration By Veasna Prom, Heifer Cambodia communication and networking manager

Meout Ya holds chicks given to his family by Heifer Cambodia. PHOTOS PHILLIP BY DAVIS

ore than a million and deported back to Cambodia pay oƒ their debts, and that left Chea Cambodians have and losing all of their savings. Kimshour alone to care for their migrated to fi nd work Chea Kimshour and her husband, children and manage the farm. Mabroad, most often Meout Ya, live with their three In 2004, Meout Ya was able in Thailand. Around 53 percent children in Rolea B’ier district, to migrate to Thailand through are undocumented migrant Kampong Chhnang province. Before a broker as an undocumented workers. As a result, they face many joining a Heifer Cambodia project, migrant worker. Chea Kimshour challenges, including staying in Chea Kimshour’s husband migrated borrowed $500 from a middleman low-quality shelters, enduring poor to work in Thailand because of with an interest rate of 20 percent working conditions and receiving the lack of job opportunities in per month. In Thailand, Meout Ya lower pay than other workers. Cambodia. He needed to earn some worked as a construction worker Many live in fear of being arrested money to support the family and for a small company and sent

42 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 42 4/8/19 9:19 AM Meout Ya and Chea Kimshour earn $300 a month selling chicks.

home only about $50 per month to support his family. He rarely went outside his room and workplace because he was afraid of the police. “I never slept well,” Chea Kimshour said. “I always thought about my husband. When my children got sick, it was so hard for me to take care of them alone.” In January 2018, a Heifer project was introduced in her community, and Chea Kimshour joined the project’s self-help group as well as an associated agricultural cooperative. Through Thanks to the family’s poultry business, Meout Ya the project, she received training no longer needs to fi nd work outside of Cambodia. that included business planning,

HEIFER.ORG | 43

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 43 4/8/19 9:19 AM heifer bulletin NEWS FROM THE FIELD DO YOU MATCH?

Meout Ya tends to the chickens in the coop.

CHECK YOUR EMPLOYEE MATCHING GIFT Chea Kimshour convinced her husband, Meout Ya, to Chea Kimshour and Meout Ya hold a return from Thailand to start a poultry business together. carton of eggs from their chickens. PROGRAM TO DOUBLE YOUR

Your company may match your gifts to Heifer International. chicken and garden management, animals died, and they lost money. disaster … before receiving the leadership, microfi nance and the After joining the project, the couple training,” Meout Ya said. “Moreover, Use our handy checklist below and complete the easy steps today: 12 Cornerstones. Chea Kimshour has successfully raised more than I am no longer living with fear as I gained a strong sense of confi dence, 180 hens with two incubators, and was in Thailand. [Now] I see my wife ❑ Give to Heifer. Thank you for your recent gift! and she saw the benefi ts of owning they produce at least 500 chicks per and children’s smile every day.” a business. She convinced her month. Now, they can earn more “There’s no greater happiness husband to return home to run than $300 per month selling chicks. than having family members ❑ Visit www.heifer.org/matching and find your a chicken operation together. Chea Kimshour said they no living together,” Chea Kimshour employee matching gift program to double Upon his return, Meout longer have challenges selling their said. “I will not allow my husband (or triple) your recent gift. Ya attended the training on chickens since the cooperative to migrate to Thailand anymore. chicken management with his connected them to local markets. Our chicken business is going very wife. Together, they borrowed With their success, Chea Kimshour well, and we plan to expand our ❑ Once you submit your matching gift claim, $500 from the cooperative to and Meout Ya are sharing their chicken pen and increase to 500 call or email us and we’ll send you a matching start their poultry business. knowledge and experiences with hens next year. I am so grateful that gift canvas backpack! At fi rst, they were worried about other self-help group members who the project is implemented in my the investment due to a previous are interested in raising chickens. community and gives my family the bad experience where they tried “I don’t think I could raise opportunity to change our living to raise 15 chickens; most of the hundreds of chickens without conditions and to be together.” ■ 888.5HUNGER (888.548.6437) [email protected]

44 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 44 4/8/19 9:19 AM DO YOU MATCH?

CHECK YOUR EMPLOYEE MATCHING GIFT PROGRAM TO DOUBLE YOUR DONATION

Your company may match your gifts to Heifer International. Use our handy checklist below and complete the easy steps today:

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888.5HUNGER (888.548.6437) [email protected]

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 45 4/8/19 9:19 AM mixed media FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The power of female friendship prevails in Girls Burn Brighter

By Molly Mitchell, World Ark writer

irls Burn Brighter is a It is heartbreaking to hear their love story about two girls inner thoughts, picking through who grow up together thoughts and memories for anything Gin a small village called remotely valuable, much as Savitha Indravalli in Karnataka, India, and spent her girlhood picking through their epic quest to find each other garbage heaps for scraps that might after tragic circumstances separate be valuable enough to sell. Savitha them. The imaginative and confident thinks often of a scrap of indigo Savitha and the sweet, chronically fabric she wove for Poornima, incredulous Poornima discover and Poornima holds precious a something startling together. They memory of her late mother brushing learn early that something is more her hair. They come to recognize important than marriage and more that their friendship is the only powerful than the burdens and thing bringing color and vitality expectations placed on them by the to lives sapped of joy by poverty. men in their lives: their friendship. As a reader, one groans to watch The love they share for each the girls fall victim to those who Girls Burn Brighter other is, as Savitha considers at would (and do) make them slaves. By Shobha Rao one point in the book, the only Even though the novel is fictional, Hardcover $25.99 paperback $17.99 relationship she ever had that was the horrible things that happen to 416 pages not tangled up in fear. As women Savitha and Poornima are all too real living in poverty in India, Savitha for thousands of girls around the and Poornima are abused at every world. Human tra†cking is alive and harm to their families, escaping turn in every way possible. The well in India, preying on young girls these situations alone is nigh-on novel is a painful, frustrating read as seeking to escape poverty and abuse impossible, and corruption in law these two guileless young women at home or from forced marriages. enforcement leaves little hope for discover and strive against some Lured by promises of jobs, these help or conviction of these crimes. of the ugliest forces this world girls are forced to disappear into the In 2015, almost 7,000 cases of has to oer – poverty, disease, black hole of the sex trade. Fearing human tra†cking were recorded, misogyny and generalized cruelty. physical punishment, rape and according to the United Nations

46 | SUMMER 2019

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 46 4/8/19 9:19 AM O†ce on Drugs and Crime. Of Poornima and Savitha experience, throughout Southeast Asia today. course, human tra†cking is a but the universal hatred of women While starting o at something notoriously di†cult crime to track, both girls experience from almost of a slow burn, Girls Burn Brighter so these numbers are in all likelihood every man they encounter in their catches fire as you become desperate only the tip of the iceberg. According lives — not only pimps, but fathers, to find out whether Savitha and to John Winterdyk, professor of romantic partners, husbands, Poornima are reunited at last. Savitha criminology at the Canadian Mount brothers — is crazy-making and and Poornima’s friendship and love Royal University, via Asia Times, maddeningly realistic. Poornima for each other, “burning brighter” “Estimates point to about 200,000 is attacked with hot oil by her than their grief and anger and pain, victims in India but there could be husband, permanently disfiguring would be impossible with a man in more. It is one of the fastest growing her face. No one she encounters their lives’ context. It is only with and most profitable crimes. About after the fact is surprised by this. a fellow woman that it would be 90 percent of the girls tra†cked here They know it was her husband possible, and is perhaps powerful are for the domestic sex trade.” and are only idly curious whether enough to help them survive the Sex tra†cking may be the most he used oil or acid. This practice is unrelenting horror of being born extreme expression of misogyny alarmingly common in India and a girl into poverty in India.n

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19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 47 4/8/19 9:19 AM first person PLANS FOR THE FUTURE With one action: Fight hunger and poverty today, and help end it tomorrow. PARTICIPATE IN HEIFER’S 2020 LEGACY CHALLENGE! PHOTO BY XAUME OLLEROS BY XAUME PHOTO There has never been a better time to include Heifer Contact Debbie McCullough, in your will or estate plans. When you set up a legacy Vice president of planned giving gift today, a generous donor will match 10 percent 888-422-1161, ext. 4922 (up to $10,000 per disclosed gift) of the amount you indicate. The additional donation will be put to use Debbie.McCullough@ HeiferFoundation.org immediately to fight hunger and poverty today. “I want to study to be a teacher Find out more: It’s easy to make an impact that will be felt today — HeiferFoundation.org and teach boys and girls. and tomorrow! • Add Heifer to your will or estate plans — contact us Then I’ll send the money home to find out how! “Heifer is our best connection • If you’ve already put Heifer in your will or estate to the rest of the world.” plans, let us know! and tell my mom, ‘Take this and -legacy donor Bette Clark • Activate the matching gift by providing us with share it between you and Dad.’” information about your legacy plans.

– 10-year-old Khardiata Alassane Ba Name Heifer in your will to ensure your impact long into the future. And if you act today, 10 percent will In Nakara, Senegal, harsh conditions and a lack of opportunities make it hard to turn dreams into realities. Things in the community are starting to change through a Heifer Senegal project. A be matched and immediately start fighting hunger solar-powered well means convenient access to clean water, and Khardiata’s family is earning more and poverty! HeiferFoundation.org income through the chickens and sheep they were given. Soon Khardiata will be able to attend school so that, down the road, she can both become a professional and support her family. HEIFER | 1 WORLD AVENUE | LITTLE ROCK, AR 72202 | 888.422.1161 | [email protected] | HEIFERFOUNDATION.ORG

48 | SUMMER 2019

HI Foundation Legacy Ad.indd 1 4/1/19 2:11 PM

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 48 4/8/19 9:19 AM With one action: Fight hunger and poverty today, and help end it tomorrow. PARTICIPATE IN HEIFER’S 2020 LEGACY CHALLENGE!

There has never been a better time to include Heifer Contact Debbie McCullough, in your will or estate plans. When you set up a legacy Vice president of planned giving gift today, a generous donor will match 10 percent 888-422-1161, ext. 4922 (up to $10,000 per disclosed gift) of the amount you indicate. The additional donation will be put to use Debbie.McCullough@ HeiferFoundation.org immediately to fight hunger and poverty today. Find out more: It’s easy to make an impact that will be felt today — HeiferFoundation.org and tomorrow! • Add Heifer to your will or estate plans — contact us to find out how! “Heifer is our best connection • If you’ve already put Heifer in your will or estate to the rest of the world.” plans, let us know! -legacy donor Bette Clark • Activate the matching gift by providing us with information about your legacy plans.

Name Heifer in your will to ensure your impact long into the future. And if you act today, 10 percent will be matched and immediately start fighting hunger

and poverty! HeiferFoundation.org

HEIFER FOUNDATION | 1 WORLD AVENUE | LITTLE ROCK, AR 72202 | 888.422.1161 | [email protected] | HEIFERFOUNDATION.ORG

HI Foundation Legacy Ad.indd 1 4/1/19 2:11 PM

19-WA-CD24 2019 Summer WA.indb 49 4/8/19 9:19 AM 1 World Avenue U.S. Postage Little Rock, AR 72202/USA PAID Heifer International

Please scan here to donate livestock to a struggling family.

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER 69.RPWASU2019 Why do so many Friends flock to Heifer?

Because so many good deeds happen!

Monthly gifts from Friends of Heifer mean regular servings of

nutritious milk, an abundance of quality food,

safer stoves to cook with, steady income for medicine

and health care, the chance to stay in school,

and a bunch of families transformed.

More than 30,000 Friends of Heifer make monthly gifts to strengthen our work to uplift families. Their “multiplier” eect dramatically increases Heifer’s reach and impact — helping children get more milk and nutrition, and parents earn a reliable income that supports health care, education and progress. So many good deeds from one monthly gift — that’s what Friends are for! Become one today.

See form enclosed between pages 24-25, call us at 888.5HUNGER or visit www.heifer.org/monthly

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