What do you think about gifts from Heifer International?

[prolesunited]

Have you ever given one? Received one? What was the reaction?

Any ideas on making it more meaningful for a family with two school-age kids?

[WindRavenX]

1. great organization

I've had some donated in my name, and I've bought some chicks two years ago (I'm only a college student so I can't afford the donations for goats and ox and the the like). It's a great organization.

[bertha katzenengel]

2. How strange.

I just ripped one of their fliers out of the Utne Reader at my doc's office tonight. I am going to send them $$ every year. Looks great.

For the kids . . . maybe show them the part of the world your donation is going to help. Maybe go to Wikipedia with them and look up the country, the animals, and the basic lifestyle. Maybe talk to them about poverty, and that what you're doing is to try to help alleviate some of it.

:hi:

[Suich]

3. How bizarre!

I was just this minute reading an email I got from them!

Are the family with 2 kids the givers or receivers?

[prolesunited]

5. They would be the receivers

It's my BIL's family. I would leave any of the educational info to their mom, maybe just include printouts, because she thrives on that and I wouldn't want to step on her toes.

[Suich]

8. I think it's a great idea.

The kids would learn about other cultures, the joy of giving, and that something as simple as a flock of ducks can have such an impact.

Oprah had a teenage girl on (last year, I think.) who had been given goats. She talked about how they were able to sell the milk, the hair and the kids, and how that enabled her family to survive. It's a great learning tool, I think.

Good luck!

:hi:

[crim son]

4. My family has donated to the Heifer program in the past.

Didn't Clinton endorse it? Anyhow, I spoke with my children and explained how the gift of animals/livestock has an effect that lasts and grows. We talked about the various levels of giving, and how, say, the chicks might be a better or worse gift than the rabbits. I've also done it where each child has a certain amount to give and they can either separately choose something to give, or agree to put their funds together to get something more expensive. It is a great way to get the children to think about those who truly go without at this time of year, and all year around.

[Redstone]

6. They're a good outfit.

Redstone

[CC]

7. We donate to them every year

instead of giving the adults gifts. We also do a local charity instead of gifts. Maybe do something with them and something local that you can get the kids to help with.

This year the local is Oxford Ferret Rescue. They have 94 ferrets right now and quite a few un-adoptable sick ones. Three states SPCAs bring them any ferrets they get and the poor woman that runs it is a vet tech so I know she doesn't make muck money. She also has some dogs, cats and farm animals that needed homes she took in.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

9. I'd be PISSED if anyone donated to them in MY name.

There are FAR better organizations than Heifer International.

I'm blatantly stealing this post from LeftyMom, because I don't feel like typing it all up myself...

"I have some anti-Heifer talking points here- if anybody wants to steal 'em feel free.

linkie: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftyMom/65

text:

First of all, there's already more than enough food out there to feed the world, so hunger charities that don't address underlying issues of dysfunction in distribution are band-aids on cancer.

Second, excluding the few areas (which outside of the industrial world tend to be sparsely populated) where a plant-based diet can't be supported by the local environment, encouraging further animal agriculture is not a responsible thing to do. Both human health and the health of the planet are negatively impacted by flesh-consuming diets. While Heifer does offer some seed and other more sustainable solutions, as their name suggests the focus is on animal agriculture, which is neither healthy nor sustainable.

Third, there is a certain racist and culturally imperialist element to this. First, in the selection of animals for food. One of Heifers gifts, as their name suggests, is that of a dairy cow. Now most of the world's people can not digest cow's milk- no surprise, no other animal consumes the milk of another so this behavior is an evolutionary oddity- and the ability to do so well is almost exclusively a mutation confined to Northern Europeans. However the attitude in the US and other places largely descended from people with that mutation is that this is a essential food for health of women and children. Science tells us that this is not the case, that it is in fact a potent allergen, and that the concentrated animal protein changes blood chemistry and leeches calcium deposits from the bones. Second, Heifer is a religious charity. Religious charities operating in the developing world aim to proselytize the poorest and least resistant populations, often with the implied (or outright stated in some cases, such as that of Mother Theresa's operation in Calcutta) suggestion that conversion is a requirement for aid or a way to get more help. As such, I'm extremely wary of religiously-motivated charities except in cases where their track record of respect for their beneficiaries is clearly established, as with Habitat for Humanity. Giving people a little food in exchange for changing a part of their culture seems like a poor trade.

I'd keep my money and time with more forward thinking organizations that have a greater focus on environmental responsibility and addressing the inequities in food distribution that cause hunger. Food Not Bombs is a good option, in my opinion. Here's a link to some other organizations addressing hunger without animal exploitation: http://episcoveg.weblogger.com/2005/01/28 ?...

PS As an aside, Heifer International is also a partner in junk science. They sponsored, together with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, a study intended to compare the healthfulness of animal and plant based diets in children. Their animal consuming population was first world children. The veg population? Third world children subsisting on very small quantities of rice and beans from hunger relief organizations. Needless to say, when you compare well fed children with access to health care to half-starved kids with none, the first world kids win out. NCBA and it's membership used this deeply and intentionally flawed study to promote an animal-based diet as the only healthy answer to child nutrition while Heifer uses it to promote the need for animal products in third world children's diets, and thus the need to donate to Heifer. I'm certainly not about to donate to an organization that colludes with industry in the creation of mutually advantageous junk science.

PPS Better analysis of problems with Heifer (and a few more examples of a disrespect for truth on their part) here: http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/heif ... and here: http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/heif..."

[Blue-Jay]

10. "real" pissed or "fake' pissed?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

11. It'd get my Irish up for sure.

[hippywife]

12. Heifer International is a

great way to give to people in need who then share with others in need. It's a gift that keeps on giving.