Heifer Update 12-7
The “GPS” Program got off to a terrific start on December 1. Day 1 of the program a Goat was donated. When we think of goats, the first thing that comes to mind is milk. Milk and the milk products are critical elements in starting a family toward ending their life in hunger and poverty. Goats typically have 2 or 3 kids a year, so starting a herd can happen relatively fast. Goats also produce nutritious meat for families diets. Then there is the wool. So, goats provide many avenues of income for families around the world.
Then comes the exciting part of Heifer’s Program. The first female offspring is passed on to a relative, friend, or neighbor. This then happens an average of 9 times. So you see what our donation of December 1 will do. Our #1 Goat can eventually allow nine families to eat 3 meals a day, send their children to school, upgrade their home, have extra money to buy clothes, etc. And on and on it goes. What a blessing the #1 Goat and its donor has been. Join us, lets do this again and again.
Thank you from the LUMM
Heifer Update 12-14
Two more goats joined our donations last week, so today I want to share a story of the difference goats can make in the lives of the poor and hungry.
In Zambia, 13 year old Emmy Nswana and her cousin, Prudence are being raised by their great-grandmother, Audry Mwaba. She is a small scale farmer and has always struggled to provide the basics. She tried raising chickens, but disease took most of them. Then Heifer gave her 4 female and 1 male goat. Quickly the five turned into thirteen and everyone is eating well. In fact, Emmy was being held back in school, primarily due to hunger, but she shot to the top of her class when she started getting a few square meals a day.
Mwaba now raises her own vegetables and is using the money from vegetable and goat products to replace her thatched roof with iron sheets, purchase of school uniforms, food and other household goods. She also buys Irish potatoes so Emmy can make chips.
Prudence adds “I am very grateful for the goats, they have allowed me to go to school and I am able to eat nice food like chicken and rice because of the goats.”“I like making people happy,” Mwaba says, “This world is full of sorrow, so it’s good to make people happy.”
Heifer Update 12-21
Merry Christmas! Wouldn’t she be just the perfect gift for a family living in hunger and poverty? Her gift to them would be milk, wool, fertilizer and more. She might arrive at a family in Nepal, where Madankumar and Basmati reside. Their fight with hunger and poverty started easing when Heifer started them with 2 goats and 2 hens. Their goat herd now numbers 25 and the chicken flock numbers 50.
But it was not always so, Madankumar was forced to leave school and marry in his tenth year of school. Basmati says “I am illiterate, my parents never educated their daughters. Today, goats are their primary source of income. “What Heifer does is inspire people,” Madankumar said. “It increases their confidence. It makes them realize that even with a small investment, they can make a difference.”
Wishing you all a most blessed Christmas and a better New Year!
Heifer Update 12-28
Happy New Year!!! The focus this month in our GPS Program has been the goat. Through the first four weeks you have donated 4 goats. Our first thought of goats is their milk production. True, one goat can produce up to 4 quarts of of milk a day for 250 days in a year, or about 250 gallons or one ton of milk per year.
Recently thought, they have found a new use for the goat. Make them fire-fighters. From California to Australia goats are being used to effectively remove the kindling that facilitates the spread of fire. Goats and wildfires feed on the same thing – dry grassy brush. And they are good at reaching steep, rocky areas where fire-fighting equipment can’t go. And they are much quieter landscapers as well. That being said, however, we will still use our goats as life-givers. Their milk, meat, wool, hides and fertilizer will help poor small farmers combat the effects of hunger and poverty. Providing them with nutritious food, money to educate their children, grow more and better gardens and improve their living conditions.
The month of January the GPS Program will promote the pig as another life-changing gift.
