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writer: liz Werner
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| With the “season of giving” in our midst, many of us are swept away in a whirlwind of holiday rituals and rhetoric. Around this time of year we plan for gatherings, prepare traditional meals and venture out on an enduring quest to find the perfect gift for friends and family members. This season serves as a time for reflection, a time for seeing the “big picture” and thinking about those in need. Read on for unique ways to combine your humanitarian and charitable intentions with your gift giving this season and year-round. |
In lieu of shopping until the cows come home, why not help bring a cow
to someone's home? For more than 60 years, Heifer International has been
providing livestock and agricultural training to communities throughout the
world who struggle for reliable sources of food and income. Through the
nonprofit's "Most Important Gift Catalog in the World" that can be found
online, individuals can gift a variety of items such as seedlings, honey bees,
cows, sheep, llamas, water buffalo, goats, flocks of geese, chicks and ducks.
Once received, an animal will provide milk, eggs, wool or fertilizer - all
of which can be sold to increase a household's income. A single cow can
produce up to four gallons of protein-rich milk every day. The milk provides
children with nourishment and families with an income through the sale of
its surplus. The fertilizer produced by the cow assists in the growth of crops.
A healthy cow can birth a calf every year, which means that the gift of one
cow could eventually help an entire community.
Heifer offers the option to gift a whole or a share of livestock and
agricultural items with themes well-suited for various giving occasions.
Whether you are looking to spend $10 USD or $10,000 USD, this is a
unique way to give a gift that will help families who struggle with hunger
and poverty throughout the world. |
In countries like Romania, Heifer cows
are providing hope for the future in
impoverished communities.
Photo | Courtesy of Heifer International
"I am grateful to Heifer and to God for
this project," says Pedro Lopez. "We are
building a better future for our children
and grandchildren."
Photo | Courtesy of Heifer International |
Heifer International
1 World Avenue
Little Rock, AR 72202
USA
800.422.0474
www.heifer.org |
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Peaceful slumber is something we all need. Night is a time to close our eyes,
relax and drift slowly into the unconscious. However, in regions where malaria
runs rampant, night proves to be an unsettling and dangerous time. Most
mosquitoes carrying this potentially deadly infection bite humans between the
hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., leaving those asleep unknowingly vulnerable. Yet
a simple and effective preventative measure can be taken to stop the spread of
malaria: an insecticide-treated net that covers the beds of sleeping individuals.
Nothing But Nets is a campaign to save lives by delivering insecticide-treated
bed nets to Africa to prevent the transmission of malaria. The campaign
was inspired by Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly and created by the
United Nations Foundation in May 2006. Other campaign partners include
the National Basketball Association's NBA Cares, Sports Illustrated and
the Women's National Basketball Association. The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation also matches individual donations dollar for dollar.
To date, the campaign has distributed more than 400,000 nets to families
in Africa. A |
Rick Reilly meets with a Nigerian family
to talk about the effects of malaria.
Photo | Courtesy of Mike Dubose,
UMC-Nothing But Nets
A Nigerian mother and her children sit
next to the insecticide-treated net that
protects them while they sleep.
Photo | Courtesy of Mike Dubose,
UMC-Nothing But Nets |
| donation of $10 USD to Nothing But Nets covers the cost of purchasing and distributing a net, as well as educating communities in its use. Coated with insecticide, the nets repel and kill mosquitoes that attempt to enter where families sleep, in turn guarding them against malaria infections. Who knows, you may even sleep a bit easier knowing that someone else will too. |
United Nations Foundation
Nothing but Nets
PO box 96539
Washington, DC 20090
USA
info@nothingbutnets.net
www.nothingbutnets.net |
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Move over Mighty Mouse, there is a new heroic rodent in town - the rat. There are
more landmines in Africa than in any other continent and their threat is very real.
Every day people are maimed or killed by landmines. Through a program aptly titled
HeroRAT, the African giant pouched rat is trained to exercise its powerful sense of
smell to detect landmines and other dangerous explosives. If this scenario seems farfetched,
consider this, in Mozambique de-mining rats have cleared more than 400.000
square meters (4,306 square feet) of land. Moreover, communities of Tanzania,
Burundi and Angola have welcomed this landmine detection program. HeroRAT has
also been endorsed by the 11 Great Lakes Region countries of Africa to de-mine their
common borders.
The HeroRAT program was created by the nonprofit Apopo and its team of Belgian
researchers in 1997. The organization's founder, Bart Weetjens, has always had a
strong interest in rodents. When his project was in its initial stage, many people he
approached for funding doubted the rats' potential. However, once examined, the
trained rats' abilities proved how well-suited they are for de-mining.
Using its sense of smell, a HeroRAT discovers an explosive device. Photo | Courtesy of HeroRAT
Why rats? For one, rats have an incredible sense of smell - about one million times
better than a human's. The rats' training builds on this ability by teaching them to
identify the smell of chemical vapors present in explosives. While metal detectors
pick up activity from any metal (including nails, cans and other non-explosives),
rats distinguish between explosive metals and non-explosive metals. They can also
detect explosives encased in plastic. Unlike dogs and humans, rats are too light to
accidentally set off a mine. This breed of rats has the advantage over dogs in Africa
because it is native to the area; therefore, less susceptible to tropical diseases. Rats
are relatively inexpensive to feed, breed and transport. They have an affinity for
performing repetitive tasks and a life span of almost eight years in captivity.
Training rats to de-mine is a process using Pavlovian techniques that starts shortly
after birth. Working through a series of exercises with human trainers, the rats become
tame and social. Before they are allowed to perform in the field, the rats must pass
a training test in which they identify each explosive item in the testing area without
any mistakes. For fundraising purposes, HeroRAT has an adoption program where
individuals can adopt a rat for roughly $7 USD per month. Donors receive an officialadoption certificate, pictures of the rat "in action," email
correspondence with the rat, regular updates from trainers on
its individual progress and updates from Tanzania about the
project. According to Weetjens, the organization is preparing
rats for new tasks that include identifying tuberculosis cases
and entering rubble at disaster sites to seek out victims.
It looks as though there is much more in store for these
courageous creatures. |
HeroRAT
Sokoine University of Agriculture
PO box 3078
Morogoro
Tanzania
+255 23 2600 635
supporterservice@herorat.org
www.herorat.org |
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