Heifer partners with community groups and works with them to create development plans. The members of the community groups receive training in animal well-being, agroecology, water quality, gender equity, and community development. This training enables Heifer’s project participants to care for their livestock and grow crops sustainably, further helping the community members to lift themselves out of poverty. Recipients agree to share one or more of their animals’ offspring with others in need, as well as sharing the training they have received. Heifer calls this “passing on the gift,” thus multiplying the benefits and impact of the original gift.
Heifer’s Education Resources
Through education programs, Heifer facilitates personal and community transformation by increasing knowledge, skills and awareness of the diverse factors contributing to global hunger and poverty. In addition to increased awareness, Heifer also provides a solution to educators who desire to offer real ways for students to get involved and make a difference.
Heifer’s Read to Feed (www.readtofeed.org) is a reading incentive service-learning program that offers global education opportunities and will foster in children a love for reading, a passion to help others and a way to help create a better world. Students seek sponsors for each book (or page, or chapter) they read. Then they read as much as they can during the time period set by their teacher. At the end of the program, each class pools their funds to send gifts of livestock and training to families and communities around the world and in the US. Teachers can create a customized online giving webpage for their class, download standards-based lesson plans for grades PreK-8 and access videos and other learning resources at www.readtofeed.org
For students in 6th grade and above, Heifer’s Global Education to Improve Tomorrow (GET IT!) program, teaches students about their roles as consumers and the effects their choices have in the global marketplace, while emphasizing reading comprehension, audience-based writing, high-level thinking and research strategies. The units feature the international trade of flowers, coffee and bananas, which are common products that people in the United States buy from Latin America. The lesson plans go hand in hand with Chores for Change, a service-learning program that teaches students about hunger and what they can do to make a difference in their own communities, as well as around the world. Chores for Change is a program that teaches students of any age about community service, the world and how to make a difference.
Heifer’s online games and activities can keep students engaged and excited as the learn, take action and raise funds. Teachers can find them at www.heifer.org/getinvolved/games-and-activities
For educators looking for a truly unforgettable, meaningful experience, Heifer’s field trip programs present an unequalled opportunity to become immersed in the subject of hunger and poverty.
These transformative programs are a must for anyone looking to take action to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth. Not mere lectures, these experiences provoke living change in ourselves, our children, our students and our communities.
For more information about the locations of Heifer’s Learning Centers and the programming available at each site visit: www.heifer.org/getinvolved/readtofeed/contact.php
Other Learning Resources
Educators can keep up with Heifer’s latest community development work through World Ark Magazine (www.heifer.org/media/world-ark). The magazine includes Heifer success stories as well as articles by experts in the fields of sustainable agriculture, gender equity, community development and more.
Daily updates are available via the Heifer Blog (www.heiferblog.org) on Heifer’s work and other topics like sustainability, agriculture, gender equity and other issues related to hunger and poverty. Social media users can find Heifer on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Pinterest.
