Heifer International: Ending Hunger and Caring for the Earth

Yesterday at a Bat Mitzvah the 13-year-old Bat Mitzvah girl announced that she was donating a heifer to a village in Africa to help fight poverty. And she said she was doing this through Heifer International.

I had previously heard a Bar Mitzvah boy announce that he was giving a goat to an African village through Heifer International (www.heifer.org), and I've written about this boy's Bar Mitzvah in an earlier post here. But today I wanted to share more information about this amazing organization:

Part of the extensive programs this organization runs is something called "Passing on the Gift." Here's one such story from the organization's website:

In Rwanda, Christine Makahumure showed the true meaning of passing on the gift.

In 1994 genocidal war that raked Rwanda destroyed everything Christine had. She saw her son and husband shot to death when they were caught in a crossfire. When the fighting ended, Christine was barely able to feed her daughter and parents.

But then she received a Heifer cow. The milk supplemented the family’s meager diet, and she was able to buy a small home with income from selling milk.

Christine gave her first calf to a neighbor – but she didn’t stop there. She provided money so her neighbors could build and apply for their own Heifer cow. And she adopted four war orphans and became a living example of passing on the gift.

Read more about the extraordinary activities of Heifer International.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at Mrs. Lieutenant and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.