Roughly half of the countries in which Heifer works in this part of the world are European Union members. Whiel EU membership has offerd these countiries many advantages, it has also introduced challenges. A significant challenge in CEE is the remarkable number of young people leaving rural areas to seek work in Western Europe.

Many of the projects in our CEE countries focus on the support of viable rural enterprises in agriculture and ecotourism.

Throughout Central and Eastern Europe, projects also assist disadvantaged groups, like war widows and internally displaced people.

Help support our projects in Central and Eastern Europe:

• Donate to Heifer’s Armenia Small Farmer Project.
• Donate to Heifer’s Poland Agriculture and Tourism Development Project.
• Support Heifer’s Romania Carpathian Project.
• Support Heifer’s Ukraine Carpathian Green Tourism Project.

Subscribe to our Central and Eastern Europe RSS feed.

Read more about our successes in Central and Eastern Europe below and on our Success Stories page.

The post Our Work in Central and Eastern Europe appeared first on Heifer Blog.

Teghenik, Armenia — Heifer beneficiary Tsovinar Davtyan prepares cheese, the sale of which supports her children and grandchildren. Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee

“Families hold societies together, and intergenerational relationships extend this legacy over time. This year’s International Day of Families is an occasion to celebrate connections among all members of the constellation that makes up a family. It is also an opportunity to reflect on how they are affected by social and economic trends – and what we can do to strengthen families in response.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for 2013

 

When Heifer International measures the impact of its projects and programs, it doesn’t just count individuals. Gender and Family Focus is one of Heifer’s Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development, and the family unit is central to our work. In fact, we count on strong family bonds and the cooperation that comes with them. Family members are invested in each others’ success, even when they know the fruits of that success won’t be reaped until they’re gone.

“I have seen whatever I would like to see in my life, I don’t need anything more for me. Everything is for my grandchildren,” explained Tsovinar Davtyan, 67, a grandmother of four in the Armenian village of Tekhenik. She cares for her family’s cows because she knows the benefits will last for generations.

May 15 is the United Nations International Day of Families, and this year’s focus is on fostering inter-generational solidarity. That’s a challenge for families in the Philippines, Bolivia and other places where job opportunities are few so young people set off to find opportunities elsewhere. This is where Heifer steps in, helping to build agricultural opportunities locally to keep families intact.

Click here to support a family in need through Heifer International.

The post Happy International Day of Families appeared first on Heifer Blog.

This weekly post shines a light on a handful of stories from Heifer.org’s “From the Field” section.

Rogelio “Rolly” Abes Jr., a 40-year-old Filipino farmer, was doubtful Heifer International would make a difference. But his perspective changed after joining a self-help group (SHG).

“The Cornerstones brought me to light,” he said. “I went home renewed and excited to start a new life on the right path.”

Rolly began caring for his community. His family taught others how to overcome hunger and poverty through Heifer’s Passing on the Gift® (POG) model. And he started a vermicomposting business – using earthworms to make compost.

He is committed to working with others. He dreams his SHG will become the Regional Center of Organic Producers. Rolly said Heifer returned their dignity so they could rise above poverty.

Rolly works with organic fertilizer on his farm. Photo by Leslie Pascua Jr., CORD Coordinator. Photo courtesy of Heifer Philippines

Farmers in Armenia also believe Heifer is making a difference. Haykush and her family maintain a small garden and sell hay. They dreamed of raising livestock… but were never able.

Now they own a cow and its calf. Haykush makes cheese, butter and sour cream from its milk – a great tasting benefit. The family is confident in their new future.

Armen Zakharyan is just starting his new beginning. His family lives in a remote mountain village with about 420 people. Many of these families work together in a farmers cooperation.

The co-op reduces farmer’s expenses and provides practical training. Armen said, “Cooperative members’ belief and devotion is the most important thing in this initiative.”

Take action. Inspire farmers.

The post From the Field: Optimistic Farmers appeared first on Heifer Blog.

This weekly post shines a light on a handful of stories from Heifer.org’s “From the Field” section.

The children of Heifer Vietnam project participants enjoyed a day of fun and learning on International Children’s Day. Youth under 15 years old received milk and cookies, notebooks and certificates of appreciation if they earned good academic records during the school year. The celebration helped inspire parents to continue working hard as they watched their kids laughing and singing together. Huyen Tran, 5, said her new notebook will help her study hard so she can make her parents happy and proud.

Children of Heifer Vietnam beneficiaries celebrated International Children’s Day with games, cookies and soccer. Photo courtesy of Heifer Vietnam staff.

Last year, 12-year-old Aramayis Avalyan began investing in a sheep farm with a YES! Youth Club grant from Heifer Armenia. His mom prepares cheese from the ewe’s (a mature female sheep) milk and sells it to generate income. Aramayis said he couldn’t describe how happy he was when his ewe gave birth to its first lamb. “Every morning when the sheep goes to the pasture I take the lamb to the nearest field to graze,” he said. ”I release it there and it starts to frolic with joy and play with me.” Aramayis has already Passed on the Gift® to another club member.

Over the last four years, Purdue University’s Department of Animal Sciences developed a week-long training in partnership with Heifer Romania. Students lived and worked with farm families as they performed daily duties like milking cows, collecting fodder and treating animals. Heifer Romania incorporated its work and asked the youth to develop an action plan to help farmers capitalize on dairy products. This relationship has also contributed to building and renovating animal housing and livestock welfare environments in Romania.

Invest in the youth of the world.

The post From the Field: Investing in Youth appeared first on Heifer Blog.

Farmers worked the field as we drove through rural Ukraine. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

As we drove across the Ukrainian countryside, I was struck by the sight of rural people farming along the roadsides. This was an image I had only ever seen in Africa, so it was startling to me to see men and women holding hoes and bent over their farms; change the color of their skin and we might as well be in any part of rural Africa. Though the heat of the sun may be more merciful here, and the ground less unyielding, their purpose was the same; to grow food for themselves and their families.

Smallholder farmers face enormous challenges growing the world’s food, and at Heifer International, understanding these challenges deeply is key to our work. We must help farmers make the shift from only feeding their own families to feeding a growing global population while cooling the Earth. In order to make this shift, smallholder farmers need to see farming as an enterprise.

Unfortunately, smallholder farmers don’t often think of themselves as entrepreneurs. Yet every day they make decisions no less important and consequential than the ones being made at the world’s most sophisticated stock exchanges; decisions about portfolio management (which crops to plant), risk (pests, weather), investments (land, labor, seeds, energy and other inputs) and returns, costs and benefits, market demand, profit and loss, credit, product diversification, revenue projections, all the while keeping a watchful eye on changing global climate patterns and the added uncertainty that brings. They may not know the business terms, but they understand the concepts just the same.

Antonia and her family. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

In Heifer’s Theory of Change, women are a critical lever for multiplying our impact. In Ukraine, this theory is evident. From my travels, I will remember women like Antonina Kurylenko. Through a project managed by Heifer, Antonina and her husband took a loan two years ago to convert a former Soviet-era collective farm into the family farm, which now houses their 10 cows. They started with five cows, and their investment has grown in a few years. Their profits have also grown, as they are now shareholders in a nearby dairy cooperative Heifer helped establish. Increased profits mean better lives for Antonina and her three children and two grandchildren. They have a couple more years to pay off their loan, but for them it has been a worthwhile investment. Antonina is a woman who seems to do everything emphatically and deliberately, from the way she flicks the pests off her cows to the choice of music she plays them in their barn. “It helps improve their production,” she insists.

Improving production and productivity on limited resources is key to how we are going to feed a projected global population of nine billion people in 2050. On 10 hectares of carefully selected land owned by a farmers co-op in western Ukraine, Heifer has partnered with Danone (the parent company of the U.S. dairy company known as Dannon) to help a group of farmers grow strawberries for the company’s yogurt products. On this small parcel of land, efficiency and productivity are very important. Farmers pay close attention to the quality of strawberries planted, when they are planted to avoid frost, how they are irrigated, when the farm is weeded and where the labor for this manual task is obtained and at what cost. There are dozens of details to be carefully attended to in order to ensure the strawberries are picked at just the right time, stored properly and sent off to the processor to be put into yogurt. Initially, the two-year-old project was supposed to grow enough strawberries to meet 60% of Danone’s demand, but the market has grown quickly, and farmer capacity is challenged to grow with it. Plans for expansion are underway, which means more work for farmers and also more profit. This partnership is a win/win for farmers who need to earn a good living and for a company that needs to source healthy, wholesome food for its demanding customers.

My trip to Ukraine was a master class in learning more about Heifer’s work and the challenges of development, especially for smallholder farmers the world over. We covered 7,000 miles in 10 flights in 6 days. It was physically grueling, but mentally rewarding. I feel grateful for the experience. I’ve returned to my office with renewed conviction that smallholder farmers will feed the world, and Heifer will play an important role. I’m excited to play my part.

The post Rural Ukraine Through the Eyes of a Cameroonian appeared first on Heifer Blog.

Photo by Dave Anderson, courtesy of Heifer International.

Many countries around the world are celebrating International Children’s Day today, June 1. While the United States doesn’t formally recognize today as a holiday, I’d like to commemorate it, because the world’s hungry children are why we do what we do here at Heifer International. Any day we can recognize the weight of that commitment is a good day.

Every five seconds today, a child somewhere will die from a hunger-related cause. That’s 16,000 in just one day. It will happen all over again tomorrow and the next day and the next. It’s tragic and mind-blowing and preventable.

What can you do to stop it? Give. By donating to Heifer International, you help turn statistics like these into healthy children with a future.

Not committed to helping yet? Watch this slideshow below to see just a few of the millions of children Heifer International has been able to help through donations from people like you. Families who receive livestock and training from Heifer are able to feed their children nutritious meals, send them to school and pay for their medical care when needed.

You can also help by sharing this post! Share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

The post Save Lives this International Children’s Day appeared first on Heifer Blog.

This weekly post shines a light on a handful of stories from Heifer.org’s “From the Field” section.

A team from Heifer Philippines visited successful dairy projects to ensure correct development and operation of its first dairy project, which aims to benefit 1,000 families. On their study visits, the group discussed animal stocks, dairy processing and production with farm owners. A participant said the new insights and firsthand experience will help shorten the learning curve and improve the new project’s design.

A batch of Nubian and Saanen dairy goats, which are about to be milked, head toward the milking parlor at the St. Elmo’s Goat and Dairy Farm in the Philippines. Photo by Jun Ayensa, Regional Program Manager, Heifer Southern Philippines

In South Africa, three donors recently had the chance to visit project participants to experience the positive change their generosity has made. Heifer staff took the donors on a two-day journey to four projects in the Limpopo Province. “Hearing and seeing firsthand always makes a difference,” Donor Archie Vermeulen said. “Clearly [Heifer's] positive intervention with the communities has made a huge impact.”

Edvard Hovhannisyan lives in the remote highland community of Harzhis village, Armenia. He has established his livelihood in the productivity of his cows and the Union of Pasture Users of Harzhis Consumers Cooperative, which is associated with the project Community Agricultural Resource Management and Competitiveness (CARMAC). The cooperative’s 84 families share equipment and pasture land in hopes that their joint efforts will increase income and promote community improvement.

Join the fight against hunger and poverty.

The post From the Field: Insights For Positive Change appeared first on Heifer Blog.

Irina with her sons, Arayik (left) and Vladimir, at their home in Spitak, Lori region, Armenia. Photo by Aram Petrosyan, Program Coordinator, Heifer Armenia

Irina’s neighbor told her about Heifer International’s work with Spitak Farmers Association and she made a request to become a recipient in the next Passing on the Gift® ceremony.

“I received two pigs from the project, [but] because my family lives in a temporary shelter, we have no barn,” Irina said.

The Heifer project, Agricultural Development Project in Spitak and Lernantsk Communities, helps farmers house their animals together and share the work and income generated from the joint farming.

“One of my pigs delivered eight piglets, and the other delivered nine,” Irina said. “I sold 10 piglets out of 17 and generated 180,000 Armenian drams (about $430). The money I saved from the sales of the piglets was directed to purchase feed for the animals. The rest, seven piglets, I kept to enlarge my farm.”

Through Heifer’s work, Irina found the support she needed and looks forward to future success.

This Mother’s Day you can support women worldwide with gift ideas from Heifer and give your mom something that truly makes a difference. Your gift can support impoverished mothers with training, livestock and clean water, which will help them rise out of poverty and become self-reliant.

This Mother’s Day. Gift Different. Give Heifer. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

You can help Heifer support mothers worldwide.

The post Support Women Worldwide on Mother’s Day appeared first on Heifer Blog.

Greta Grishanova, Director of Programs for Heifer’s Central and Eastern Europe area, shares Felicia’s story.

This Mother’s Day. Gift Different. Give Heifer. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

This Mother’s Day. Gift Different. Give Heifer.

The post Felicia: A Mother in Romania appeared first on Heifer Blog.

Gender and Family Focus is one of the key elements of Heifer International’s 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development. Communities worldwide are greatly impacted as families work together to achieve their goals. As men and women, sons and daughters, share responsibilities we are one step closer to eliminating hunger and poverty.

Norik with his calf. Photo by Knarine Ghazanchyan, Program Coordinator, Heifer Armenia

Norik Mkrtchyan, 14, lives with his parents and two brothers in Lukashin Village, Armenia. He helps take care of the family’s animals and works along side his father and brothers in their garden. Neighbors look to Norik’s father, Armen, for vegetable marketing advice, and his mother works preparing cheese. Norik received a cow from a Heifer-supported YES! Youth Club and plans to pass on its first calf to another club member.

Before joining a SHG in Cambodia, Loek Bunthoeun had to leave his wife and two children behind to work in Phnom Penh city. Most of his income had to sustain him as he migrated to the city for work. Now, Loek and his wife generate income with their family’s organic vegetable garden and are planning to expand their garden and begin raising pigs.

In Vietnam, Danh Hoang, 45, lives with his wife and four children. They are members of a self-help group (SHG) and plan to seize every opportunity to live a sustainable life. Danh’s two sons help their neighbors with the rice harvest while their mother weaves coconut leaves for roofing material. Danh received training through Heifer Vietnam and plans to pass on the gift to another family in need.

Learn how you can help bring families together.

The post From the Field: Heifer Brings Families Together appeared first on Heifer Blog.

To make lasting changes, Heifer International continues to base its mission, to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth, on the 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development and Passing on the Gift (POG). By emphasizing community involvement, sharing and caring, Heifer’s approach lays the foundation for sustainable sources of food and income worldwide.

Nepali women celebrate their success on International Women’s Day as they march through their villages. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

Holding signs that read, “Women are the key to community development,” Nepali women celebrated International Women’s Day by marching together through their villages. Through accountability and leadership development, numerous women have established a deep commitment to the Cornerstones. More than 20,000 original families have benefited from this dedication in just over one year.

Heifer Philippines held 12 Cornerstones Workshops in that country’s Caraga region preparing participants for involvement in the area’s first dairy project. The project will reach 400 original partner families and another 800 families through POG. After the workshops, participants agreed that the Cornerstones helped them realize the value of working together and how to nuture that gift. 

Hmayak Najaryan, 40, of Khachaghbyur, Armenia, was trying to support his wife and two sons on little more than $100 a month. In partnership with Ashtarak Kat CJSC, Heifer Armenia provided alfalfa seeds, a milk cooling tank and artificially inseminated the family’s cow. Now Hmayak’s sons, who want to become educated professionals, have a stronger foundation on which to grow and dream.

Learn how you can help provide families with a strong foundation.

The post From the Field: Building Strong Foundations appeared first on Heifer Blog.

Those who partner with Heifer International are crucial to its mission. Without the help of faith communities, corporations, partners, and countless volunteers, the vision would not reach its full potential. Heifer knows partnerships create the needed strength to make a tangible and lasting difference.  

In the Philippines, three development cooperatives conducted training for participants hit by Typhoon Bopha. The group learned about pig husbandry, dairy goats and feed mills. Participants said the workshop was fulfilling as they gained valuable lessons in a shorter period of time through hands-on learning. Trainings like these hope to engage communities and increase employment and income.

Women leaders from Ukraine take part in a study tour established through partnership with Women’s Information Consultative Center. Photo courtesy of Heifer Ukraine

Between October 2012 and February 2013, women leaders from all corners of Ukraine participated in study tours funded by Heifer Ukraine and the Women’s Information Consultative Center. The trainings aimed to solve problems such as high unemployment, domestic violence and lack of medical care. These practical and educational trainings encouraged participants to develop their own projects and receive mini-grants, which help boost self-confidence and active determination.

In partnership with Syngenta Foundation and UAP insurance, Heifer’s East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project participants received help to hedge their businesses against common risks. A newly introduced livestock insurance plan will help farmers to prevent disease and malnutrition and insure them against loss at a low monthly cost. The included care package also aims to reduce annual mortality rates. In addition, a call center is available to farmers, which will dispatch a veterinarian to confirm a cause of death so the cow can be replaced.

Insured dairy cows will protect EADD farmers against the risk of losing their livelihoods to common cattle diseases. Photo courtesy of Heifer East Africa

Learn how you can get involved and make a world of difference

The post From the Field: Partnerships Create New Opportunities appeared first on Heifer Blog.