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Tanzania Cow: Photo courtesy Heifer International / Jake Lyell

I’ve always loved Heifer International, since ages ago when I got a brochure with Susan Sarandon talking about how easy it is to buy a farm animal, or even a super-affordable share in a farm animal, and donate it to people in poverty regions around the world. I loved how tangible the concept was of purchasing a goat (or share of a water buffalo, or flock of chicks, or hive of bees, or cow, or…) for a family in South America (or Africa or Europe or North America or Asia…) who would then have milk for themselves to alleviate hunger, as well as have enough to sell at market to better their lives. I loved even more the concept that the first-born from that goat would then be passed on to another family in the community, and I was hooked. Donations in the name of a loved one to Heifer became my holiday gift of choice.

So here’s the part I didn’t know, as the organization has grown mightily over the years. Heifer has study tours to project sites in amazing places in the world. We can travel with the organization crew and guides to Bolivia and Uganda and Cambodia and Kosovo and many other destinations where hard, life-changing work is going on every day. From their own description about the tours: All of Heifer’s Study Tours let participants observe Heifer’s model of sustainable development in action. While projects vary widely, visitors might see a bio-gas unit generating power from manure in China, meet the alpacas that help farmers subsist in the fragile high altitudes of Ecuador or see families harvest honey from their bee colonies in Poland. Some tours focus on specific issues like gender equity, agroecology, HIV/AIDS, animal well-being, microenterprise and education.

All Heifer Study Tours take you beyond your ideas about poverty and show you what the human spirit is capable of overcoming. When you meet the communities helped by Heifer, you will be touched by their stories, motivated by their achievements and inspired to overcome the challenges in your own life and community.

What a terrific chance to dip into the stream of changing the world, and come home changed, and ready to take on even more.