PASSING on the gift at Tabak, Kalinga
By MYRNA RODRIGUEZ CO
“GIVE NOT a cup (of milk) but a cow” is Heifer International’s version
of “Teach a man how to fish to feed him for life”.”
The organization’s vision of fighting world hunger took seed out of one
man’s frustration at not having enough milk to feed the hungry refugees around
him.
The visionary was American farmer Dan West who in the 40s served as
relief worker in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
Back in the US, West founded Heifers for Relief which grew to become
Heifer International aiming to provide sustainable livelihood to the
poorest-of-the-poor communities worldwide.
HI’s basic poverty-fighting program is simple: Poor families are given
livestock and training on livestock raising.
When the cow, pig or goat
breeds, a female offspring is passed on to another family. The act of receiving
and giving forward continues.
The whole community then takes a step—with that one initial
animal—towards sustainable growth.
Heifer Philippines
Heifer International came to the Philippines in 1954. The first stock
of cattle and goats was shipped from the US and dispersed to selected
beneficiaries with the help of the first program partners, the Young Men’s
Christian Association (YMCA) and Philippine Rural Life Center (PRLC).
In 50 years, the program has covered 17 provinces.
Kalinga, Mt. Province and Western Isabela in the north. Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del
Norte and Surigao del Sur in Mindanao. Northern Samar, Western Samar, Leyte,
Southern Leyte, Bohol and Negros Oriental in the Visayas. Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay and
Sorsogon in Luzon.
Working with 60 NGO-partners, the organization has assisted 25,000
families.
HIP program director Hercules Paradiang describes how the program
begins in a community.
Working with NGOs
“We work with NGOs which are already well-known in the community and
connect with barangay and municipal
officials to validate that the community is truly poor but nonetheless have
resources for livestock-raising. We also
review the local government’s thrust.”
An ocular inspection follows, then a meeting with the members of the
community.
A project proposal is then developed by the partner-NGO in consultation
with the regional staff of Heifer and the community members.
PASSING on the gift at Sta Josefa,
Agusan del Sur
Once the proposal is approved, the NGO identifies and organizes
partner-households.
An intensive training follows.
“It’s not just training on how to raise livestock,” Paradiang
emphasizes. “We inculcate values to
change the poverty mindset - self-reliance, accountability, commitment, savings,
family values, sharing.”
While training is going on, the beneficiaries get ready for the
livelihood activity. They prepare pasture areas, plant forage, build animal
houses.
Passing it on
All these culminate in the “passing-on-the-gift” ceremony, where each
partner-family finally receives an animal or another agricultural input.
It can be a cow, carabao, horse, goat, pigs, chickens. Or crop
seedlings, tilapia fingerlings. It
depends on the identified need.
Each recipient commits to pass forward what he receives in exactly the
same measure—the same female of the specie, of the same age, size and weight.
Ensuring sustainability
That its work has spanned five decades here says volumes about the
program’s sustainability.
Paradiang explains how they do it:
“We have limited resources. We
stay in one community for three years and move on. We can do that because we have given members
‘seed stock’ and growing capability—plus the mindset to stick to it.”
Training is continuing. Members
are updated on better livestock-management and environment-friendly
practices. Community facilitators
strengthen the self-help groups.
Values education never stops.
Farmers embark on a continuing journey of confidence-building,
self-development and self-reliance.
HIP’S Hercules Paradiang (left) and
Lyndell Tagle flank photo of HI Founder Dan West.
They also learn proper nutrition, environmental protection,
disaster-mitigation, and risk-reduction.
“The self-help nature of the groups helps ensure sustainability.
Members attend regular meetings which reinforce their sense of accountability
for themselves and their community,” Senior Field Manager Lyndell Tagle says.
“Capital build-up is important to make the self-help groups truly
autonomous.
There are communities which
in five years increased their assets hundredfold.”
Moving up to entrepreneurship
Some members have parlayed their livelihood projects into diversified
farms; others prospered enough to want to process the produce; others plan to
engage in agricultural services like feed-milling.
Recently, the Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation
(Serdef) conducted a business-planning workshop for HIP program staff so that
they may in turn mentor these potential entrepreneurs to plan their business.
This is Heifer Philippines’ way of helping growth-oriented
farmer-partners raise their livelihood activities to the next level:
entrepreneurship of the more formal and innovative kind. -- Inquirer
(For more stories on entrepreneurship, visit the Serdef website at
www.serdef.org. For more on Heifer
Philippines, visit www.heiferphils.org.)
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