I Heart Heifer

Heifer International is an excellent organization that helps families around the world begin sustaining agricultural businesses that can permanantly improve the recipient's quality of life. They enact the principle of Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he'll eat forever.

Not that the people Heifer Int. helps need to be taught how to fish -- I despise that notion that because someone is poor or wasn't born in Europe or North America they don't know how to farm, fish or irriagte, etc. What Heifer does provide is a gift that grows and provides. You can buy a family in Africa a flock of chicks which will grow to lay eggs which provides extra money to send the kids to school and protein-rich eggs for their growing brains and so on...

You can buy a llama for an Andean family which provides clothing and income for a family. (I love llamas!)

You can buy a hive of honeybees for a South American family which may become their entire livelihood and saves our gringo butts at the same time, because all of these disappearing bees can not be good for any of us.

You can help supply seeds in the Hudson Valley or gardens in Dallas, Texas. You can provide much needed livestock to farm families in the Mississippi Delta.

Actually, Heifer's entire gift catalog is very cool and you should check it out. You'll note that even if you can't afford to buy an entire item, you can donate towards an item -- so you can still help, even if you aren't water buffalo rich.

AND RIGHT NOW the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will match donations up to $42.8 million in Kenya and Rwanda. So if you think this sounds like a great cause, now would be the time to contribute -- more bang for your buck, etc.

Sorry for the commercial, but I think this is a worthwhile and well-established organization.