Both in the spring of 2003 and 2004, I had the opportunity to travel to Nicaragua with Heifer Project International (H.P.I.)and be apart of a hand's on project. What you need to know right off the bat is that H.P.I. rarely involved in actual "hands on" mission style trips and typically only sends volunteers overseas for what they call study or observation. I was fortunate enough to be involved in one of the very few actual hands-on trips H.P.I. ever did the first year i went to Nicaragua. By hands on I mean we were immersed in a single community and worked directly with this community to complete specific projects. The second year we traveled around to 4 or 5 project sites that were in different stages of the H.P.I. process and learned first hand how the program works and sustains itself.

Heifer Project International is an organization that focuses very strongly on not only assisting entire communities in third world countries, but also the sustainability of there projects. Most missions and organizations will enter a community and donate money and or time, H.P.I. founders noticed that in most situations these short term fixes leave communities worse off in the long run. These donations and other forms of assistance helped to make daily life better for a while but did not give individuals within the community the tools they needed to survive and prosper.

The basis of each H.P.I. project consist of 3 steps.

One - Evaluation and planning,

This is when project officials meet within a community and decide what type of livestock would best suit the environment, train community members on the raising and upkeep of such livestock, and sometimes even help with work projects to make the land more sustainable (Ex. planting tree's, erosion control). Due to H.P.I.'s strong stance on sexual equality, prominent females are typically the ones chosen for livestock training.

Two – Arrival of live stock -

When the first of the livestock starts to arrive, H.P.I. will monitor the community for the first season and assist with any issues that they may have associated with upkeep,

Three – Passing on the gift.

This step is what makes H.P.I. the success it is today.

“Every family and community that receives assistance promises to repay their “living loan” by donating one or more of their animal’s offspring to another family in need(this may be a family with-in their own community, or a surrounding community that is just beginning a project). This practice of “Passing on the Gift” ensures project sustainability, develops community, and enhances self-esteem by allowing project partners to become donors. Thus changing the long term outlook of communities around the world”

Reference: http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.201547/?msource=google

Now that I've quoted the website to you 3-4 times I'll tell you about my personal experience.

The first year we went, I was sick as a dog by the time we got to Managua, the capitol of Nicaragua. Believe it or not out of my two trips to Latin America, the food in the Huston airport upset my stomach more that anything else. Odd as it sounds the first thing I noticed about this new country was the smell. As soon as I stepped off the airplane I could smell smoke, and hear roosters. The majority of the houses in Managua still use wood burning stoves yet do have running water and electricity, and as of 2008 Managua was declared free of illiteracy. However surrounding villages and citys as far a 30 min away are often completely cut off from this advanced urban style society.

The Village of Colama, is where we spent most of our time on both trips. Colama by land is about the distance from here, to Valley Station, Yet the typical trip from where we were staying to the village took 2 - 2 1/2 hours, mainly due to the condition of the washed out roads. The closest contact villagers at Colama had to another community was a 9 mile walk down a dusty rut filled dirt road. Colama is a hilltop home to about 60 families,with each typical family unit consisting of anywhere from 6-10 or 12 people. The whole community was approximately 450-500 people. Unfortunately the age demographics do not include anyone in there teens and 20's or 30's as these individuals all typically leave to come to the either the states or other latin american countries to earn income to send back to the families. This makes it very hard to do renewal projects with your target age group completely gone. Yet on both trips the physical work done typically had something to do with the safety and well being of the younger children. The first year, we helped the school children bag tree seedlings to plant in the schoolyard and an adjacent hillside. The children were told that they were the “Godparents” to these trees, since in latin american culture the role of the Godparents is to assist with protection and growth. Upon returning the next year, we found out that the children had not only stuck with their individual trees, but had named them and had returned EVERYDAY to their particular trees to water them. In one year, the trees that we had planted from seed, were over 10-15 feet tall. I'll allow you make your own biblical connection here. Another important project within the village of Colama was the need for clean running water. The pigs and goats (which were not Heifer livestock but food sources) within the village were allowed to intermingle with the community residentes and shared the same water supply. Therefore the animal excrement was contaminating not only the water, but also every tiny scrape and cut received by the the children as they played. The water and contamination issues were not typical Heifer project's, but our group did a lot of education within the community regarding antibiotics, sanitary cooking and cleaning, hand washing, and the need for containment of the livestock away from the areas where children were playing. We helped build a stone pig pen, and spend a lot of time in the villages newly built 3 room medical facility applying antibiotic to the children's sometimes 2 and 3 inch deep infections, and teaching the parents important preventative care.

I went to Nicaragua with the mindset that I might be able to physically help...to help build,...to be an extra set of hands...use my muscle. I was surprised by how many things I was able to give these people thru simple conversation, even though we didn't speek the same language!!! Colama villagers were very smart but I was so excited by how much more I was able to give to them than I originally thought. Thru visual examples and simple hands on work, we were able to completely transformed the way the community viewed disease and infection control. We got them well on their way to running water, and Through the work of the local H.P.I. by our second trip the community had 54 head of cattle, and had passed on 13 of the offspring to other local projects.

And so...

“This is Heifer’s sustainable approach to ending hunger and poverty –

one family,

one animal at a time.

It’s not temporary relief.

It’s not a handout.

It’s about securing a future with multiple generations of people who have hope, health and dignity.”