Heifer Mozambique:
Confirmation Of The Mission At Hand
It was an opportunity to travel outside of the country for the first time, and, more importantly, experience first hand the life-changing work of an organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty.
Pat Brower, human resources manager for Heifer Foundation, traveled to the east African nation of Mozambique in October of 2008 for a study tour through the projects of Heifer International, an organization with a mission of ending hunger and poverty through education and livestock. “It reinforced how I feel about Heifer, how I feel about the Foundation, and what we are doing,” she said. “Seeing it first hand I can tell people: I’ve seen it, I know it’s working and I know it’s right.”
One of the most exciting and surprising aspects of the trip, Pat said, was the variety and diversity of the projects that they visited during the two-week journey. “We got a real overview of the Heifer projects and the model, what it takes to get one started, and how long and drawn out it can be,” she said.
Pat said there was considerable poverty in the cities, but once they traveled into the countryside the poverty became even more prevalent. However, the first project they visited, which was one of the very first projects in Mozambique, demonstrated what Heifer’s mission could mean to the lives of a group that worked hard for a few years in the project programs. “All the people in that village had matching polo shirts and women had matching kampulanas,” she said, which was very different from the dress of the projects that followed.
“One man talked about how he had two kids in the university and had been able to put a tin roof on his house. Another man had a bicycle and was very proud of owning a bicycle. A widow woman told us that because of her goats she was able to provide for her children and they were all doing well.”
After witnessing that success, Pat then saw some of the challenges faced by the newer projects, which contrasted sharply with the more established projects that had developed a better life for all the families involved. “There was some frustration that things weren’t happening so quickly,” she said. “An HIV/AIDS project first planted closer to the village, but it was farther away from the river so irrigation was difficult. Most of the crop failed and what they did grow, they sold. They didn’t get the idea that they should be eating the food they had grown to build up their bodies so they wouldn’t get so sick.”
“So then the second time they planted, a fellow in the community who had land close to the river said they could use his land. He taught them how to irrigate it. So this second time everything flourished and they started eating the vegetables.” Heifer had to teach them how the different phases of the projects would bring about better nutrition and health for the families involved, she said.
One of the highlights for Pat was witnessing a “Passing on the Gift” ceremony where five families received three goats each from other families that had already experienced the life-changing gift of livestock. Pat said one of the things that impressed her most was how one group had drawn pictures of the 12 Heifer Cornerstones showing how their project related to each of the Cornerstones. “The people who drew them explained what their picture was, which Cornerstone it was, and how it related,” she said. “They take it seriously. It’s not just something that they talk about. It’s how they build their project and understand what the Cornerstones are, probably even more so than we do.”
Everyone on the trip was treated like honored guests, greeted at each stop with singing and clapping, she said. “They would lead us to their central shelter area where there would be welcome speeches and they would want to know about us. They were just real outgoing and friendly. One of the poorest groups gave us gifts as we were leaving, a big bunch of bananas, sugar cane, two live chickens and a big basket of beans. You want to say, ‘oh no, it’s okay, you should keep it’ but you can’t. We rode back in the truck with two live chickens under our seats because you don’t want to insult them.”
What amazed Pat the most was how joyous the people were even though they sacrificed their time, their energy, and their produce to show her and her fellow travelers what their projects were all about. “If you don’t have very much and what little you do is keeping your family alive, for you to give part of that to total strangers you will never see again is very, very generous,” she said.
Since returning Pat has had friends, relatives and acquaintances frequently ask her what it was like, to which she would reply: “Do you have an hour?” “I wouldn’t change the experience for anything,” she said. “I don’t know how to say what it was. It was amazing. It was awesome. It was a chance of a lifetime.”
