Heifer International Projects Worldwide including Sri Lanka:

Heifer Projects Worldwide

In FY2007, Heifer had 867 active projects in 53 countries/provinces and 28 U.S. states. Heifer projects around the world help families achieve self-reliance through the gift of livestock and training. Gifts are passed from recipient to recipient until entire communities are transformed.

Click the country/province name in the pop-up box to see project info:


Women in Livestock Development
http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.2699109/

Heifer International's goal is to end poverty. It's a simple goal but requires serious commitment. In our effort to do this we recognize that women make up 70% of the world's poor. Women produce 80% of developing world's food yet own less than 1% of the earth's land.
By focusing on women we also help struggling families and communities. Overlooked by government programs and often denied education, rural women face a cycle of poverty, hunger and despair. Without help, many toil endlessly yet watch, helpless, as death, too often steals their children.

But there is a way out. In a world where too many women feel powerless you have the power through a simple gift to help them to change their circumstances.
You can become a helpful participant by making a donation to help out the women who are looking for a way out not a hand-out. Through training from Heifer International, women overcome social and cultural barriers.

Heifer International

Heifer International is a nonprofit charitable organization based in Little Rock, Arkansas, dedicated to relieving global hunger and poverty. It provides gifts of livestock and plants, as well as education in sustainable agriculture, to financially-disadvantaged families around the world.
Contents
* 1 History
* 2 Heifer International today
* 3 Organization
* 4 Awards
* 5 Accountability standards
* 6 External links
* 7 References
History
American farmer Dan West, the founder of Heifer International, was serving as a Church of the Brethren relief worker in Spain during the Spanish Civil War when he became frustrated at being forced to decide how to allocate a very limited amount of food aid (see rationing, triage). Upon his return to the United States, he founded Heifers for Relief, an organization dedicated to providing permanent freedom from hunger by giving families livestock and training so that they "could be spared the indignity of depending on others to feed their children." The basic philosophy of Heifers for Relief was based on the proverb, "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; you have fed him for a lifetime." West also conceived the slogan "Give not a cup, but a cow."
The first group of seventeen heifers—young cows who have not given birth—was shipped from York, Pennsylvania, to Puerto Rico in 1944. Each heifer was meant to serve as a continual source of milk, offspring and fertilizer. To ensure that the gift animals would have a lasting benefit in the region, he asked each participating family to take education in animal husbandry, and to agree to donate any female offspring to another family. In this fashion, he imagined that a single gift would multiply far beyond the original investment.
Heifer International today
Today the organization is known as Heifer International and gives gifts of cattle, sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs, honeybees, pigs, llamas, water buffalo, camels, alpacas, yaks, horses, chicks, ducks, goats, geese, fish, other regionally appropriate livestock, as well as tree seedlings. As of 2006, these animals and plants have been distributed in more than 125 countries around the globe. Each gift perpetuates Heifer's interest in agroecology and sustainability.

Heifer International is mainly funded by alternative giving: Donors may purchase "shares" of a gift or pay for an entire animal. Heifer International's listed price includes the purchase price of the animal itself, as well as the cost of its veterinary care and transport to the village. The recipient family's training in animal husbandry, sustainable agriculture techniques and business practices are also rolled into the listed price.

Today, rather than shipping animals overseas, the organization purchases them in the country they are destined for. This puts money into the local economy, reduces transportation costs and promotes better health for the animals because they are already accustomed to the local climate, food and diseases.

Heifer International works to ensure that the gift of each animal will eventually help an entire community to become self-sustaining. Animals such as goats, water buffalo and camels are "seven M" animals: they provide meat, milk, muscle, manure, money, materials and motivation. Once its immediate needs have been met, a family is free to sell any excess at market. Heifer International provides a breeding animal along with the gift animal so that it can produce offspring. Participating families are required to "pass on the gift", that is: they must give at least one of the female offspring to a neighbor who has undergone Heifer's training. In time, that neighbor will pass along one of the offspring of its animal, and so on.
Heifer International is involved in several other progressive global initiatives which provide people with clean water, access to education and emergency housing.

Traditionally Heifer raises funds from chapters organized around schools, colleges and churches. The organization also offers a "wedding registry" in which engaged couples can register for gifts to Heifer instead of traditional wedding presents. Currently, Heifer International is embarking on a campaign called Hope for the Future, which is dedicated to raising $800 million by 2010 to lift five million families worldwide to self-reliance.

Heifer International operates three learning centers around the United States. The Heifer Ranch, the previous site of the distribution center in Perryville, Arkansas was turned into the first educational center in the 1970s. Since then, the Ceres Education Center in Ceres, California and the Overlook Farm in Rutland, Massachusetts were built as additional learning centers. They offer experiential learning programs for visitors to learn about world hunger and poverty.
Organization
* President and chief executive officer: Jo Luck
* Chairman of the board: Steve Mondora
* Vice Chairman of the board: C. Douglas Smith
Awards
Heifer International received the 2006 Social Capitalist award from Fast Company magazine.
Heifer International also received the 2004 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize for its efforts to eliminate hunger and help communities become self-sustaining. It was the first US-based organization to win the $1 million award since 1997.

In 2003, Heifer International was named one of Forbes magazine's top 10 charities.
In 2007, the Heifer International Headquarters building was named one of the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Projects.
In 2008, the Heifer International Headquarters building was named a National AIA (American Institute of Architects) Institute Honor Award Winner.