Damage reports from the Philippines and super typhoon Megi

Damage to the Philippines caused by the super typhoon Megi is beginning to be processed. In the early assessments there are some signs of good news amidst the destruction.

As feared, rice crops not yet harvested were destroyed by the typhoon, but agriculture officials say that the Philippines should still have enough stockpiled to make it through the year. 80 to 90 percent of the homes in the typhoon region were destroyed. However only 10 deaths have thus far been attributed to the storm.

From Reuters Alertnet, writer Rolando Ng gives us more details on the damage.

The head of the National Food Authority, which manages the Philippines' grain stocks, said while unmilled rice crops had been damaged in the Cagayan valley, the country's second-biggest growing area, there was no need for extra imports this year. "We have more than enough for the year. The extent of damage to palay (unmilled rice) harvest in northern Luzon is still being assessed, but initial partial reports show that shortfalls are manageable," Angelito Banayo said in text message to Reuters.

Initial estimates of typhoon damage to unmilled rice in the Cagayan valley, which was directly in the path of Megi, varied, with three estimates from agriculture department officials putting the losses at between 52,000 and 105,000 tonnes.

They were well below a worst-case scenario of more than 230,000 tonnes, although the Governor of Isabela province, which includes part of the valley, put the losses at 385,000 tonnes.
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The national disaster agency put the death toll so far at 10, a low tally for such a strong typhoon in the country of some 94 million. More than 3 million people live in Cagayan Valley, where the storm first hit and the government had spearheaded an evacuation drive from there and other coastal areas.

Hundreds of thousands were affected in three northern regions when heavy rain and strong winds destroyed or damaged houses, uprooted trees, flattened rice fields and triggered landslides, isolating four coastal towns in Isabela province.

Disaster agency officials in the Cordillera mountain region said more than 180,000 people in five provinces and the resort city Baguio were affected by the typhoon, but less than 3,000 are in temporary shelter areas.

Nearly all of Baguio was without power due to fallen trees and power lines, and low-lying areas were underwater, forcing hundreds to seek temporary shelter.

Meanwhile, Heifer International has been closely watching the families that they have helped in the region. According to Heifer's blog, this post says that everyone seems to be ok, but have taken on a lot of damage to their homes and crops.

Heifer International staff in the Philippines is reported to be okay a day after Super Typhoon Megi struck the country. Country Director Hercules Paradiang reports the roof of one staff member’s house had to be repaired, but that all team members are accounted for in the wake of the worst storm the country has seen in years.
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According to staff reports from the north, at least 103 Heifer partner families lost their house’s roofs and harvestable crops (rice and vegetables) were destroyed by the storm. Communication services in some areas are still down, so a full reporting isn’t possible at this time, but there are reports that in the Palanan area, where Heifer works, 90 percent of houses were lost or damaged, displacing more than 11,000 people. Additionally, the national food authority warehouse was damaged, leaving 4,000 bags of rice—of 6,000 in storage—unfit for consumption.

2010 World Food Prize winners on aiding small farmers

The World Food Prize was awarded today to Heifer International president Jo Luck and Bread for the World president David Beckmann. The prize usually goes to scientists who invent ways to increase food production in the under-developed world. This year, the granters of the prize decided to recognize the contributions of the non-profit community.

One of the major criticisms of the non-profits is that they just give food away, but that is not so of Heifer and Bread for the World. Instead, both organizations give resources and materials that the poor can use to produce more food so they can gain more money from it.

From the Des Moines Register, newspaper for the host city of the World Food Prize, writer Philip Brasher interviews both Luck and Beckmann.

Q: Brazil dramatically increased its agricultural output through large-scale farms, and the Economist magazine recently said that model could likely be repeated in Africa. Why focus on small-scale farmers?

Beckmann: In Africa, poor people are on the small farms and it is feasible to improve their productivity. If you do that, you get more food into the local markets, so that brings down the price of food. Heifer has long demonstrated that you can increase the productivity of these small farmers.

There are situations where large-scale agriculture could do some good. I'm not ideological about this. But most of the poor people in the world are smallholder farmers, so the most direct route to reducing poverty is in increasing their productivity.

Q: So aid to farmers is important not only to increase food production but lift people out of poverty?

Luck: Absolutely. You just give them the animals. They have better nutrition for their children. They use the manure to plant their crops. They're usually relegated to the worst land in the world, slash-and-burn hillsides. I've gone in where the entire place looked like it was painted with tan paint. There was nothing colorful about any of it. I went back just two years later in Honduras and they had terraced those slash-and-burn hillsides. They had planted nitrogen-fixing trees. They had crops going. They had ribbons around the necks of the goats. They had built pens for them to keep them healthy and safe. Children were exercising them. Big companies can't do that.

Q: But doesn't humanitarian aid often foster dependency?

Luck: It does, if they don't help people become self-reliant. Don't just hand it out and deliver it and leave. That is not sustainable. That's why I believe so much in the work we do and others with this kind of approach working beyond the disaster assistance or emergency assistance. Give them a few resources, give them a few animals and some training and you can't hold them back. They may not all be a millionaire, but they're going to be successful. They're going to be proud and making decisions and they're going to be influencing the government.

Beckmann: The U.S. government's world hunger initiative is focused on countries that have good policies in place and are investing their own money in agriculture.

Luck: So it's more sustainable.

Beckmann: Where you have dubious results is where local people aren't doing what they should be doing. In poor countries that have their act together and are using their own money, well, there are lots of opportunities.

2010 winners of World Food Prize come from NGOs

The winners of this year's World Food Prize were announced yesterday in Washington. The winners are two people who work in non-governmental organizations. One winner knew the founder of the Prize the late great Dr Norman Bourlag, and established Bread for the World. The other winner helped to build the organization Heifer International.

From the Des Moines Register, writer Philip Brasher tells us more about the winners.

David Beckmann, an ordained Lutheran minister as well as a trained economist, left a job at the World Bank to take the helm of Bread for the World 19 years ago. He has led the group in a series of campaigns to change U.S. policy on issues from debt relief for developing countries, overseas agricultural aid and reforming farm subsidies.

Jo Luck served in Bill Clinton's cabinet when he was governor of Arkansas. She later expanded Little Rock, Ark.-based Heifer's donor base from 20,000 people in 1992 to more than 500,000 by 2009.

She built the group, which teaches poor people self-reliance through livestock husbandry, into one of the "premier hunger-fighting nonprofit organizations anywhere in the world," according to the Des Moines-based World Food Prize Foundation, which selects the laureates.

The World Food Prize carries a $250,000 award and is given each year to recognize advancements in increasing or improving global food supplies and expanding access to food.

The laureate is often a scientist, like the award's late founder, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug. Two years ago, the award was split by two former senators, George McGovern and Robert Dole, who got Congress to create a program for providing school meals to children in the poorest countries.

IdeaAid: the worldwide brainstorm

We received the following press release from Heifer International about a unique global brainstorming event. The event called IdeaAid will gather people around the globe to think of ways to solve the world's problems. The first problem on the agenda; how to raise a billion dollars a year to bring the world's poor out of poverty.

Set to launch on Nov. 14, the first Idea Aid™ challenge seeks to find novel ways to raise $1 billion annually to help eradicate global hunger and poverty. Ideas will come from people all over the world who will brainstorm online and share their best thinking with Heifer International, a global nonprofit dedicated to ending world hunger and poverty.

“We believe the time is right for Idea Aid,” said Mensa Process Managing Director David Wynett. “It’s a revolutionary way to identify potential solutions to problems, and it’s especially relevant in today’s economic climate, when people may not be able to donate money, but still want to give back.”

Idea Aid is sponsored by Mensa Process, a brain trust that helps its corporate clients solve complex problems and identify new growth opportunities. Mensa Process works with some of the world’s brightest minds — members of Mensa, an international organization of 100,000+ people, open to the top 2 percent in intelligence.

For Idea Aid, Mensa Process is inviting everyone, everywhere, to help change the world. Mensa members, along with technology, finance, development and public health experts, students, educators and informed consumers, will brainstorm online to find new solutions. Mensa Process believes that combining high intelligence, creative minds and cause-directed energy will generate remarkable results.

How Idea Aid Works
For a single week — Nov. 14-21, 2009 — people around the world will come together online to brainstorm about the complex problem of global poverty. Those interested in participating can register at www.ideaaid.com. Ideas will be collected, assessed and refined and then shared for implementation.

What’s needed to put an end to global poverty? According to Heifer International, one of the things that make a big difference is money. At this point, however, there’s no single way to efficiently and consistently generate the level of funds necessary to combat hunger and poverty.

“The problem demands new ideas and new methods of collection to make giving easier and more efficient,” said Tom Peterson, director of Innovation for Heifer International. “We need methods, ideas that can be used online, offline, globally, locally. Something simple that everyone, anyone can participate in,”

Donating Ideas to Change the World
Mensa members are also excited about the challenge. “Many Mensa members are active in volunteering in their communities through our service programs,” said Pam Donahoo, executive director of American Mensa. “Idea Aid gives us a unique way to use our knowledge to serve the world.” Idea Aid is open to everyone. Those interested can register at www.ideaaid.com.

About Mensa Process
Mensa Process is the only consulting firm in the world with exclusive access to the unrivaled brainpower of Mensa — a highly respected, international organization whose membership represents some of the world’s most intelligent people. By tapping into this group’s unparalleled intellect and combining it with the creativity of other bright minds, Mensa Process helps businesses grow, innovate and solve problems. www.mensaprocess.com

About Heifer International
Heifer International’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. Since 1944, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in 50 countries, including the United States, to help families and communities become more self-reliant. http://www.heifer.org

About Mensa
Founded in 1946 in Oxford, England, Mensa is a respected international organization whose membership is open to individuals scoring in the top 2% on accepted, standardized intelligence tests. Mensa members are geographically and occupationally diverse, representing more than 100 countries and thousands of professions and passions. www.mensa.org, www.us.mensa.org, http://www.mensa.org.uk

A look at the new museum at Heifer International

Heifer International's new museum showcases the work it does for those in poverty around the world. The museum at Heifer's headquarters in Little Rock Arkansas, attempts to show solutions at solving poverty instead of just showing the problems.

From The News Leader of Springfield Missouri, Associated Press writer Chuck Bartels visited the museum.

The museum, called Heifer Village, opened in June and will add an important element to Heifer educational programs, which demonstrate the charity's mission to provide animals and training so the world's poor can have sustainable nutrition.

Narrative elements run through the museum's exhibits, showing the effects that fair trade, clean water or mosquito netting can have. Under a ceiling of rich, amber-stained wood, natural light falls on the exhibits as the building itself demonstrates sustainability strategies.

In a section focusing on education, a visitor can sit at a desk equipped with a touch-screen computer to go through a variety of scenarios. The visitor picks from four children who live in different parts of the world, each of them poor. Going from screen to screen, the user makes choices that the child might have to make, for instance, about whether to ask for more food or to see a doctor.

There are no right or wrong answers, but the user learns more about the situations faced by poor families and how one decision leads to making another.

"Each scenario would lead you on a different path," Heifer Village operations manager Kent Modlin said.

Heifer opens education center

Heifer International has opened an education center in Little Rock, Arkansas. The center will be used to show the public how important farming and livestock raising is to the battle against poverty.

From the Arkansas Democrat and Gazette, reporter Samantha Friedman attended the opening ceremony.

Exotic animals - water buffalo, alpacas, yaks and others - were among the main attractions Friday at the opening of Heifer International's $13.5 million educational facility.

The charity, with headquarters in Little Rock, opened Heifer Village with a morning dedication ceremony. The animals were representative of the 29 types of livestock, plants and trees Heifer has given to millions of families around the world through its "passing on the gift" tradition of teaching people to become self-sufficient.

"We're all about animals, and the purpose is to let people see the kind of animals that we use in the field," Heifer spokesman Ray White said. "One of the things about hunger and poverty and understanding these issues is a lot of times, people aren't familiar with animal agriculture, and the closest they've ever been to a cow is the meat counter at the grocery store."

A crowd of 2,500 to 3,000 is expected for events this weekend, White said.

The 16,000-square-foot Heifer Village at 1 World Ave. is also known as the Polly Murphy & Christoph Keller Jr. Education Center in honor of its largest donor, the Keller family. Keller Enterprises donated $3.5 million toward the project.

Polly Winter of Alexandria, La., whose maiden name is Murphy, and her late husband, the Right Rev. Christoph Keller Jr., discovered Heifer's strategy of alleviating hunger in 1968, when they were invited to visit the Heifer Ranch in Perryville, she said. Winter and 15 family members representing four generations attended the dedication.

"Heifer saw early on that sustaining farming and animal husbandry would require treating the land with respect and using its resources right," Winter told guests. She said that Heifer's encouragement of sharing resources, protecting the planet and training others to do the same mirror the Kellers' priorities.

CEO of Heifer Foundation resigns

The CEO for the Heifer Foundation has resigned due to an investigation of plagiarism and copyright infringement. Janet Ginn submitted her resignation to Heifer's board of trustees.

Ginn wrote a book called "Circle of Giving" in 2006 which was published by the now defunct Eudora Press.

From North West Arkansas News, Samantha Friedman gathers together what little details are being released on this story.

"As a leading global philanthropic organization, Heifer Foundation must conduct itself with the utmost integrity," board chairman Ronald McLean said in the statement. "Whether true or not, we cannot allow allegations of improper conduct to distract from the life-changing work of the Heifer organization, our people and our generous donors."

McLean, of Chesapeake, Va., declined to comment further.

Ginn didn't return a message left on her home phone seeking comment about the board's decision.

Greg Spradlin, foundation spokesman, wouldn't describe the details of the allegations or of an investigation into the allegations.

The board of Heifer International, a hunger-relief charity based in Little Rock, established the foundation in 1990. The entities are legally separate and each conducts its own fundraising, said Heifer International spokesman Tina Hall.

"The purpose was to build an endowment, and the endowment would provide ongoing support for Heifer's work," Hall said. "The purpose of our fundraising [at Heifer International] is to support our projects in our country-program offices and to help lift people out of poverty. We provide the livestock training and related services to smallscale farmers and communities worldwide."

Because of the foundation's independent nature, Hall said, the reasons for Ginn's departure shouldn't affect Heifer's work or donors' loyalty, a point echoed by Spradlin.

"I think that the donors will understand because they're really supportive of the overall mission of Heifer International and their work around the world, and that's really their commitment," Spradlin said. "We've reached out to several of our donors to give them courtesy calls to let them know."

Ginn was named chief executive in 2001. In 1998, she began working at the foundation as vice president of marketing.

Sending animals overseas

The charity that comes to the top of the mind when talking about providing animals for the poor is Heifer International. A story from a Californian newspaper tells us of a smaller group that does the same thing.

The Redlands branch of the American Association of University Women have sent animals to Kosovo and Tanzania. The Redlands Daily Facts tells us about the organizations latest contribution.

The International Affairs group meets once a month for a meal based on the cuisine of various countries. Meetings also include speakers such as Carla Berlington, who recently talked about Burma, also known as Myanmar, where she rescues children as young as 5 who she said would be trained as soldiers for radical groups.

Berlington's group gives food, shelter, clothing and a safe haven to those children. She said she is in constant danger there, many times under live fire.

Members of the International Affairs group not only listen to stories about people in other countries, but also try to help those people.

This year the group has contributed to Berlington's program and to Heifer International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to relieving hunger and poverty through gifts of livestock and plants.

Through their contributions to Heifer International, members of the International Affairs group sent a goat to a family in the village of Muribe in northwest Tanzania. The goat will provide protein and income from milk and other dairy products that people can use to pay for medicine, housing and school for their children.

The group also sent 20 chickens to a family in Kosovo. The chickens will provide the family with a steady supply of protein-rich eggs and meat and a natural way of controlling disease-bearing insects.

Fighting poverty with heifers

from the East African

By EVE MASHOO

MIRIAM SABIKA, A mother of five, and who lives with her five grandchildren, has been a farmer in Kilowoza village, Mukono district in central Uganda over the past 20 years. Before 1998, Ms Sabika and her husband were peasant farmers struggling to eke out a living from their land.

Then they heard about Heifer International, a non-profit project that alleviates hunger and environmental degradation through gifts of food and income-producing animals and training. These animals provide a source of protein, such as eggs and milk for children and generate income for families through the sale of animal products. Since 1941 Heifer has helped over a million families in 125 countries become self reliant.

After a year’s training, the couple received a heifer. By selling the milk produced by the heifer, the Sabikas were able to look after their own children and their grandchildren.

The Heifer Project, which last month announced it had received a $42.6 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its work in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, is an innovative way of helping communities lift themselves out of poverty.

Initially, the heifers were handed out free to community members identified by extension workers attached to the project. The community members are selected on the basis of need, and their having sufficient land on which to graze the animal. Currently, however, some of the recipients are expected to pay back the cost of the animal in small, monthly repayments, once they are able to generate income from milk sales. Adult heifers cost between Ush250,000 ($143) and Ush300,000 ($171) and beneficiaries pay back at an interest rate of 20 per cent. Calves cost Ush100,000 ($57) at an interest rate of 10 per cent.

Heifer project officials say the charges are not to make money off the recipients, but to encourage them to attach an economic value to the animals.

THIS PROJECT TARGETS mainly women though men have also benefited. Men however tend to drop out from the programme more than women.

All this comes down to encouraging gender equity and family focus. The project also promotes fair sharing of work, decision making, resources and benefits among all members of the family and community. It aims at developing families and helping them achieve a variety of benefits.

According to Patrick Nalele, the country director of the Heifer Project in Uganda, about 45,000 families in Uganda are expected to benefit from the $10.2 million that the country programme will receive as part of the Gates’ grant. Almost six out of 10 beneficiaries are expected to be women — not only due to the fact that they are worse hit by poverty, but also often in a better position to look after the animals.

The project is also teaming up with microfinance companies to give loans to heifer project beneficiaries to enable them buy coolers for the milk they produce and generators to power them when the mains power fails.

According to Ray White, a spokesman for Heifer International, the four-year project targets one million people in specific districts in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. Heifer International is partnering with Techno Serve, a US-based non-profit organisation that fights poverty by encouraging business development, and the International Livestock Research Institute, an animal research organisation based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Rather than give handouts, they hope to support communities lift themselves out of poverty by improving their farm output through hard work.

The East African Dairy Development Project will help develop 30 milk collection hubs with cooling plants where farmers will take their raw produce for collection by commercial dairies. This will help small-scale farmers join the growing dairy industry in the region.

It will particularly target women for both the benefits of the project and leadership. It also includes training for 10,000 farmers to become growers of nutritious animal fodder to sell to dairy farmers as supplementary livestock feed.

Many women who have applied for livestock training from the project say it has empowered them economically. One Ms Iga of Seeta, Mukono district, is one of the model farmers in the project and an inspiration to men and women alike. She is the chairperson of Seeta Heifer Project, which brings together beneficiaries in the area, and owns a huge acreage of land where she rears a heifer. She has also planted several kinds of vegetables and bananas. She organises training, especially for low-income residents of the village, and has helped them transform financially and socially.

“It feels good to make a difference in a person’s life while you still can,” she said.

AFRICA IS VERY WELL ENdowed in both natural and human resources, yet nearly 200 million of its people are malnourished because of inadequate food supplies. In fact, currently one in three people in sub-Saharan Africa are undernourished.

Comprehensive strategies are needed across the continent to boost agricultural productivity, profitability, and sustainability to ensure that all Africans have access to safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs. Improving animal agriculture is one avenue to improved food security.

Project notes indicate that investments in animal agriculture productivity can directly contribute to food security not only by the introduction of improved animal breeds and crops, but also through integrated farming practices and an improved quality of food storage, support in value adding/processing, and marketing.

Decades of cash handouts from the West in the form of aid have not made any significant inroads into poverty in Africa. In fact, it is the only continent whose population is poorer today than it was two decades ago. The Heifer project shows that rather than give Africa’s poor fish, they should be taught how to fish.

[Press Release] Heifer International Partners with Blackbaud on Multi-Year Initiative to Revamp Operations and Information Technology Systems

from PR Web

Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB), announced today that Heifer International has adopted its recently released solutions, Blackbaud Enterprise CRM and Blackbaud Direct Marketing.

Charleston, SC (PRWEB) August 20, 2007 -- Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB), announced today that Heifer International has adopted its recently released solutions, Blackbaud Enterprise CRM and Blackbaud Direct Marketing. The $100 million global organization, which raises most of its money through individual donations, works with communities to end hunger and poverty. Heifer will partner with Blackbaud to develop a constituent-centric model that integrates fundraising and various other activities across organizational boundaries.

Jo Luck, President and CEO of Heifer, speaking for her organization, said
she has high expectations for synergies that will result from the new processes. “Heifer International is pleased to partner with such a forward thinking organization,” she said. “Blackbaud’s expertise will propel us forward in our constant search for greater efficiency to conserve donor dollars as we work toward meeting our mission of ending hunger and poverty.”

Since 1944, Heifer has helped 8.5 million families in more than 125 countries move toward greater self reliance through the gift of livestock and through training in environmentally sound agriculture. In 2006, with 726 active projects in 57 countries and 29 U.S. states, Heifer received private contributions of more than $89 million.

As Heifer International continued to rapidly evolve and grow over the past decade, it became clear that it needed to move beyond its current model to better address current and future needs. As a result, Heifer chose to partner with Blackbaud on a project called “Bridges,” which will change the organization’s strategic approaches to resource development, planning and utilization. With the aid of Blackbaud’s solutions and services, Heifer will develop new business processes, procedures, and information systems.

“Heifer International is a leader in adopting emerging technologies to deliver a rich and meaningful experience to its diverse constituency,” said Marc Chardon, Blackbaud’s chief executive officer. “By embarking on the Bridges project and engaging Blackbaud’s enterprise solutions and services, Heifer is reinforcing its commitment to its supporters and proactively positioning the organization for continued growth.”

The recent agreement with Blackbaud will focus on replacing Heifer’s existing fundraising system and underlying technical infrastructure. Blackbaud Enterprise CRM and Blackbaud Direct Marketing will result in seamless, consistent data that can be easily accessed and shared.

The fully-integrated Blackbaud solution will enable Heifer to:

* Provide a single, comprehensive view of each constituent, capturing all relationship information to more effectively target donors and compete for funding, while preserving role-based access
* Fully integrate its marketing with shared constituent data providing a 360° view of constituent attributes, activities and giving
* Achieve inter-departmental collaboration to attain enhanced efficiency and communication
* Address underserved areas such as direct marketing, CRM, major giving, document, and workflow, volunteer and event management


Blackbaud will also bring best practices and methodology to complement its technology capability to help Heifer enhance and optimize its operations.

About Heifer International
For more than 60 years, Heifer International has provided millions of struggling families a way to become self-reliant for food and income. Through the gift of livestock and training, a family can obtain milk, eggs, wool and other income-producing benefits to feed, clothe and educate their children. Each gift multiplies because every family that receives a Heifer animal promises to "pass on the gift" by giving one or more of their animal's offspring to another family in need. Heifer International supports sustainable small-scale farm enterprises to improve nutrition and supplement income. Local community groups conceive and manage Heifer International projects, empowering them to solve their own problems and equipping the next generation to face challenges successfully. For more information about Heifer International, please call 800.696.1918, or visit the website at www.heifer.org.

About Blackbaud
Blackbaud is the leading global provider of software and services designed specifically for nonprofit organizations, enabling them to improve operational efficiency, build strong relationships, and raise more money to support their missions. Approximately 19,000 organizations — including the American Red Cross, Dartmouth College, the WGBH Educational Foundation, Episcopal High School, Lincoln Center, Cancer Research UK, Special Olympics, and Arthritis Foundation — use one or more of Blackbaud products and services for fundraising, constituent relationship management, financial management, direct marketing, school administration, ticketing, business intelligence, website management, prospect research, consulting, and analytics. Since 1981, Blackbaud’s sole focus and expertise has been partnering with nonprofits and providing them the solutions they need to make a difference in their local communities and worldwide. Headquartered in the United States, Blackbaud also has operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.

Media Contacts:

Jennifer Pierce
Heifer International
jennifer.pierce(at)heifer.org
501.907.2952

Melanie Milonas
Blackbaud, Inc.
melanie.milonas(at)blackbaud.com
843.216.6200 x3307

Source: Blackbaud