You've heard it said, "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime." Heifer International, an organization dedicated to alleviate world hunger, inverts that adage. Rather than teaching skills to feed the hungry, Heifer provides the resources needed for people who already know how to manage them.

Specifically, Heifer gives trees and animals which fulfill the second part of the aforementioned proverb. By providing a family with a goat, for example, it can have milk to drink for years to come. Through this "passing the gift" initiative, those who receive animals can give an offspring to one of their neighbors, fighting hunger even more.

Heifer's mission is deeply rooted in gender issues. According to the Heifer International web site, 70 percent of the world's hungry are female because of better opportunities afforded to males. Heifer therefore concentrates its efforts at not only closing the gap between the rich and poor, but also the gap between genders.

Heifer International's Director of Gender Equity, Martha Hirpa, wrote about the importance of focusing on gender inequality in "Emphasizing Full Participation."

"Addressing gender issues is crucial to sustainable development. Development — improving people's livelihoods — isn't sustainable unless both men and women participate, unless both take responsibility for their futures," she wrote.

To reach this goal, Heifer employs two complementary strategies: gender mainstreaming, which integrates the needs of women and men in all our work, including designing policy, programming processes, project planning; and implementation and monitoring.

In this way, Heifer works to close the existing gender gaps by focusing on programs and projects that directly address the disadvantaged groups of the community, especially women and girls.

For more information, visit Heifer online at:
Heifer International.org
Heifer Foundation.org