Poor? - Get some chickens - Bill Gates answer to poverty

[haele]

62. There's already an organization that helps rural farming poor around the world.

It's called Heifer International. And even though they were started by a religious organization, they don't require their sponsored villages to be particularly religious, just "in need".

Everyone in our family gets for their big "Christmas gift" a donation of either certified healthy livestock or a share of rural veterinarian training and a year's worth of supplies for not only the donated animals, but for dogs and cats (which includes a sturdy bicycle and large backpack with extensive amounts of baskets and saddle bags for transportation of vet gear to patients) to a young member of an impoverished developing world village who wants to be more than just a farmer for his or her region.
When we give livestock, we always give goats - they can survive almost anywhere and are multi-purpose animals.
Heifer has also gotten into training locals to developing systems for water purification and expand local craft-related businesses to more efficiently support the villages than simply depending on agriculture.
When the earthquake hit Nepal last year, they sent out a broadcast plea, as they had sponsored over thirty villages in the region, and they were going to be replacing lost or killed livestock and sending out their training groups to help the locals rebuild their economic and infrastructure resources more efficiently for the area.

Oh yeah, you can donate a poultry basket (two dozen chicks and duckings along with a healthy mated pair of chickens and ducks) to a poor farm.

Bill's coming a bit late to the party, but his heart is somewhat in the right place.


Haele