Susan Hendricks, during her visit to Nepal, helps deliver a goat to its new owner in the ceremony “Passing on the Gift” (POG), part of a program by Heifer International. POG is a sign of successful study and work and is celebrated with music, dancing, popcorn, and hot chai tea. The gift of an animal offspring demonstrates that a woman has more than enough and can now help another woman. Last November Susan Hendricks and Nancy Truluck, both of Columbia, traveled through Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, to visit with women living in extreme poverty. Dining for Women (DFW), a Greenville, SC-based charitable organization planned the trip for members to meet face-to-face with several of DFW’s grant recipients in remote village community centers, homes, health-care centers, and schools in Kathmandu, Pokara, Baglung, and Chitwan.

DFW is founded on the principal of educational giving circles, small groups of women who meet monthly to share a meal, learn about a deserving organization in the developing world, and make a small contribution to DFW. With over 250 chapters and growing, today DFW grants exceed $40,000 every month.

Women suffer additional injustices in developing countries. A woman in Nepal is considered daughter, wife, or mother – not an individual person. Women reported rarely leaving home before joining Heifer programs where they were brought together as a group to determine their own needs. Through the power of group interaction women become self-assured while learning skills that improved their standard of living. Three Nepal-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participated in the trip: Heifer International, One Heart World-Wide, and SWAN (Social Welfare Association of Nepal). For more information, visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OcZHqjlmCE Dining for Women: www.diningforwomen.org Heifer International: http://www.heifer.org/ One H.E.A.R.T.: http://www.oneheart

At every village, guests are welcomed with a ceremony including gifts of marigold leis, the gold flowers also spilling from brass vases set on an alter behind 12 yakbutter lamps representing Heifer’s 12 cornerstones. Nancy Truluck is welcomed to village. Dining for Women

Dining for Women’s mission is to empower women and girls living in extreme poverty by funding programs that foster good health, education, and economic self-sufficiency and to cultivate educational giving circles that inspire individuals to make a positive difference through the power of collective giving.

DFW’s vision is to create a new paradigm for giving – collective giving on an immense scale while maintaining the intimacy of small groups with a focus on education and engaged giving.

82% live on less than $2.00(USD) a day where unemployment is over 40% and subsistence farming provides livelihood for 90% of Nepalese people. Farmers are required to sell a portion of their harvest. With only 16% of land arable, not enough food is grown to feed the population. Imports from India make up the shortage. Dining for Women is a dinner giving circle. Participants “dine in” together once a month, each bringing a dish to share, and the “dining out” dollars (what would have been spent at a restaurant) are sent to programs empowering women worldwide. The donations are combined from hundreds of chapters to support one carefully selected international program a month. DFW funds grass-roots programs in education, healthcare, vocational training, micro-credit loans, and economic development. These programs are aimed to improve the living situations for women and their families by providing the tools they need to make changes. Programs selected meet specific criteria.

In Nepal, 90% of mothers deliver their babies at home, the poorest with no access to prenatal care. Every day, 12 Nepali women die in childbirth, nearly half needlessly bleeding to death, and 75 Nepali infants die, most less than a day old. Heifer International

Heifer International’s mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth. By giving families a hand-up, not just a hand-out, the organization empowers them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope.

With gifts of livestock and training, Heifer projects help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways. Animals are referred to as “living loans” because in exchange for their livestock and training, families agree to give one of its animal’s offspring to another family in need. It’s called Passing on the Gift, a cornerstone of their mission that creates an ever-expanding network of hope and peace. The 12 cornerstones of Heifer

Village women organized their children into a Youth Group. Girls and boys now help support the village with their performances of native cultural dances. Group goals include improving village sanitation and education. One member hopes to represent Nepal in the Olympics. All look forward to college. Passing on the Gift allows families who received Heifer gifts to become donors as they pass on these gifts to other families in need.

Genuine Need & Justice ensures that those most in need are given priority in receiving animals and training.

Accountabilitymeansthatwearemutually accountable to the communities we serve for how we achieve common goals.

Improving the Environment through sustainable farming techniques, reforestation, and tree-saving biogas is at the core of our projects.

All Heifer Nepal projects focus on women’s development. In 2008, DFW supported Heifer’s program WILD ( Women in Livestock Development). “There’s a growing recognition…that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism.” Nicholas Kristof, NY Times writer and author of Half the Sky. Sharing & Caring embodies the belief that global problems can be solved if everyone commits to sharing resources and caring for others.

Full Participation is expected by all participants. Leaders at the grassroots level should involve all members in decision making.

Sustainability & Self-reliance is the goal for families we work with so that they will continue to thrive after our support ends.

Training & Education are key to ensuring that animals are well cared for and that self-reliance is achieved by project participants.

Eight of the ten highest mountains in the world are in Nepal, including Mt. Everest, at almost 30,000 feet, the Himalayas’ most famous attraction. Natives call it Chomolungma, “Mother Goddess of the Earth.” The pilot invited participants one-by-one into the cockpit for this incredible view. Improved Animal Management means that project participants learn how to keep their animals safe, healthy, and productive.

Spirituality is expressed in common beliefs about the value and meaning of all life, a sense of connectedness to the earth, and a shared vision of the future.

Nutrition & Income are the rewards Heifer expects recipients to reap from their gift animal through the consumption and/or sale of products such as milk, eggs, cheese, honey, and wool.

Typical of all pilgrimages, participants crossed many borders—by airplane, taxi, bus, boat, elephant, ox-cart, and many miles on foot. Here they brave the swinging bridge over Kali Gandaki River, Nepal’s most sacred river and source of the deepest river canyon in the world, before trekking up to the campsite 1500 feet above. Gender & Family Focus encourages women and men to share in decision making as well as in the benefits the animals and training bring.

S WAN

Social Welfare Association of Nepal (SWAN) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established in 1994, as an initiation by a small group of individuals, who believe in the concept of self-reliant development. SWAN believes that only self-reliance development of a community, by those who are directly and indirectly responsible for the communities and their members, can result in sustainable development. This process of change has to include women and men from various occupational and ethnic backgrounds.

DFW’s $32,000 grant over three years to One Heart funded training for obstetric and skilled birth attendants in remote villages. Results from One Heart’s 2008 program in Tibet reported no maternal deaths with newborn mortality down from 10 percent to three percent. The Birthing Center in Paiyunpata village serves over 6,500 people, many walking hours to reach it. Center benefactors include One Heart World-Wide, SWAN, and the government of Nepal. SWAN’s first step towards development is to establish opportunities for education, which it believes, builds a foundation to alleviate poverty and help people regain faith in themselves, learn new skills, and tap their potential. Every individual needs to recognize their own worth and dignity as responsible citizens of society. They need to be convinced that they are capable of bringing about better changes in the world around them.

In Level 2 villages, residents live in new cement block homes. Now old homes of mud and dung only house business supplies, animal feed, and items for storage. Through accumulation of co-op funds, the community can rent a tractor to till the fields and obtain equipment to convert human and animal waste into methane gas used to fuel cooking stoves instead of gathering and chopping scarce wood. With buffalo milk increasing, women start additional businesses such as raising chickens, opening a tailor shop or convenience store. One Heart Worldwide

One Heart Worldwide (OHW) is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to save the lives of women and children in Mexico and Nepal, one birth at a time.

Based on over ten years of experience in Tibet, OHW has established an effective, replicable, and sustainable model to reduce preventable deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth among vulnerable indigenous populations suffering from local barriers to care. Essential to the OHW model are integration of local resources, collaboration with local communities and providers, and respect for cultural norms and practices.

Heifer’s Value-Based Literacy Program ( VBLP) teaches women to read. Only 34.9% of women and an overall 48.5% of the population are literate - defined as being able to write their name. Marsha Wallace with a picture book the type used at all educational levels. “If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

DFW’s $32,000 grant over three years to One Heart funded training for obstetric and skilled birth attendants in remote villages. Results from One Heart’s 2008 program in Tibet reported no maternal deaths with newborn mortality down from 10% to 3 % . The Birthing Center in Paiyunpata village serves over 6,500 people. It takes many walking hours to reach it. Center benefactors include One Heart World-Wide, SWAN, and the government of Nepal. — J.K. Rowling’s speech to Harvard graduates, June 2008