Heifers and Human Rights

I'm a little behind on my blog, so here comes a flurry of posts.

Friday, July 11^th

Our Monday kicked off with a visit from US Ambassador Mark Green. He spoke to our class about his experiences (he was a school teacher in a Kenyan village twenty years ago and then was eventually a US Congressman for eight years from the state of Wisconsin) and about the work that he has done over the last 10 months in his tenure as the Ambassador to Tanzania. He talked about the policy that Condoleeza Rice has implemented, called “diplomacy by deeds” which is an emphasis on not talking so much about taking action, but just going around and doing good things for the country and “letting people draw their own conclusions.” I was absolutely fascinated by how he worded things, how he would speak about certain things. He would have his moments where it was completely obvious that he was a mouthpiece for the Bush administration (considering his position is a Presidential appointment, I mean, it’s what you’d expect) but he’d also have his moments where he would almost separate himself and say, “well, speaking personally…” This kind of political behavior is just so darn intriguing. Particularly interesting was how he spoke about the current Tanzanian President Kikwete, who President Bush visited for three nights earlier this year, and President Kikwete was actually in America this past week. He spoke extremely highly about him and all of his “cooperation” with America – yet I have heard an entirely different story from Tanzanian residents, including university students and journalists. Oh, it’s that’s politics in a nutshell, and I just LOVE to observe it. But in all seriousness, it was really a privilege to be speaking with the US Ambassador and it’s something that I’ll never forget.

We also had several other speakers this week, with a couple of people from the East African Community (EAC), the supranational regional organization (it’s similar to the European Union, but for Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and recently added Rwanda and Burundi). They are really getting off the ground and starting to do some great things, as they were reformed in 1996, so it was interesting to hear them talk about regional integration and cooperation. However, the other most interesting speaker of the week besides Ambassador Green was the newly elected Chair of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission (HRC). The HRC is an independent institution that was created by the government to protect and promote human rights in Kenya. Since the US doesn’t have their own HRC, her position would be the equivalent to like a US Court of Appeals judge. She was fantastic, speaking to the recent election violence and what Kenya is doing to try to prevent this in the future, although sadly, they don’t seem too optimistic that these politically motivated ethnic clashes will end for the next election. But their HRC does a lot of good work, is well respected, and I have great faith in her term.

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Starting on Wednesday, we got to get out of the classroom and go out into the field! We have two days of back-to-back field trips to visit farms which had been helped by Heifer International. A lot of you are probably familiar with Heifer (the Chapman Honors program holds a bake sale to raise funds for them on campus each year), but those of you who aren’t, Heifer International is an NGO which is dedicated to sustainable capacity building in underprivileged communities around the world – a.k.a. they don’t give aid in the form of money, but in the form of livestock, including cows, goats, chickens, pigs, beehives. It’s to kind of jump start those that need some help by giving them something that can reproduce and that they can use for so many purposes. And they don’t just give anyone a cow, but there’s an application process, and afterwards they provide training and support to the farmer to sustain the growth and prosperity. And – to make the good spread as far as possible - they are obligated by contract to give away the first female calf to their neighbor, to spread the “sharing and caring.”

So, Heifer Tanzania took us out to an incredible farm owned by an amazing couple. Back in 1997, this family had been given one goat. After the goat had two kids, they gave one to their neighbor and then sold the other one to buy a calf. And that’s how they got their start. Now on this one and a half acre farm, they have several cows, goats, chickens, pigs and even a fish farm. They also have a lot of agriculture, growing all of the animals’ food and much of their own. This couple is so enterprising that they even got a water tank donated to them, so now their house water for the whole year comes from the rainwater caught in this tank and they don’t have to go down to the river with buckets everyday. The most incredible part about all of this? To listen to the great impact it has had on the quality of their lives in so many more ways than just putting food on the table – they earn enough to send their children to boarding school, which are some of the best in Tanzania, so that they can receive a great education. It’s also helped their marriage in more ways than one. Beforehand, the husband was working far away and in the highly dangerous field of mining. But now, he gets to be home in a much safer environment and with his family. Also, Heifer International makes sure the contract is signed by both the husband and the wife – something that’s not as common as it should be in Tanzania – so it makes them equal partners. During the presentation around their farm, the couple split up their time explaining their farming methods and developments. It may seem small, but the fact that a woman was allowed to lead the conversation when her husband is present is another small triumph of Heifer.

It just goes to show you that sometimes, people just need a little boost and that they can really do great things with just a little help. Obviously, not every story is this much of a success story, something that our group was very keen about discussing. So while not every single Heifer recipient may create a “super-farm” of sorts, it’s clear that these people who receive the cows and goats are benefitting from having at the very least more milk, meat and muscle (3 of the 8 beneficial M’s that our Heifer guide quizzed us on) that greatly improves the quality of life. It puts the responsibility in the hands of the community and empowers them to develop independently – just from receiving the initial gift. That’s what I liked the most about Heifer International, as one of the other students in my group pointed out – their philosophy is rooted in optimism and faith in fellow man, that they are not only competent, but very giving. It is nice to see an organization be successful in responsibly subscribing to that way of thought. I think we all could benefit from a little more of that in our lives.