Elizabeth Bintliff and Daisy the Cow

I am happy to announce that both made a respectable showing on "The Colbert Report" last night.  As I'd hoped, Stephen Colbert gave her a little bit of slack and allowed her to actually get some information out about her organization, Heifer International.  

You can watch the full episode here.  Elizabeth Bintliff's interview starts around 14:50.  You can also go to the Heifer web site to watch the clip of Elizabeth's interview.

Heifer International vs. "The Colbert Report"

You all know that Heifer International is one of my favorite charities. I've written about the work they do providing livestock and sustainable farming education to people living in poverty-stricken areas; and I recently reviewed Beatrice's Goat, a children's book about the difference a goat made in one young girl's life, providing her the chance to go to school, something she desperately wanted but didn't think she would be able to do.

Heifer International has designated April as Pass on the Gift month, and tonight Heifer International's Elizabeth Bintliff will appear on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" to talk a little bit about that. If you're a regular viewer of "The Colbert Report" you know that Stephen Colbert tends to be a merciless impossible distracting tough interviewer, but every once in a while he backs off and lets the guest actually get his or her message across. I'm hoping that will be the case with Elizabeth Bintliff. Either way, I will be watching, and I hope you will too!  

Weekly Geeks 2009-13: Favorite children's books

In honor of National Poetry Month and International Children's Book Day, this week's Weekly Geeks challenged us to "Be a kid!" or "Be a poet!" Since I'm not too good with the poetry, I am going to take this opportunity to talk about a couple of children's books, which, in my opinion, happen to fit in nicely with the upcoming Easter holiday.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward

Opening lines:

We hear of the Easter Bunny who comes each Easter Day before sunrise to bring eggs for boys and girls, so we think there is only one. But this is not so. There are really five Easter Bunnies, and they must be the five kindest, and swiftest, and wisest bunnies in the whole wide world, because between sunset on Easter Eve and dawn on Easter Morning they do more work than most rabbits do in a whole year.

This is one of the books that has remained a favorite of mine from childhood, so much so that I bought myself a copy a few years ago. Originally published in 1939, this is the story of a little brown country girl bunny who aspires to be one of the five Easter Bunnies. Upon hearing about her high aspirations, "...all of the big white bunnies who lived in fine houses, and the Jack Rabbits with long legs who can run so fast, laughed at the little Cottontail and told her to go back to the country and eat a carrot. But she said, 'Wait and see!'"

Well! That's some chutzpah! (Bonus! In this discussion of "The Symbolism of Rabbits and Hares" you can see a picture of our heroine standing up to the big Jack Rabbits. Double Bonus! There's a children's poem at the end of the post!) The little country bunny grew up, got married and had 21 (!) children and sort of forgot her dream of becoming an Easter Bunny until one day word came down that one of the five Easter Bunnies had grown old and slow and Old Grandfather was going to need a new bunny to take his place. Mother Cottontail gathers her 21 (!) children and they go to the Palace of Easter Eggs to watch the competition. Old Grandfather watches all the jack rabbits speeding across the lawn, all very impressive, but the little mother cottontail with her 21 (!) well-behaved children in tow catches his eye. OMG! Do I smell a life-long dream about to come true?? I think so! You'll have to read the book to find out!

I'm not really sure why I liked this book so much as a child. The cottontail mother teaches all of her children to help around the house, doing dishes, sweeping the floors, making the beds, etc., so maybe I felt kind of proud because I could do those things and be a good helper. It could be that I grew up in the country and thought I had a chance of growing up to be the Easter Bunny...Yeah, I know; there are a few problems with that. But the little country bunny was no big male jack rabbit, and she had 21 (!) kids to look after, and she made it! (Oh...um, sorry. That's ok, I didn't really give away anything that isn't on the back of the book.) Then again, I think it might have been the Palace of Easter Eggs that sealed the deal-a whole palace filled with Easter Eggs! I also love the illustrations by Marjorie Hack. If you click here you can check out the cover art and the first page.

If you are looking for a (new-to-them) book to read with your kids for Easter, I think this is a good one. It subtly encourages children to be well-behaved and helpful and to follow their dreams even if everyone else laughs and says they'll never make it. Besides, it's intriguing; I mean, five Easter Bunnies? Seriously? There are five??? Who knew?

Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier-I actually read this a few weeks ago for the Weekly Geeks 2009-08: Rewind - Political & Social Issues challenge, but never got around to writing a post or a review of the book, so I think now is a good time to follow-up on that. Beatrice Biira was a girl in Uganda whose family received a goat through Heifer International, an organization whose mission is "To work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth." Heifer gifts usually come in the form of livestock, like Beatrice's goat, and the recipients are required to pass on the gift by sharing offspring, knowledge, resources and skills with others in their community. Beatrice wanted to go to school, but her family could not afford to send her. Eventually, the money she made from the sale of her goat's milk helped her achieve this goal. The book tells Beatrice's story and shows how Heifer can help a community pull itself up out of poverty.

Part of the reason that I didn't get around to doing this review before is because I wasn't thrilled with the book, quite honestly. It was just little things; for example, Beatrice's goat is named Mugisa, which means luck. Throughout the book, the goat is referred to as Mugisa. Later other animals come into the picture; I can't remember what they were or where they came from-perhaps they were Mugisa's offspring, or perhaps they were other Heifer gifts-but their names and their English translations were also given, but then the author continued to refer to them by their English names (like Prosperity and Fortune). This was a little thing, but it bugged me.

Also, I was hoping that the book would be more of an introduction to Heifer International, but I don't think it ever actually mentioned the organization by name except in the afterward, written by Hillary Clinton. I guess the idea was to tell Beatrice's story, not to be propaganda for Heifer, but...in a situation like this, isn't the point of telling Beatrice's story to get the word out about Heifer? I suppose it is a fine line between piquing readers' interests enough that they will seek out additional information on their own and forcing an agenda on your readers. Either way a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book go to support Heifer.

Despite the fact that I wasn't blown away by this book, I still think it's a good way to introduce a child to the idea of charity and show him how he can make a difference in another child's life. I think Heifer in particular is a charity that would appeal to children because of their gift catalog which consists almost entirely of animals. What better way to celebrate Easter than by giving a rabbit or some chicks to a family in order to help them provide a food source and/or money for things like school, clothing, or medicine? For as little as $10, you could contribute toward the gift of a sheep, a goat, a trio of rabbits, a pig, or even some trees.

So, now that I've covered the kid lit part of the challenge, perhaps I will attempt some poetry after all. Let's see...

There once was a child who read

She loved to stand on her head

Although upside down

She still loved the sound

Of books being read right out loud.

Well, Whitman it ain't, but you get what you pay for! Hope you all came up with some better stuff than that!

Blogging for a Worthy Cause

Until I read about it today at fivecentnickel.com I had no idea that today was Blog Action Day.  The theme this year is poverty, and bloggers are encouraged to discuss this topic today to try to bring awareness.  Nickel has generously agreed to match food bank donations made by his readers, so please check out his post and see if you can contribute.  If not, that's ok, but maybe you will be inspired to do something else.  

I have been meaning to do a post about some of the organizations that are featured in my "I think you're nifty too!" sidebar, and this seems like the perfect opportunity. 

Habitat for Humanity "seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action."  They help build houses for people who wouldn't be able to afford a house through traditional means.  Most of the materials and labor are donated, and the houses are sold for no profit to the recipient families.  The families who receive houses must invest "sweat equity" by assisting in the actual building of the house and by helping to build houses for other families.  If they are physically unable to participate in the building process, they can volunteer in other ways.  Habitat's program is a great example of a hand-up not a hand-out mentality and it fosters a lot of community/neighborhood support by getting local people involved in the building of a house.  I've volunteered on a work site, and while there weren't many of us who knew how to build a house, there were enough people that did who could instruct the rest of us about where to pound nails, how to cut the necessary lengths of lumber, etc.  The progress we made in one day was pretty impressive, and it was a great feeling to know that you were helping to give a family a home.  

Heifer International is another great "hand-up not a hand-out" program.  Heifer works with families and communities to educate people about animal husbandry and farming techniques that are sustainable and, very importantly, relevant to their local areas.  Heifer recipients must also pass on the gift by sharing their wealth and knowledge with their community or other communities.  For just $20 you could provide a family with a flock of ducks, geese, or chicks or you could purchase a share of a llama.  A flock of birds can provide a family with protein for themselves as well as providing a new stream of income through the sale of eggs and fowl.  Sometimes this can be the difference between a child being able to receive an education or not.  The recipient family must also pass on a part of their flock to another family in need, and so forth and so on.  You can purchase anything from a beehive to a water buffalo.  This is a great chance to get a child interested in charitable giving!

Kiva.org facilitates microcredit loans to people in the developing world.  You can lend as little as $25 and know that it is going to help somebody who is trying to build a better life for themselves and their families.  Recently there was so much interest in Kiva.org that they actually ran out of loans to fund!  This is amazing, but they seem to be back on track with new entrepreneurs awaiting loans.  You can read a brief biography on all the loan applicants and decide to whom you want to lend money.  To date I have loaned out $950, $723 of which has been paid back.  Lenders don't earn interest on their loans, but then that's not really the point.  The point is that you're doing something good with your money.

Lesley's Life is Sweet is founder Lesley Byrne's way of fulfilling her mission to "help end extreme hunger, poverty and diseases in the world through the sales of [her] artisan chocolates and gourmet confections."  Her chocolates are amazing-you can read about how they made me cry here-and you can eat them completely guilt-free because by doing so you are helping to make the world a better place!  How's that for win-win?

Women for Women International is a great organization that goes into war-torn communities and helps rebuild those communities one woman at a time.  In times of war women are often the most victimized and also are the ones left to rebuild when all of their men have died in war.  These women need to know that they have rights as individuals, what those right are, how to stand up for those rights, and how to exercise those rights.  They also need to be able to provide food, clothing, shelter, and, hopefully, an education for their families.  Women for Women International's programs help women develop literacy and vocational skills, learn about their rights and become active members in their communities.  Individual women are sponsored through monthly donations, and their sponsors are encouraged to communicate with them via letters.

Of course any of these organizations will accept cash donations and, indeed, rely on them to continue doing what they do, but if you can donate your time, even better.  Please check out these organizations to see if any of them might be a good fit for you or let me know which organizations you've found that you would like to share.  

**Update-10/23/08-You all know how much fun I have finding the little coincidences between what I'm reading and my everyday life.  Well this time it has to do with what you're reading (in this case, my blog!) and my everyday life.  Don't worry, I haven't gone totally off my rocker; I realize that there's usually going to be some tie in between what I write and what's actually going on in my life, and I'm not going to start pointing it out to you all the time-(Hey, guess what!  I just wrote about going to the mall, and today, I was AT THE MALL!!  Ooooooh.).  

I have worked with Habitat for Humanity in the past, but I haven't been in touch with them recently, and while putting together this post, I was thinking, Hmmm, I really should get in touch with them again and see if they need any help right now.  Well, 3 days later, they called me!  They were trying to pull together some last-minute help for the following day's annual kitchen and bath tour and wanted to know if I could help.  I could and I did!  So, yay me!  Ok, it would have been a much bigger and better "yay, me!" if I had called them, but still.  You gotta start somewhere.