Heifer International to work with Poverty Alleviation Fund in Nepal

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug. 2, 2011 - KATHMANDU, NEPAL (Aug. 2, 2011) – Heifer International announced recently that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Poverty Alleviation Fund of Nepal (PAF), a cooperative agreement that will ally the two hunger and poverty organizations to help families significantly increase income and nutrition.

“This is an outstanding example where a public/private partnership can help improve the hard lives many families in Nepal endure every day, and it will allow for the replication of our very successful model so that together we can help fulfill our mission,” said Pierre Ferrari, Heifer International’s president and CEO.

Under the agreement, PAF, a World Bank-funded program, and Heifer will cooperate to identify areas where families are suffering from poverty and hunger and then to work with families to help them achieve self-reliance.

PAF will focus on income generation and infrastructure, while Heifer, through its community development model, will compliment income generation, but also aid with improving nutrition, the environment and fostering social justice and improvement.

The MOU came about after PAF made a discovery about some of the grassroots organizations that it works with, some of which overlap with organizations Heifer works with. In those cases, evaluators from PAF noted greater evidence and signs of sustainability in Heifer-related projects than non-Heifer-related programs.

This discovery led Vidhyadhar Mallik, vice chair of the PAF, to note in the announcement of the MOU that utilizing Heifer’s approaches of values-based holistic community development could be PAF's future approach to poverty alleviation.

Heifer’s development model is built around the organization’s Cornerstones, values such as Passing on the Gift, where a family that receives an animal and training passes on the first-born female offspring of its animal and training to another family, multiplying the gift, as well as values such as gender equity, accountability, need and justice, and full participation.  

The MOU will also strengthen Heifer’s growing relationship with PAF and lend focus to the importance of social mobilization and values-based development as a tool to promote enduring sustainability, said Ferrari.

About Heifer International Nepal
Heifer International Nepal is implementing 26 umbrella projects with multiple sub-projects in 38 districts in Nepal. Heifer International Nepal works with 10 partner nongovernmental organizations to help end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth.

About Heifer International
Heifer International’s ’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. Since 1944, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in more than 50 countries, including the United States, to help families and communities become more self-reliant.

For more information, visit www.heifer.org or call 501-907-2952.