Heifer International-IUPUI Chapter

Heifer International is a nonprofit, humanitarian organization dedicated to ending world hunger and poverty and caring for the earth.  Heifer International pursues this mission by providing livestock, trees, training and other resources to help struggling families build sustainable futures.  Heifer International’s gifts of “living loans” offer milk, eggs, meat, wool, draft power, and other benefits that become improved nutrition, health, education, and income for resource-poor families.  These “living loans” are paid back into the community when recipients agree to “pass on the gift” of one or more of their animal’s offspring and training in environmentally sound agriculture.  In this manner, an endless cycle of transformation is set in motion as recipients become equal partners in ending poverty and hunger.  Since 1944, this common sense approach to sustainable development has enabled Heifer International to partner with 8.5 million families in more than 125 countries to improve their quality of life.

Heifer International – IUPUI Chapter is a student organization committed to exploring these issues of hunger and poverty and engaging IUPUI’s student population with international philanthropic opportunities.  Our goal is to introduce students to sustainable long term solutions to these issues and to provide hands on learning experiences.  Heifer International – IUPUI Chapter supports the international nonprofit, Heifer International.  We hope this partnership will result in a raised awareness of Heifer International’s holistic approach to promoting self reliance as well as a lifelong commitment to philanthropy for each student member.

There are seven key components of Heifer International’s holistic approach.  These initiatives are: Agroecology, Animal Well Being, Gender Equity, Microenterprise, HIV/AIDS, Urban Agriculture, and a Young People’s Initiative.  Throughout the school year, we will explore these issues and how they relate to and affect hunger and poverty.  We will also execute several fundraising events throughout the year to in order to introduce students to the nonprofit process and as a team building venture.  The education throughout the year and the fundraising events will be geared towards a yearly or bi-yearly study tour.

Study Tours with Heifer International are small, specialized expeditions through spectacular geography and unique ecosystems to visit remote villages and isolated peoples.  A Heifer International Study Tour goes beyond sightseeing.  It is a journey into the daily lives of extraordinary people.  We will visit with the farmers and families who are working with Heifer to improve their lives and protect the earth and we will learn first hand the power of Heifer International’s community development principle of “passing on the gift.”  The Study Tour will take us beyond the common ideas about poverty as we will experience all that the human spirit is capable of achieving.

To learn more about Heifer International - IUPUI Chapter or next year's trip, please email: heifer@iupui.edu