LUCKY SEVERSON: If you're looking for exotic wild animals in the wild, there are few places on Earth better than Tanzania in East Africa. It's also a country of exotic people like the Maasai tribesman, always on the horizon, herding their goats and cows. In the countryside owning domestic animals is not only a status symbol; it's often the only way to survive.
This farmer and his wife are not rich by Tanzanian standards, but they're not poor. They own two cows and a three-week-old calf.
(to farmer Ndera Mbikiwa and his wife Aniniel Nnko): You work together?
NDERA MBIKIWA (Farmer): Yes.
SEVERSON: No boss?
Mr. MBIKIWA: No.
SEVERSON: She's not the boss, you're not the boss?
Mr. MBIKIWA: No boss.
SEVERSON: You're a very good diplomat.
Ten years ago it was a struggle just to eat. They were very poor. That was before they signed up with a 62-year-old charity called Heifer International.
Heifer was started by Dan West, a missionary for a church called the Brethren [Church of the Brethren]. He was handing out milk rations in 1944 to refugee children when it dawned on him that hungry people don't need a cup, they need a cow. Over the years, the program formed partnerships with local civic groups, but mostly churches like this Lutheran parish near Arusha, Tanzania. This is Pastor Abdiel Ndosi.
Pastor ABDIEL NDOSI: I think a person who is healthy can worship God more nicely than a person who is hungry.
SEVERSON: The pastor is the local church leader working with Heifer International. After a village or town requests help, he and community leaders form a committee to select a farmer who wants an animal but can't afford one. These are animals that are often paid for by Americans or Europeans wanting to give a gift that means more than money. Instead they contribute, say, $500 for a heifer cow or $120 for a goat.
Pastor NDOSI: Yeah, these people are the people who are most needy, but who are also able to take care of the animals which will be provided to them. But the best qualification and criteria is to be needy.
SEVERSON: Once a farmer is selected, he and his wife must sign a contract agreeing to build a cow shed and attend two weeks of training on how to raise a cow. Dr. Alson Lyimo is a veterinarian and local heifer supervisor.
Dr. ALSON LYIMO (Veterinarian): The philosophy of Heifer is passing on the gift. Once you're given an animal, then you should also be a donor and pass it to another family.
SEVERSON: So when this couple accepted a heifer, they had to agree to pass on the first female calf to another poor farmer, creating a chain of giving that has helped far more than 30,000 families in Tanzania over the past 30 years.
Dr. Mark Jacobson runs the Selian Lutheran Hospital in Arusha, and he says Heifer works because it listens.
Dr. MARK JACOBSON (Selian Lutheran Hospital): They're ultimately a locally controlled organization so that the wisdom of the community in which they're working decides who needs the help. So it's not somebody sitting in an office in Arusha who says this family and this family needs help. It's the elders and the community leaders that say, "Well, you know, this woman's a widow, and this gentleman is disabled, and these children are orphaned, and they're the ones who need the first help."
Pastor NDOSI: I don't think I've ever seen somebody from the United States or from anywhere else in the world come in and tell our people what to do. No, I have never seen that.
SEVERSON: Local cows give less than a quart of milk a day, compared to the heifer cow which can give 10 to 12 times that much. Sometimes the charity imports animals. Sometimes they come from within the country.
(to Mr. Mbikiwa): So do you have enough for you and your wife. Do you sell some too?
Mr. MBIKIWA: Oh yes. We give two liters for our calves and two for ourselves.
SEVERSON: And the rest you sell?
Mr. MBIKIWA: We sell to get money for buying salt and sugar and everything.
SEVERSON: And a pretty house?
It's not only cows. Heifer donates all kinds of animals, from goats and donkeys to worms and fish.
(to fisherman Rogath Mrema): Are you making money?
ROGATH MREMA (Fisherman): Yeah, getting money, yes. But first we eat. We eat these fish. We eat first. Secondly we produce money to buy another fish.
SEVERSON: Mr. Mrema is raising tilapia, which he sells throughout Tanzania.
(to Mr. Mrema): Do you give fish to somebody else so they can be fish farmers?
Mr. MREMA: Sure. Yes, I give it to people.
SEVERSON: Mr. Mrema has become quite prosperous by Tanzania standards. He also raises cows, rabbits and goats. The one he doesn't like he calls Osama bin Laden.
SEVERSON: One of the goals of Heifer is to empower women, who often hold second class status in Tanzania. Whenever possible the women are required to sign the contract.
Anna says it feels good being an equal partner.
ISIAH SHIKWETE: And cows, they need water every day. But camels, they need the water for one day. And they take five days or seven days they don't want water. So it's easy.
SEVERSON: The camels graze near a village of mud huts where a medicine man concocts remedies for almost everything and where families live in extremely primitive conditions. These cantankerous animals are seen as hope for the future. The Maasi are now offering camel rides for tourists with the stamina to get here.
Here on the island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania, the Anglican Church volunteered to administer the Heifer program even though the population is 95 percent Muslim. Now people here will tell you the simple act of giving and sharing goats and cows has brought Christians and Muslims closer together.
Mr. KHAMIS: Therefore these animals act as a glue to keep people together.
