Heifer International was started by Dan West, a
farmer from the
midwest of the
United States.
From the Heifer International website:
In the 1930s, a civil war raged in Spain. Dan West, a Midwestern farmer and Church of the Brethren youth worker, ladled out cups of milk to hungry children on both sides of the conflict. It struck him that what these families needed was "not a cup, but a cow." He asked his friends back home to donate heifers, a young cow that has not borne a calf, so hungry families could feed themselves. In return, they could help another family become self-reliant by passing on to them one of their gift animal’s female calves.
Over the years, the organization has expanded to include providing goats, bees, sheep, geese, rabbits, pigs, chickens, ducks, llamas, buffalo and trees. It is an amazing organization which gives not just a hand out, but a hand up, to those who are living in hunger and poverty all around the world.