A crash course in changing the world.
As the 3rd of 3 girls in my family, I am used to get "hand me downs" from my siblings. I did not appreciate this system when I was younger but today I love it! My sisters are so used to handing stuff down to me such that all I have to do is stare at my sisters shoes for a couple of seconds and they will offer them to me - lucky me!!
This happened today (yes I took the shoes, thank you very much) and got me thinking, is there any way passing it on can work with social innovation. As usual I scoured the globe for information and found a great pass-it-on social innovation that has been implemented very successfully by Heifer International.
Heifer is a non-profit dedicated to relieving global hunger and poverty. It provides gifts of cattle, sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs, honeybees, pigs, llamas, water buffalo, camels, alpacas, yaks, horses, chicks, ducks, goats, geese, fish, other regionally appropriate livestock, as well as tree seedlings. Animals such as goats, water buffalo and camels are "seven M" animals: they provide meat, milk, muscle, manure, money, materials and motivation. Participating families are required to "pass on the gift", i.e they must give at least 1 of the female offspring to a neighbour who has undergone Heifer's training. In time, that neighbour will pass along one of the offspring of its animal, and so on.
Heifer offers a wedding registry in which engaged couples can register for gifts to Heifer instead of traditional wedding presents - anyone getting married soon???
Dan West, the founder of Heifer has officially been added to my list of heros and I am now following @Heifer on Twitter.
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