During the Spanish Civil War, an American farmer Dan West was ladling out rations of milk to hungry children when it hit him: “These children don’t need a cup. They need a cow.” West subsequently dedicated himself to ending hunger permanently so that families could be “spared the indignity of depending on others to feed their children.” This simple idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued and Heifer has helped millions of impoverished families worldwide become more self-reliant through the gift of livestock and training in their care.

Heifer’s history in Nepal can be traced back to 1957, when Heifer International sent shipments of cattle, pigs, sheep and parent stock of poultry at the government’s request in order to introduce high-yielding livestock into the native animal population. In 1993, the Baruwa Goat Raising Project for a group of 25 women in the Gitanagar Village Development Committee of Chitwan District was initiated as Heifer’s first project in Nepal. Heifer International Nepal began its official operation as a country office in September 1997, by signing the first formal agreement with the Social Welfare Council.