For more than six decades, Heifer International has worked to both alleviate poverty and prevent hunger throughout the world. The unique nonprofit gives third-world countries gifts of both food-producing vegetation and livestock – and provides the opportunity for donors to do the same. Founded by U.S. farmer Dan West, Heifer International also provides training on a local level to promote ongoing, sustainable food sources as well as self-reliance within local communities.

Heifer International also has become well-known for its disaster rehabilitation services, and ecologically friendly procedures. Here at The Orchid Recovery Center, we endorse the work Heifer International is doing to combat the global issues of hunger and poverty. You can help donate to Heifer through our Orchid Recovery Center Heifer page.

The Gift of Sustainable Food Through Heifer International

Matching natural gifts to local climate and need, Heifer International offers communities in need an array of seedlings and livestock, ranging from cattle to water buffalo and from sheep to honeybees. Emphasis is placed on the livestock’s ability to continue to feed the community over the long-term, and recipients of Heifer’s gifts also receive a mating partner for the animal to help continue the source of sustainable food years into the future. Additionally, Heifer International requires families receiving its aid to pay the gift forward by offering offspring of the livestock to another family who has been likewise trained to maintain the source of food.

Heifer International’s Unique Giving Plan

Heifer International also provides a singular way for donors to participate in charitable giving. With gift certificates and even wedding registries that enable the “purchase” of an animal or plant, Heifer International allows gift givers to make a donation in a loved one’s name while attaching the notion to a tangible item. Donors see how far their funds will go, allowing them to select which resources they would like to send to families and communities in need.

As a result, individuals receiving gifts made possible by Heifer’s donors not only receive wholesome, nourishing food such as dairy, eggs and vegetables, but become able to provide for themselves and their families on an ongoing basis. By resolving the consequences of poverty and hunger, families can foray into commerce, building their own shelters and allowing children to receive educations.

Here at The Orchid, we support the work of The Family Violence Prevent Fund, an organization that endeavors to make homes across the world safe, positive environments where women and children can live without the threat of domestic violence. In addition to its efforts to ensure domestic safety, The Family Violence Prevention Fund also works within communities internationally to help lower incidences of violence worldwide. Based on the core value that each individual has the right to live in a violence-free environment, the organization has been taking action in the areas of violence prevention, anti-violence training and public awareness for more than 30 years.

How The Family Violence Prevention Fund Makes a Difference

In the United States, The Family Violence Prevention Fund helped the creation and passing of the groundbreaking Violence Against Women Act initiated in early 1990s. Today, domestically and beyond, The Family Violence Prevention Fund has continued its efforts to bring about social change. Here are just a few ways in which The Family Violence Prevention Fund continues to promote family and community safety.

• Public Education Awareness Campaigns
  Public education is one of the consistent aims of The Family Violence Prevention Fund. The organization has expanded its public education initiatives to include outreaches aimed at men and youth, in order to prevent violence before it begins and facilitate healing for victims of violence.

• Training Initiatives
  In partnering with the health care system, legal system and corporate world, The Family Violence Prevention Fund has provided awareness, education and training to help those in authority change attitudes regarding familial and community violence, providing better prevention on the issue’s front lines. Enabling these agencies to better spot the symptoms of domestic violence and abuse, The Family Violence Prevention Fund also provides training in necessary, expedient steps for intervention and reestablishment of safety. Leadership training is also provided in at-risk populations, particularly among minority women or those who have immigrated to the country.

• Child Protection Efforts and Parental Education
  The Family Violence Prevention Fund helps create safety and healing for children who witness – or are the victims of – violence within the home. Furthermore, The Family Violence Prevention Fund offers coaching to moms, dads and mentors about safety, personal boundaries and healthy interactions to help prevent incidents of violence.

• Legislation Activism

The Family Violence Prevention Fund works alongside members of Congress to help enact and bolster laws that provide funding for agencies that offer services to victims of physical and sexual violence.

The Orchid Recovery Center has just joined up with the Rape Abuse Incest National Network (RAINN) to help fund-raise money for their organizational goals of being there for women and men in a time of need. If you would like to help out and donate to their cause, visit the Orchid Recovery Center RAINN charity page and contribute what you can. With your help we can help RAINN fund their programs and national hotlines.

Rape Abuse Incest National Network

RAINN is the largest anti-sexual assault network in the nation. In 1994 they established the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1.800.656.HOPE) and in 2007 they launched the free and confidential online version of the hotline. In addition to the hotline network across the nation, RAINN also gets out into local communities to educate the public about sexual assault and helps ensure rapists are brought to justice. Through partnerships with community organizations, celebrities, athletes and caring volunteers, since it’s founding, 1.5 million women and men have been helped. and over 1.2 million individuals are educated on the issues each year.

Sexual Assault Statistics

• 1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime
• 1-33 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime
• College women are 4 time more likely to be a victim of sexual assault
• In 2007 there were 248,300 victims of sexual assault
• Every two minutes someone becomes a victim of sexual assault
• 60% of these are not reported
• 73% know who their rapist is.

According to RAINN.org

The Susan G. Komen foundation has built a hard-earned reputation as one of the most respected – and most effective – cancer charities in the world. Here at The Orchid Recovery Center, we support the work the foundation has done in the battle against breast cancer. Inspired by Komen’s personal fight against breast cancer and her dedication to the cause itself, founder Nancy G. Brinker set out to create the foundation in her sister’s honor. Since its beginnings in the early 1980s, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation has invested over a billion and a half dollars into the fight against breast cancer.

With participation from breast cancer survivors as well as their families and friends, the Susan G. Komen foundation has created a support network for millions of women fighting breast cancer worldwide. The foundation’s now-famous “Race for the Cure” event has raised record-breaking levels of donations each year, making the organization the number-one nonprofit fundraising organization in the world among organizations joining in the fight to end breast cancer.

Ways the Susan G. Komen Foundation Is Making a Difference

In addition to providing an education and support network to survivors of breast cancer and their loved ones, the Susan G. Komen foundation has seen its efforts help bring about social and medical change. In the time since the foundation’s inception, early detection techniques have improved, with three-quarters of women over 40 regularly undergoing preventative mammograms.

Additionally, in the time since the organization’s birth, early breast cancer’s five-year survival rate (used as the most predictable measure of long-term survival in oncology) increased from 74 to 98 percent over the last two and a half decades. The Susan G. Komen Foundation has also been pivotal in facilitating government funding for breast cancer research, now totaling more than $900 million annually. Perhaps most poignantly, America now boasts more than two and a half million individuals who have survived breast cancer, making these courageous individuals the single largest group of cancer survivors in the country.