Pig

Piggies are such fun and are among the world's most popular farm animals! With up to 20 piglets a year that can reach market weight in just a few months, families with a gift of Heifer pig often double their income and at the same time, with plenty of offspring to pass on to others in need, as Heifer requires.

Heifer teaches farmers how to raise healthy pigs in clean pens. Pigs are so practical for impoverished families as they consume crop by-products and vegetable waste. In return, they provide a valuable source of protein to an often starchy diet of poor families, and their manure enrich vegetables and crops.

Qin Bang Lin is so excited to show off his Heifer China pig. He lights firecrackers to welcome visitors to his home in Lu Ding! In this remote, mountainous county in western Sichuan, average income per person is only about 720 yuan each year.

Qin and his wife take great care of their crossbred sow so she is healthy and clean. Their much- loved pig helps earn income to buy food and send their handicapped daughter to school. It also enables them to pass on the first litter of piglets to help families in need very soon. And something else very important to Qin: he wants to use some of the pig income to buy good quality seedlings to re-forest the barren hill slopes near his home along the flooded Upper Yangtze.

Give a pig to honor friends and family members! Not only will it spread laughter to your loved ones, but also families in China who can live beyond bare survival and care for the Earth.