Heifer Global Village Provides Hands-on Cultural Experience

Students Learn About World Hunger

Laurie Savage
Maryland Correspondent

SHARPSBURG, Md. — “I’m starving!” is a phrase many people have probably heard children proclaim, or perhaps thought themselves, when hungry.
Shepherd’s Spring Outdoor Ministry Center in Sharpsburg, Md. is working to spread awareness of what it is to truly be starving, through a new Heifer Global Village, said Annette Lenker, director.

According to its Web site, “The experience-based Heifer Global Village programs explore the issues of global poverty and hunger while challenging people to examine their own habits, consumption patterns and beliefs to become more responsible global citizens.”

Shepherd’s Spring Outdoor Ministry Center is a retreat center and summer camp owned and operated by the Mid-Atlantic District Church of the Brethren.

The retreat is comprised of 220 mostly wooded acres filled with hiking trails that reach to the C&O Canal.

The facility offers summer camps for children, youth and adults as well as programs through Exploritas — educational travel programs for adults in cooperation with Elderhostel, Inc.

According to the Heifer International Web site, the organization works with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth.

“By giving families a hand-up, not just a hand-out, we empower them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope,” the site states.

Through Heifer International, gifts of livestock and training go to impoverished families to improve their nutrition and generate income. In exchange, families agree to give one of the animal’s offspring to another family in need, which is termed “passing on the gift.”

The Heifer Global Village in Sharpsburg consists of a group of international homes representing several cultures built in the woods at Shepherd’s Spring.

The village features homes styled like living conditions in Guatemala, Mozambique and Kenya, as well as Appalachia (here in the U.S.) and a typical refugee camp that could be anyplace in the world. Future plans include a Thailand home, two additional homes and another Mozambique kitchen, a canvas yurt typical of central Asia, a platform and a small stone home like in Tibet, a second composting toilet system, a pavilion and even a two-story community center.

Program participants spend either four hours or 24 hours in the village experiencing what life is like in another culture.

Through the shorter program, called Cultural Connections, students from fourth grade through sixth grade make an authentic meal and learn about a particular culture, comparing it to their own culture. They play a game and view items from that culture provided by Heifer International’s headquarters in that country or by Heifer International volunteers who visited the country.

The longer program, Global Gateway, is geared toward sixth-grade to college-age students, and includes an overnight stay in the homes with little to eat.

Participants must figure out how to work with the students staying in the other homes in the village and use what each group is provided with.

“We have them make decisions on their own and as a group,” Lenker said.

Students talk about their experiences the next day over breakfast.

Shepherd’s Spring signed an agreement with Heifer International as a sponsor site for the program.

“We are the fourth site in the U.S.,” Lenker said, with the other three located in Arkansas, Massachusetts and Michigan.

Heifer’s goal is to have more centers across the country, but the organization does not have the resources to do so.

Shepherd’s Spring raises the funds and provides the volunteers to build the homes. The facility, in turn, receives publicity and the benefits of a partnership with Heifer.

“Having the Heifer name as publicity — we can’t buy that type of advertising. That has been an asset for us and for Heifer,” Lenker explained.

The building process brought with it some challenges, including working within county building codes while keeping the homes as authentic as possible.

Future plans include having animals that are included in Heifer’s programs available at the village for even more of an authentic experience.

The village programs take place from mid-March to mid-November. The Shepherd’s Spring village opened in May 2009, and since June 570 people have taken part in tours or programs. Several groups came from as far away as North Carolina.

The facility is located at 16869 Taylors Landing Road, Sharpsburg, Md. For more information, call (301) 223-8193 or visit www.shepherdsspring.org. For more information on Heifer International, visit www.heifer.org