First gifts of PIGS greeted by eager villagers

Andrew Colquhoun and Tracy Chen from Captivating were special guests at a recent gift giving ceremony held in the Daxi Village of Kaili Township, Guizhou. 10 families were the first recipients of their gifts of pedigree pigs as part of the new Captivating/Heifer International Village Development program. This program will see 450 families progress out of poverty over the next 6 years. Each family receives a quota of pigs that they will raise under strict controlled conditions following 3 months of training provided by Heifer International (China). The gift of pigs are given on the condition that each family will “pass-on-the-gift” to another recipient family within 2 years to ensure this gift keeps on giving.

Captivating has a small support team on-the-ground in Kaili Township overseeing this program and keeping in touch with all recipient families to track their progress. This program has received wonderful up-front funding by 2 key donors in Australia. This up-front funding allows this project to continue while Captivating seeks to engage 150 family sponsors willing to support this program for the next 6 years at A/US$40 a month. Through progress reports and updates, family sponsors will share in the story of their family, receive updates on how progress is going to address poverty and see their gift progressively passed on to other families over the years to come. To date we have 39 family sponsors, but need many more.  We’d love to hear from you if you can help.

For more information, please read previous blog’s on this project or contact info@captivating.org. Your sponsorship of a family or support of this project will bring hope for a brighter future to not only these first families, but the future generations that follow them.

Click the photo’s below to see bigger images.

(pictured top: Andrew and Tracy at the first gift-giving ceremony; Bottom 1: Villagers trying to catch their new pigs; B2: Villagers taking their gifts home; B3: Yes, pigs can smile; B4: curious kids counting pigs; B5:Andrew visiting one of the families; B6: funny faces with Andrew, Tracy and students from the village school).