Happy Christmas and 2004... and Send A Cow

I am off for my Christmas break so, while I'm away, will leave you with the following entry on the fantastic Send A Cow charity.

My thanks to everyone who has helped to steer me through the ups and downs of my PhD (Mum, Dad, Geraldine, Pip, Graham, George, Oliver, Erica, Paul J, Justin M, Roo, WildCRU) and to Rebecca B, Jacci G, Jez, Roger H + Alex K, who have inspired + encouraged me to keep on producing Earth Info.

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas + 2004! Matt

P.S. It's great to hear that Mark H, a friend from Leicester Uni days, has just been released. Christmas is already off to a flying start!

If you would like to buy a present that really transforms someone's life this Christmas, Earth-Info.Net would like to recommend a visit to the Send A Cow website.

This charity was set up in 1988 when UK farmers sent greatly needed cows to Uganda at the end of a long and brutal civil war...

Now all cows are locally sourced and it is possible for you to help communities very directly by sponsoring the purchase of a cow, goats, pigs, poultry, bees or fruit-tree saplings.

If you don't have much money it is also possible to contribute a smaller amount towards a share in one of these sources of food, independence + income or at the other end of the scale... to go the whole hog and provide a whole farm yard!

As part of the deal recipient farmers have to give the first female offspring of their gift to another impoverished family and preference is generally given to helping women (who are often amongst the poorest in society), the disabled or those suffering from AIDS or orphaned by it.

For those of you in the US, Send A Cow's partner organisation in the US is called Heifer International.

As a means of enabling individuals + families to help themselves and one another Earth-Info.Net struggles to think of a better cause to support...