September 14, 2005
Project imparts worldly lesson
Local teens participate in third world Project Heifer program
By
Herald staff writer
The global community got much smaller for Peter and Nathan Koeneman and their friend Robert Evans after participating in Project Heifer this summer.
The Traverse City teens attended a week-long mission trip to Heifer Ranch, located in Little Rock, Ark., after the Koeneman's mother, Claire Scerbak heard of the organization that helps families in third world countries become self-reliant.
Project Heifer is just one of the many programs offered by Heifer International, the non profit humanitarian organization dedicated to ending world hunger and saving the earth by providing livestock, trees, training and other resources to help poor families around the globe.
The program at Heifer Ranch teaches participants about the realities of poverty and hunger by immersing them into the same circumstances that struggling families face all over the world, every day.
"It's hard to go to something like this and remain apathetic," Scerbak said.
The boys participated in educational, service and team building activities designed to teach the value of serving others. Hands-on work projects to help maintain the Heifer Ranch as well as participation in a Global Village overnight experience left the boys with a new found appreciation for the world around them.
"It kind of showed you how third world countries are so dependent and how one cow can make such a difference in their lives," said 14-year-old Peter Koeneman who helped build a set of wooden steps on the ranch property and provide irrigation to the ranch's garden.
The threesome participated in an overnight experience designed to simulate life in a third-world slum including sleeping in a shelter made of corrugated metal and living with limited food and water resources.
"It really gets the kids thinking and trying to get a grasp of what it would truly be like to live in a third-world country. It's a real education." Scerbak said.