Last week, I attended a screening of the documentary, 12 Stones, by director Sandy Smolan with narration by actress Diane Lane at the Linwood Dunn Theater at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Pickford Center in Hollywood. Highlighting the great work of Heifer International— www.heifer.org —this is a beautiful film, and a beautiful cause. The film follows several illiterate women in Nepal and outlines their economic and personal transformation as they prepare to receive the gift of a goat, and then pass this gift on to other women in their community.

If you’ve ever received a postcard in the mail at holiday time announcing that a goat or a cow has been given in your name, that’s Heifer International. But this organization is more than a group that donates livestock to third world communities; this is an organization that creates sustainable communities through education and commerce. To get a goat, you must learn animal husbandry, have a place to keep the goat, explore the market for your goat’s milk, have business skills and an expansion plan, and you must be able to read, to negotiate, to integrate your family into the process, to give back what has been given to you, and to take your rightful place in the world.  This is entrepreneurship in action.

Heifer International’s trademarked “12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development,” are time-tested principles that stimulate group wisdom and keep hearts and minds balanced and focused. The Cornerstones make up the acronym: “Passing on the Gifts.” 

• Passing on the Gift
• Accountability
• Sustainability and Self reliance
• Sharing and Caring
• Improved Animal Management
• Nutrition and Income
• Genuine Need and Justice
• Gender and Family Focus
• Improving the Environment
• Full Participation
• Training and education
• Spirituality

Watching the transformation accomplished by the Nepalese women in the film as they took the simplest of steps was a reminder that for each of us, growth and change come from action. There’s not much of a difference between us as people; we all learn the same way and the capacity to change and adapt is in all of us. And sometimes, it’s the smallest steps we take that lead to the most radical change.  

3Lunches wholeheartedly supports this wonderful organization and we embrace Heifer International’s Cornerstones as values we stand for, and believe in.

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