I'm from a Third World Country (sort of)

Yesterday on Facebook an acquaintance from high school posted a link to a music video excited that several people were in it including her.  I watched the video out of curiosity of course.  It seems that the video was a very nicely (an probably expensively) produced music video promoting Heifer Project International.  I'm out of the loop, so it's really possible the guy singing it is some giant pop star, but I doubt it.

The video flips between images that are very distinctly South American and scenes from the town I grew up in, with some shots in front of Heifer Project's headquarters.  The scenes from my Arkansas Delta hometown were frankly more depressing than the mountain landscapes with rural people in the south American mountains.

A quick gander at Heifer Project's website shows that they only have two programs running in the U.S.  One in Oregon, and one in the Delta.  The rest of their projects are in either 3rd world countries or "second" world countries such as Ukraine. 

I'm torn though.  I'm glad that some well organized group is getting in there and trying to get people to help themselves; on the flip side I feel it destined to failure.  There is so little employment there, the school district has collapsed in mess of lawsuits and apathy, and the area is riddled with gangs and drug dealing and abuse.   People in general there have so little pride in their surroundings that when a building falls into disrepair it simply falls down and the pile stays there.  If there is a fire the burned shell of the building stays.  There are no public playgrounds or parks nor is there a tax base or a willing group of volunteers to work at things like this.  When the city does manage to scrape together a little money such as putting out concrete picnic tables the thugs come along break the tables apart.  Metal is stolen at an amazing clip - my uncle who farms there replaces culverts and parts on his irrigation systems frequently.  Depressing.

So to say that I'm from a third world "county" is not too far fetched, even major international charities think so.

This in no way colors my opinion of Heifer Project.  Honestly I feel it one of the better aid programs out there and urge you to donate money to the charity.  If you are not familiar with the philosophy of Heifer Project please read up on it as it was based on "pay forward" long before the term became popular.

In a weird footnote to the whole thing I might have been the one to put Hometown on Heifer Project's radar.  I don't know this for sure of course. A few years ago when the mayor that hired Mom was soon to be up for re-election and we knew he would likely be booted out, I spent hours on the computer trying to get agencies into the town and looking for grants.  I distinctly remember writing an e-mail to Heifer Project as they were starting new programs in the U.S. at that time.  Do I KNOW that I sent Heifer to Hometown, nope I don't, but I can't help but wonder.