THE HEIFER PROJECT: COWS 'R US.

In the small coastal city of Monte Christe in the Dominican Republic, mesquite trees, cacti, dusty roads and farms stretch as far as the eye can see.

The region's nickname--"We die of thirst"--rings with dry truth as residents line-up to buy high-priced drinking water from tanker trucks. Monte Christe is not only parched, it's poor. But, 10 years ago, hope arrived in the form of a wooden corral which houses 120 goats kept by Emeliana Altagracia Veras and other members of her village.

Veras began the herd with two goats she received from the Arkansas-based Heifer Project International (HPI). For 50 years, HPI has been donating cows, chickens, pigs, oxen, water buffalo, honeybees, llamas, frogs and rabbits to millions of rural people in over 100 countries. For Veras and her community, two goats made the difference between barely surviving and thriving. "I am proud to say that now I have milk and meat for my family. We can have five quarts a day, with enough left for the baby goats."

Veras has 15 mother goats, and gives the offspring to her family and neighbors. It's called "passing on the gift" and HPI always builds in this unique sharing mechanism that strengthens community bonds and encourages accountability.

In the past, most people in this region scraped out an existence by illegally cutting trees from the nearly barren countryside to sell as charcoal--encouraging erosion and degrading the soil. This forced more people to move to cities seeking work as local opportunities burned away.

And in this tough climate, goats proved to be the best choice for producing food and income without further harming the forest. Their main diet is pods from the plentiful mesquite trees. But HPI's Carlos Zometa, an international program director who is also a breeding specialist, explains that animals are a means to an end. "We are not an animal project. We are a human development project," he says.

HPI's emphasis on animals as "capital assets" has won it some critics in the animal rights community. Jennifer O'Connor, a cruelty caseworker with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has corresponded with HPI. "I applaud their efforts to help families who wouldn't have enough to eat otherwise," she says, "but the land each cow grazes on could be used to feed 100 people if they were growing vegetables."

Since 1984, almost 600 impoverished Dominican families, some 5,000 people, have achieved greater economic independence with assistance from HPI. Peter Mahn, the international coordinator for World Hunger Year, says HPI has earned a great deal of respect from the giants of international aid, such as the World Bank, USAID and the United Nations. These big institutions, Mahn says, have a one-size-fits-ail approach to development, and are now looking to HPI and other smaller organizations for "small is beautiful" guidance.

"One of the real lessons we've learned is that you have to begin with where communities are," Mahn says. "HPI has learned to work on the grassroots level to determine local needs, meet those needs, then get out of the way." CONTACT: Heifer Project International, PO Box 808, Little Rock, AR 72203/[phone].