May 28, 2010 – Jackson Nelson returned to Leogane to complete the work WHR-Haiti began in March. They are in conversation with several other non-governmental organizations who need help with water wells. We are pleased that they have been able to respond in this way, and that they are becoming a resource for other communities around the country. May 12, 2010 – Addressing needs in rural communities like Ferrier is being promoted both as a way to support internally- displaced Haitians and as a solution to a long-term, chronic problem. By the time of the earthquake, chaotic urban migration had turned the capital of Port-au-Prince from a modest-sized city to a crowded, messy habitation for over three million people. Experts involved in the reconstruction effort are increasingly encouraging the one million Haitians who have left Port-au-Prince to stay put in the countryside. The January 29 Christian Science Monitor reported: “As Haitian officials and international development experts start to envision Haiti’s reconstruction, ‘decentralization’ has become an ubiquitous rallying cry.”
These thoughts guided my visit in February. Ferrier is one of the few areas of Haiti with under-utilized land resources. It includes the third largest flood-irrigated area in the country, and as such holds the potential to produce significant quantities of rice, the staple food of many Haitians. Rice production creates additional jobs as the crop is processed, transported, and marketed to consumers. I spent much of my visit slogging through rice fields, discussing these ideas with local farmers.
Upon returning to Waco, I began making phone calls. Much to my astonishment, Cornell University's Norman Uphoff, one of the world’s leading proponents of SRI, was looking for partners to help introduce this approach to Haitian farmers. Dick Roosenberg, an internationally-recognized specialist in ox traction, was looking for ways for Tillers International to respond to the needs in Haiti and quickly agreed to visit Ferrier to provide advice on oxen and improved implements for rice production.
A Haitian organization, GRADES-Nord, agreed to manufacture the tools needed for SRI and asked us to partner with them in a large grant proposal to finance a revolving fund enabling Ferrier farmers to purchase ox teams. Finally, a retired scientist from the International Rice Research Institute agreed to provide consulting services in Ferrier and connect us with other international resources.
There are few times in my life that I have felt prayer answered so directly as in the events of these past three months. Rebuilding Haiti remains a monumental undertaking. Nonetheless, we step forward in the confidence that God is calling us to participate in this task. Pray with WHRI as we nurture these tender shoots of hope growing up through the tragedy and rubble.
March 15, 2010 - The World Hunger Relief – Haiti well drilling team has completed three wells in the Leogane area at the request of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC). They encountered lots of problems due to the rocky soils they had to drill through. At 50-60 ft depth they lost their best drill bit. Due to other commitments in northeastern Haiti, they will return to complete their work with CRWRC in a month or two.
February 22, 2010 - I traveled to Ferrier through the Dominican Republic partly because of the post-earthquake travel difficulties in Haiti, and partly in hopes of making contacts with resources on the Dominican side of the border. This trip had two main purposes. First, I hoped to assess the WHR-Haiti response to the crisis experienced in southern regions of the country. Secondly, I wanted to further our efforts to promote long-term economic advancement through improved rice production.
Some 2-300 families (roughly 1000 people) have relocated in Ferrier following the Jan. 13 earthquake in Port-au-Prince and southern areas of the country. Most of these are relatives of Ferrier residents and/or former Ferrier residents who migrated to the city. WHR-Haiti responded to this influx by distributing food and cash to returnees. The process appears to have been orderly and well documented. Mission Waco and WHRI both contributed funds toward this effort, and WHR-Haiti President, Jackson Nelson does not feel the on-going need is significant enough to continue the program.
A portion of our support was used to repair the Beraka Mission internet connection. In the days following the earthquake, this was their only functioning means of communication with the outside world.
The WHR-Haiti well-drilling team is preparing to travel to Leogane, a small town west of the capital which was devastated in the January earthquake. Christian is overseeing relief efforts in the area, and their water specialist requested that WHR-Haiti dig four wells to provide drinking water for affected communities. Because their equipment is dated, they have been repairing worn parts and collecting materials with financial support from WHRI and Mission Waco. They plan to mobilize after hosting a Mission Waco mission group the 2nd week of March. I was pleased to see they have implemented several of my recommendations from last September, including replacing the Beraka Mission well and chlorinating a new well they are developing for a Catholic project in Ouanaminthe.
Although the Ferrier area was not directly affected by the January earthquake, and prices of most goods have returned to near-normal levels, the repercussions of the devastation are evident in the overall mood of the area. Virtually everyone continues to grieve the loss of friends and family. An unspoken shadow of discouragement is evident in small ways. Attendance at all the local schools has declined significantly. At the WHR-Haiti school, parents have objected to having their children attend classes in an older poured-concrete building. Jackson Nelson called a parents meeting while I was there in order to motivate parents to send their children and not succumb to discouragement.
I am pleased and impressed with the response of WHR-Haiti to the crisis, and feel that we did well to work through them rather than to mobilize independently. Having responded to immediate needs, our focus should now turn to supporting long-term economic development efforts in order to enable the community to support their returned population, and minimize the forces which might lead them back to a city whose once-meager opportunities have been diminished drastically.
Executive Director
Neil Miller
World Hunger Relief, Inc.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Don't explode your brain
This post was originally published at Yellow Inkling.
I had a great discussion with our current Service Learning group about what can practically be done – by you and I - about poverty in this world. But wait – what’s a Service Learning group?
At World Hunger Relief, we host several Service Learning groups a year. Part of the mission of the Farm is to “educate those with an economic abundance on methods of conserving and sharing resources.” Our Service Learning program, along with our fun-filled (and rabbit poop, worm, goat, chicken, garden-filled) Farm tours, and sending farmers off the Farm to speak, are ways we do this in our community. And...surprise! One of my main jobs here on the Farm is to manage all three of these education programs.
Our Service Learning groups come from schools, churches, families, and universities. They stay for varying lengths, from 8 hours up to two weeks. During Spring Break time (March-April) we are super busy with several Alternative Spring Break groups from colleges around the country.
Right now we have a National Summer Service Team from University of Michigan on the Farm. They’re one of our longer- staying groups just a day shy of two weeks. They’ve been an ideal group and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them.
Last night I hosted one of my favorite Service Learning activities for them – Hunger Meal. The activity includes a meal, a presentation, and a discussion at the end. At the beginning, each participant chooses a life situation card. The card includes a name, country of residence, income bracket, and a short description of daily life – struggles, work, family, etc. Each participant is then fed according to the card they randomly picked.
I try to schedule this activity after a hard day’s work and the groups are asked not to snack between lunch and the activity which typically takes place during the evening. The “high-income” people are seated at the table with a ridiculous amount of food, usually including a balanced meal with meat, several beverage selections, and dessert. “Middle-income” participants are seated in a chair and are given beans and rice in a bowl with a spoon and a glass of water. “Low-income” participants are seated on the ground and given a large pot of rice to share amongst themselves, along with glasses of “dirty water” (water colored light brown with a splash of coffee or tea). It usually breaks down to about 15% of the group being high-income, 25% middle-income, and 60% low-income.
While the participants eat, they share their cards and I present current statistics and issues regarding world hunger and poverty.
In all honesty, although this is my favorite Service Learning activity to lead, it’s a difficult one. It’s difficult to talk about hunger and poverty in regards to statistics and generalities. In fact, in the past, I’ve often avoided talking about these problems because I didn’t know of a good way without mentioning the often sterile and meaningless statistics. But after first learning how to lead this activity I realized something – some people have never heard these statistics; they might know that there are hungry people in the world, but they don’t realize that it’s a sixth of earth’s population. I’ve learned that it’s okay to start with: currently, there are 1.6 billion people living on less than $2 a day – 900 million people in this world go hungry every day.
I say this to people who, at this point in the day, are very hungry themselves, given a handful of rice after a many hours of hard work. Then, I move closer to home – Texas is the second hungriest state in the Union – 15% of people living in Texas go hungry every day. After presenting the dry facts (that may be less dry with rumbling stomachs), I share what the Farm is doing and what they can do themselves. Last night we had a great discussion about this.
The issue was this: what can we practically do about poverty in the world? The problem is a big one and if we were to think about all the complexities at the same time and worry about and try to solve all of them, our heads would explode our pink brains everywhere. Instead, we discussed a few important steps. If you are wondering about what you can do, read on. This is what we came up with.
Oh, and if you get stuck, drop us a line at the Farm.
(Maybe your thing is Vodka? Solved. Ha.)
I had a great discussion with our current Service Learning group about what can practically be done – by you and I - about poverty in this world. But wait – what’s a Service Learning group?
Our Service Learning groups come from schools, churches, families, and universities. They stay for varying lengths, from 8 hours up to two weeks. During Spring Break time (March-April) we are super busy with several Alternative Spring Break groups from colleges around the country.
Right now we have a National Summer Service Team from University of Michigan on the Farm. They’re one of our longer- staying groups just a day shy of two weeks. They’ve been an ideal group and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them.
Last night I hosted one of my favorite Service Learning activities for them – Hunger Meal. The activity includes a meal, a presentation, and a discussion at the end. At the beginning, each participant chooses a life situation card. The card includes a name, country of residence, income bracket, and a short description of daily life – struggles, work, family, etc. Each participant is then fed according to the card they randomly picked.
I try to schedule this activity after a hard day’s work and the groups are asked not to snack between lunch and the activity which typically takes place during the evening. The “high-income” people are seated at the table with a ridiculous amount of food, usually including a balanced meal with meat, several beverage selections, and dessert. “Middle-income” participants are seated in a chair and are given beans and rice in a bowl with a spoon and a glass of water. “Low-income” participants are seated on the ground and given a large pot of rice to share amongst themselves, along with glasses of “dirty water” (water colored light brown with a splash of coffee or tea). It usually breaks down to about 15% of the group being high-income, 25% middle-income, and 60% low-income.
While the participants eat, they share their cards and I present current statistics and issues regarding world hunger and poverty.
In all honesty, although this is my favorite Service Learning activity to lead, it’s a difficult one. It’s difficult to talk about hunger and poverty in regards to statistics and generalities. In fact, in the past, I’ve often avoided talking about these problems because I didn’t know of a good way without mentioning the often sterile and meaningless statistics. But after first learning how to lead this activity I realized something – some people have never heard these statistics; they might know that there are hungry people in the world, but they don’t realize that it’s a sixth of earth’s population. I’ve learned that it’s okay to start with: currently, there are 1.6 billion people living on less than $2 a day – 900 million people in this world go hungry every day.
I say this to people who, at this point in the day, are very hungry themselves, given a handful of rice after a many hours of hard work. Then, I move closer to home – Texas is the second hungriest state in the Union – 15% of people living in Texas go hungry every day. After presenting the dry facts (that may be less dry with rumbling stomachs), I share what the Farm is doing and what they can do themselves. Last night we had a great discussion about this.
The issue was this: what can we practically do about poverty in the world? The problem is a big one and if we were to think about all the complexities at the same time and worry about and try to solve all of them, our heads would explode our pink brains everywhere. Instead, we discussed a few important steps. If you are wondering about what you can do, read on. This is what we came up with.
- Education – educate yourself about what’s going on. Familiarize yourself with some statistics. I told the group last night that they were in fact doing something about poverty and hunger by taking that first step: coming to the farm and learning about what’s going on in Waco, Texas, our country, and the world. You can start with our links. Quick intros like 12 Myths About World Hunger are also a good start.
People – surround yourself with like-minded people, people who care about these issues and want to learn more, too. They don’t have to have the same ideas as you – in fact, the purpose of finding like-minded people is to learn from them and share perspectives, while also being encouraged. This was one of the reasons why I wanted to come to the Farm. These people are everywhere – your school, your church, maybe your family, your friends (exhibit A: the lovely specimens pictured above.) There may be groups near you that are already meeting and doing something (think Texas Hunger Initiative, McLennan County Hunger Coalition, Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition, etc).
- Resources and Your One Thing – As people that live in America, we have to start looking at where we are putting our resources. This is often the hardest step. Even those who don’t consider themselves “rich” have enormous amounts of resources (money, time, influences). As we talked about this last step, we decided that the best way to handle this is to start small. Pick one part of your life to examine. A few years ago, when James and I first started looking specifically at the issue of hunger and how it relates to the food system, we decided to pick one thing to change.
I started with my eggs. We eat a lot of eggs and I knew that most of the eggs sold in grocery stores were produced by chickens that were abused, pumped full of grain (which could be used elsewhere) and antibiotics, and cared for by people who are often abused themselves by employers. And so we concentrated on eggs: just finding a supplier for eggs that I knew, either through friends or the farmer’s market, or even getting a few of my own chickens. After we did that, we went on to milk, then meat. But we took it one thing at a time. And yes, sometimes that one thing took six months to solve, find, or incorporate into our lives. But since we did gradually, it didn’t make our brains go ka-boom-splat.
Maybe you drink an insane amount of coffee – maybe that could be your “one thing.” Take time and find out where your coffee comes from. With coffee being one of the biggest reasons why modern slavery exists, you could take some time and find a Fair Trade supplier or talk to your local coffee shop owner about serving Fair Trade coffee.
Oh, and if you get stuck, drop us a line at the Farm.
(Maybe your thing is Vodka? Solved. Ha.)
Monday, May 10, 2010
May 22 Block Walk to promote summer food program
The McLennan County Hunger Coalition, of which World Hunger Relief is a member, is having a community block walk to help promote the summer food program for children in Waco.
This is an opportunity to partner with the farm in a larger community event. People from the farm will be present and we hope some of you might like to participate as well. Here is the original message:
The McLennan County Hunger Coalition would like to invite you to participate in a first step for this summer by promoting awareness of the summer food program for 2010. Over 28,000 kids receive nutritious meals during the school year. The Summer Food Program fills the hunger gap with meals and snacks when school’s out. Every child can receive free meals during the summer, yet in 2009, only 6.7% of eligible children participated. We need your help to participate with us in getting the word out.
Join the McLennan County Hunger Coalition on May 22 from 9am to 12noon for a community block walk to promote the summer food program. We will focus on specific sites in three areas of our community- North, South, and East Waco. Congregations, school groups, and committed individuals are encouraged to show up for a few hours and help us spread the word about the program.
If you plan to participate, please RSVP to Alexis Weaver: aweaver@wacochamber.com by May 17, and indicate the area of Waco that you would like to be involved in. We will send information prior to May 22 with the meeting location, block captain, and any other pertinent details.
We appreciate all of your support to end hunger in McLennan County.
Sincerely,
The McLennan County Hunger Coalition
Alexis Weaver
Director of Community Affairs
Community Development
aweaver@wacochamber.com
This is an opportunity to partner with the farm in a larger community event. People from the farm will be present and we hope some of you might like to participate as well. Here is the original message:
The McLennan County Hunger Coalition would like to invite you to participate in a first step for this summer by promoting awareness of the summer food program for 2010. Over 28,000 kids receive nutritious meals during the school year. The Summer Food Program fills the hunger gap with meals and snacks when school’s out. Every child can receive free meals during the summer, yet in 2009, only 6.7% of eligible children participated. We need your help to participate with us in getting the word out.Join the McLennan County Hunger Coalition on May 22 from 9am to 12noon for a community block walk to promote the summer food program. We will focus on specific sites in three areas of our community- North, South, and East Waco. Congregations, school groups, and committed individuals are encouraged to show up for a few hours and help us spread the word about the program.
If you plan to participate, please RSVP to Alexis Weaver: aweaver@wacochamber.com by May 17, and indicate the area of Waco that you would like to be involved in. We will send information prior to May 22 with the meeting location, block captain, and any other pertinent details.
We appreciate all of your support to end hunger in McLennan County.
Sincerely,
The McLennan County Hunger Coalition
Alexis Weaver
Director of Community Affairs
Community Development
aweaver@wacochamber.com
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Goats make the best movie stars
If you are living in the Waco area you have probably already heard the buzz of the movie filmed here in town. Friend of the farm, not to mention extremely talented musician, Wes Cunningham has recently embarked on a film project with some other local, and near local folks. The story is based on the journey Wes took, along with his wife and young son, away from the fast paced music scene in LA to small town Sironia (Waco) in search of meaning. The story brings Wes to the farm where he believes for a moment that he has found the meaning or purpose that he is after, but I am sorry to tell you that the farm was not the answer.
We reenacted farm day for the shoot complete with vendors, milking demonstrations, a petting zoo and a few extras like ribbon dancing and bubbles. The day was hectic and somewhat silly but also a lot of fun and a nice step out of the routine. I milked Frosty, as I have done many times before, but this time there was a widescreen camera lens and a wardrobe director. Ryan drove the tractor, as he has done countless times, but this time it followed the call “action” and showed up on monitors.
In addition to our efforts to represent the farm well the film crew and actors did their best to look farmy, including rubbing their farm shirts in the dirt before wearing them...
The day was a step out of the ordinary for sure. The bright likes shown on goats and farmers alike and each did their best to act "normal." Fortunately the day rounded out with some good hard farm work before the attention got to our heads. The movie will hopefully be making its way through the independent circles so keep an eye out for Sironia and let us know what you think!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)