Organic Fertilizer Project at MeA
Guatemala is facing a sort of agricultural crisis, something that is quite serious for a country whose economy is largely based on agriculture. The amount of chemicals and chemically-based fertilizers that Guatemalan farmers are using are creating long-term damage for the soil that is feeding the nation. If farmers continue to use these harsh and harmful chemicals the soil will not produce food and sustenance for Guatemala’s children and grandchildren.
Mujeres en Accion, through the direction of the wonderful and knowledgeable Maria de Jesus Lopez, has been working on an organic fertilizer project to combat this disastrous inevitability. Maria, with the help of a volunteer Japanese agricultural-engineer, has been disseminating information on a type of organic fertilizer, called obono, which is easy to make, uses cheap and natural ingredients and is a viable alternative to fertilizers with harmful chemicals.
In late October I participated in a day-long workshop at Doña Gregoria’s house. Doña Gregoria is a member of Mujeres en Accion and is very active in her community. She has a natural medicine garden and provides her neighbors with natural remedies. Doña Gregoria, and her husband Don Juan were interested in learning how to make the obono to ensure that their children would be able to farm their land in the future. The day was full of fun, learning, sharing and laughter. We danced on the pieces of coal to break them into smaller pieces, we cheered on Don Juan while he did the exhausting work of mixing the huge mound of soil, coal, animal droppings, and corn husks and we shared a delicious home-made stew when we were done!
This is one of the education projects that MeA is currently undertaking, helping their members to become sustainable and ensure a future for their children.
Sara's Journey- The Spirit of Hope Part 4
*as seen on World Class documentaryMy return…
I returned to Sri Lanka a little apprehensive and very curious about what the situation would look like six months after my first trip and almost exactly one year after the tsunami. Through filming the documentary, I discovered that a great deal more construction had happened on that western coast south of Colombo. There were almost no temporary tents visible, hopefully indicating that most occupiers had been relocated and had residence. The water and sanitation tanks still existed in some areas, but it seemed as though a return to water systems had occurred in this area. In some instances, this could be an improvement of the sanitation services that existed before. The women of the SAPSRI lace-making cooperative had broken into the international export market and were distributing to Europe. This prompted the development of another women’s employment scheme through SAPSRI involving coir production. Coir is twine made from coconut shells and can be used in rope, matting, baskets, brooms and much more. I could see this same hope and optimism in the people I met growing as the promise of livelihood through cooperative development continued to grow.
Bringing it all together…
Reconstruction and development work in Sri Lanka is still problematic. From what I experienced, there is still not enough funding channelled to the northern Tamil areas which exacerbates the ethnic conflict; corruption at various levels both public and private is a constant reality and a lack of synchronism and cooperation amongst government, NGO’s, entrepreneurs and civil society certainly impedes the coherence of the development agenda. However, through my experience working with the Sri Lankan’s in NGO’s and in the communities, I saw that hope can still exist. Even against such enormous obstacles, people, as individuals and as a community, can still make a difference.
Sara's Journey - The Spirit of Hope Part III
*as seen on
World Class documentary
My Surprise…
This is my favourite part of the story to tell. Despite what seemed like a hopeless situation, where so many odds were stacked against the people of Sri Lanka, hope bloomed. I interviewed many people; parents who had lost children, mothers, fathers, the elderly, rural and urban dwellers and children. All of them ridden with emotion and suffering personal loss but not without hope. This hope reflected in how communities pulled together. It was not uncommon for a community to adopt and care for children orphaned by the tsunami. This hope empowered many of the people to take reconstruction into their own hands and use the means they had to get their lives and their community back on track. Where neighbours would come together and help one another reconstruct their homes. I met many inspirational women who were working through SAPSRI in a lace-making cooperative to weave lace and sell it to the domestic and international market. They had found a way to improve their lives and were working together to achieve it.
I had only a short month to volunteer in Sri Lanka, but I came away with such a rich experience and greater understanding of the difficulties of mobilizing a recovery effort for the tsunami. I felt inspired by the courageous individuals and communities I met and felt that effective and sustainable change would emerge from these local efforts. When I left, I felt as though I had only just begun to become involved with the development process happening around me and I wanted to contribute more. I had given my promise that even though I was leaving, I would continue to help and support the projects that I had been a part of.
So when I was contacted again by Terry Fielder at World Accord to be a part of a TV documentary on my experience in Sri Lanka for Villagers Media Productions, I was thrilled.
Sara Maki
World Accord sends Canadian Youth to Sri Lanka...twice! Part 2
The Spirit of Hope: Sara Maki’s Tsunami Journey
*as seen on World Class documentary
Part 2:
In Sri Lanka…
To appreciate the social, historical and political context that I was about to enter, I did some background reading and research on Sri Lanka. I read about the historical context and the ancient legacy of Kandian Kings living in the Sri Lankan highlands and erecting cities 2,000 years ago. I read about the rich religious tapestry of Sri Lanka and its claim to house “Buddha’s tooth relic” in a sacred temple. As I read about the British colonial encounter to establish the tea trade in Sri Lanka, I began to understand the more recent history of the ethnic conflict between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Sri Lankan Tamils that had only recently reached a cease fire through a peace accord in 2002. I entered Sri Lanka with a heavy heart, feeling that Sri Lanka was not only plagued with a history of oppression and misfortune, but was now faced with the seemingly insurmountable challenge of recovering lives and livelihoods after one of the most devastating natural disasters the world has ever seen. With the death toll calculated at nearly 33, 000, the number of displaced persons at nearly 750,000 and several thousand registered as still missing, this disaster did not discriminate against class, race or religion and affected the entire country. The projection for full recovery of economic status and social infrastructure was between 5 to 10 years. I was prepared to be met with grief, shock and despair.
My project
As I began to do my volunteer work in the field which comprised of collecting personal stories and accounts of the tsunami for documentation, I was exposed to the western coast of the island, following Colombo south to Matara, and saw row after row of temporary blue tents, rubble from houses and grave sites. I was shocked at the amount of devastation still visible six months after the tsunami. I wondered with all of the relief, funding and mobilization happening at the international and national level, why hadn’t more been done? While I worked in the office of SAPSRI on the annual report and project proposals, I could see the massive input of effort and response of this NGO and many others. I did not see the correlation of effort and funds on paper matching up with the reality in the field. And perhaps this is the biggest challenge in international development work: so often theory is not reality.
In Sri Lanka, I slowly learned that there were many impediments to effective and timely response. Citing security concerns, in the wake of December 2004 the government imposed a “buffer zone” of 100 metres for the southern and western coasts and a 200-metre area for the eastern coast. What this means is that all people who have for countless generations lived on these beaches must move further inland, jeopardizing their traditional livelihoods. There were so many NGO’s working independently in specific communities that a coherent and coordinated effort on rebuilding was difficult. This led to some families receiving two or possibly three new houses as there was little intra-organization information sharing and transparency. Compounding that, only selective regions were experiencing reconstruction, most notably in the Sinhalese dominant area of the south, while the Tamil populations in the north were left with much less support and representation.
World Accord sends Canadian youth to Sri Lanka....twice! Part 1
The Spirit of Hope: Sara Maki’s Tsunami Journey
*as seen on
World Class documentary
Part 1:
The Tsunami
In the early morning of Sunday December 26th, 2004, most of us probably remember waking up and going about the routine of a weekend winter holiday: for some that may involve Christmas and its festivities, for others that may involve attending another religious service and for others that may mean a much deserved extended sleep in. It was a day that started out un-extraordinary, but became a day that would change the world forever. When the news of the tsunami in South East Asia filtered onto television screens, newspapers and radio in Canada that fateful day, it seemed incredible and beyond a scale that we could fathom. Headlines reported “225,000 people dead”, “largest earthquake recorded in modern history”, and “waves 40 to 50 feet high”.
In response to the news, there was overwhelming support from the international community in the form of humanitarian financial assistance, voluntary services and emergency resources. At the time, I was working at a local not for profit organization in Waterloo, and helped to coordinate our association’s response. I was really proud to learn about Canada’s amazing response for tsunami relief and rehabilitation. But I wanted to do more. I wanted to go to Southeast Asia and work on the front lines of the tsunami recovery effort to help people who were suffering and who needed help getting their lives back. And so I went…
How I got there…
World Accord is a not-for-profit, non-governmental international development organization that connects Canadians with people of the developing world. I had traveled to Guatemala on a previous volunteer experience with World Accord and really connected with the values of the organization: development was done at the local level, it was a participatory and a shared learning experience, and, rather than a ‘donor and recipient’ relationship, seen as a partnership.
When I contacted World Accord and explained that I wished to volunteer in Sri Lanka and wondered if I could contribute through World Accord, Terry Fielder was very receptive. World Accord had a history with a non-governmental agency called South Asia Partnership in Sri Lanka (SAPSRI). Terry reconnected with the Executive Director, Dr. Padma Ratnayake and coordinated my placement.
My life was dramatically changing: I was off to exactly the other side of world to volunteer in Sri Lanka post tsunami rehabilitation.
Sara Maki
Microcredit...MACRO changes???
In September 2006, the Government of Canada proposed new guidelines for its Microcredit Policy. They approached non-governmental organizations, including World Accord, and asked them to review the report. The changes suggested by the government would gravely affect World Accord and our partners; future programming would exclude informal lending organizations and cater towards formal financial institutions such as banks and credit unions. Informal institutions, the Government declared, have high default rates and are not self-sufficient. Yet without access to credit from informal institutions, poor people have no where else to turn. Therefore, World Accord opposes the policy changes! We have responded with recommendations to strengthen microcredit programming and aid effectiveness to advocate on behalf of our partners, like the widowed women at Mujeres en Accion, so they can continue their good work.
Felipa Xico, Director of Mujeres en Accion, will be attending the 2006 Global Microcredit Summit in Halifax along with World Accord staff member, David Barth. The two will attend workshops to expand their knowledge in gaining access to foreign markets, and how to plan for financial self-sufficiency while reaching the poorest families. There will also be opportunities during panel discussions for Mujeres en Accion’s to share their experiences using microcredit as a tool for poverty reduction and increasing food security.
As microcredit gains international recognition, it is clear the world acknowledges this kind of initiative. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for innovating the microcredit concept in his country. The resulting social transformation it has inspired cannot be denied. World Accord stands by microcredit programming that is inclusive of local level initiatives and we are actively pursuing policy alternatives that empower the poor.
World Accord
