Fall 2007 Online Newsletter

We are pleased to inform you of this summer's accomplishments, which were only possible with your support. Thank you!

New Indigenous Organization

During the Indigenous Tribunal this past June, Shipibo leaders from throughout the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon decided to form a grassroots development organization. The new Organization for the Defense and Development of the Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon, or ODDPIAP (as they call it), will work to bridge the gap between the poorly represented indigenous peoples and the government as they work to defend their territories and provide development assistance.

Above: The newly elected President of ODDPIAP.

Village Earth is currently working with the democratically-elected leadership to build the capacity of and support for ODDPIAP. We are also working together to raise the funds necessary to legalize ODDPIAP so that it can be officially recognized by the Peruvian government. The leaders of ODDPIAP are busy planning workshops throughout the region to mobilize students and community leaders to work together, and they are already preparing for the next Indigenous Tribunal to be held January 2008. Village Earth will continue to ally with ODDPIAP in their struggle for the self-determination of the indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon.

For more information, visit the Project Blog or contact the project coordinator, Kristina Pearson, kristina@villageearth.org.

Appropriate Technology Grants Program

The Appropriate Technology Library now has a new discount pricing scale for low-income organizations. For more information, check out the new Appropriate Technology Grants Program.

VE Training Empowers Global Leadership

Village Earth and the International Institute for Sustainable Development recently pulled off another successful Participatory Practices for Sustainable Development training course, August 6-17, 2007. Participants came from all around the world including Sudan, USA, UK, Kenya, Guatemala, Peru and Americans working in Southeast Asia and Africa - in all their diversity to contribute to a dialogue about participatory community-based development.

Above: Training participants on tour at a local organic farm.

Participants learned the theory behind the Village Earth Approach and how it is constantly refined through action and reflection as the Approach is put into practice in the field. One highlight of the training included the participation of Limber Gomez from Peru and Adriana Lazaro from Guatemala, two Village Earth project partners, who contributed their perspectives and experiences as "internal activators" within Village Earth-sponsored activities and illustrated the effectiveness of the Approach as applied in their communities. The two-week workshop also included lively discussions about the importance of Appropriate Technology to building sustainable communities, the role of Monitoring and Evaluation, and a new section of the course focusing on non-governmental organization (NGO)-Community dynamics.

The group also decided to form a global network of development practitioners as the focus of the strategic planning session part of the workshop. Far from seeing themselves as competing NGOs, participants saw the need to pool their resources in a common task of building a dynamic network where expertise could be shared globally.

We are very grateful for the level of wisdom and experience that each participant brought to the training that helped to make this course a truly consciousness-raising experience.

For more information, please contact: info@villageearth.org

Village Earth Partners with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation to do Strategic Land Planning on the Pine Ridge Reservation

Village Earth is now accepting applications from allottees who own undivided interests on the same allotment(s) on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to do land planning workshops. For more information, visit the Pine Ridge Project Blog Contact: David Bartecchi - david@villageearth.org, 970-491-5754

Village Earth Founders Recently Returned from West Bengal, India

Drs. Maurice Albertson and Ed Shinn visited Milan Dinda and the Purulia project team on their way home from teaching at Trisakti University in Indonesia. They hope to return soon and hold a Village Earth training program with students from the agricultural university in Calcutta. For more information, visit the Purulia Project Blog.

New Guatemala Project Website and Blog

Adriana Lazaro, coordinator for the Village Earth Guatemala project, recently attended the Participatory Practices for Sustainable Development Training Course in Fort Collins, CO. Check out the new website and Guatemala Project Blog. We look forward to keeping you updated as our projects progress.

And we would love to hear from you - we welcome comments, questions, and feedback to our newsletter editorial board. You can reach us at: editor@villageearth.org.

Sincerely,

The Village Earth Team