Spring 2008 Online Newsletter

Happy Spring 2008! Village Earth continues to learn and grow as we expand our efforts as allies with indigenous communities and through our training programs. Village Earth believes it pays to be small and non-bureaucratic. This gives us the flexibility to be responsive to the grassroots and the ever-changing nature of the community empowerment process. Furthermore, our staff is committed to the people and communities we work with and relate to them as partners and friends rather than as experts or managers. This solidarity encourages honest communication and dialog necessary to determine what is working and what is not. Just look at what we're accomplishing...

Oil Exploitation will NOT bring "Development"

Besides working with indigenous organizations in the Peruvian Amazon to defend their territories against oil exploitation, Village Earth is working with communities on micro-livelihood projects. These projects such as small-scale communal fish farms, women's artisan cooperatives, and a micro-credit program will allow the indigenous communities to take their futures into their own hands. For hundreds of years indigenous Amazonians have been at the mercy of large plantation owners, mining, and other extractive industries for any kind of income. By working with indigenous communities to create their own business ventures they can be proactive and take control of their own livelihoods in a sustainable manner with the income and working conditions being controlled by the indigenous peoples themselves. The Peruvian government uses poverty as the excuse to open up the Amazon to oil exploitation as if no sustainable alternative development opportunities exist. Yet, oil exploitation will only further impoverish the people of the Amazon as it destroys the natural resources on which they depend. By expanding Village Earth's efforts to include more indigenous communities in these micro-livelihood business ventures they can take a stand against the oil "development" proposed by the government.

Village Earth recently supported and accompanied a Shipibo leader to attend an important oil meeting at the Houston Petroleum Club. There, PeruPetro, the state-run oil licensing agency of Peru, was present to try to sell off the remaining 30% of the Amazon rainforest to oil companies. Fortunately the presence of the Shipibo leader and the information he was able to give investors about the risks of investing in oil exploitation in the Amazon helped to turn potential investors away from this very risky investment. However, the discourse of PeruPetro continues to be that oil exploitation will bring "development" to the Amazon region. After a speech by the Shipibo leader asking the oil companies to stay off indigenous lands, Daniel Saba, President of PeruPetro, said to the group of potential investors to visit the Amazon and see the poverty. He says there is no way the people of the Amazon "want to live like they did in the past" with 66% of the population in poverty. However, in the decades of oil exploitation throughout the Amazon in places like Northern Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, oil exploitation has brought nothing but severe health problems, environmental devastation, and an influx of new migrants to the Amazon-all with severe consequences for the indigenous peoples who call this region home. Children in Northern Peru have toxic levels of lead and other carcinogens in their blood from an oil-contaminated environment. The Camisea pipeline in Southern Peru has ruptured multiple times causing untold environmental damage. As well, the roads and infrastructure built by the oil companies opens up the Amazon to colonists and logging companies.

Together we can offer alternatives to the unsustainable development offered by the government and corporations, and instead, the people of the Amazon can determine their own futures.

For more information, visit the Peru Project Blog

Advanced Training Program on Participatory Practices for Sustainable Development at Bidham Chandra Krishi Viswavidyala - Calcutta, India

A team from Village Earth and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) held our flagship course Participatory Practices for Sustainable Development at Bidham Chandra Krishi University in Calcutta, India. January 25th through February 1st, 2008 a group of approximately fifty graduate students attended the seminar jointly organized by IISD and Bidham Chandra Krishi University. The training was well received by the students who all plan to work to support village development across India after they complete their studies.

For more information about organizing a specialized training courses for your group or organization, please visit International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Guatemala Scholarship Program

Providing annual $150 scholarships for Xucaneb, Guatemala students (as pictured above) has been a big success.

For just $150 a year, a student can pursue a ninth-grade certificate, which hugely increases their opportunity for a job with a future. Book groups and others have each sponsored a student, so that we have been able to provide a total of 50 scholarships since 2003. With that success has come a tremendous word of mouth, such that this year we have double the number of students hoping to participate. Checks to sponsor a student ($150) or smaller checks toward a scholarship can be sent to Village Earth, P.O. Box 797, Fort Collins, CO 80522.
For more information, contact MaryLou Smith at mlsmith@aquaengr.com.

Cambodia Education Project Update

The Cambodia Education Project has expanded, and moved to a new room not far away. "The staff has increased their capacity, and we have some really dynamic students, who are taking on a lot of initiatves. The best feeling is showing up and learning what is going on. By giving them so much control it has a life far beyond what I could have ever provided," said Project Coordinator Drew McDowell.

To read more, visit the Cambodia Project Blog

Appropriate Technology Library Sale

SALE - $100 off March 2008 only!

The Appropriate Technology (AT) Library is one of the most comprehensive technology resources for anyone working in the field. The AT Library is full of thousands of small-scale, do-it-yourself technologies on everything from alternative energies to sanitation.

To purchase your library today, visit the AT Library webpage.

Participatory Practices for Sustainable Development Training Course

May 19-30, 2008
Colorado State University campus
Fort Collins, CO USA

Registration deadline May 2.
Join development practitioners, community leaders, activists, and academics from around the world in this important course.

For more information visit the International Institute for Sustainable Development
or contact nancy@villageearth.org

Upcoming Online Courses

Spring Online Courses begin March 21. Registration ends March 17.

The following courses will be offered:

• Approaches to Community-based Development
• Technology & Community-based Development
• Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation
• Community Capacity Building
• Community-based Mapping
  

For more information about the online certificate program, please visit the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

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