Me first: My name is Emily Zielke. I'm a recent graduate of a double MA program at American University (Natural Resource Management/ Sustainability and International Development) and in studying for those two masters degrees, I learned alot about my own personal strengths....which are, to say the least, not inside a classroom. I prefer and excel at working at the grassroots level, where I am constantly learning and facing challenges.
Learning and facing challenges has long been my favorite thing in life, in fact if there are no challenges ahead of me, I tend to create them! Out of this bad habit came lots of trials (yes, even the court-kind) and tribulations, but over time, I've learned to pick my battles more inteligently and those that may come with solutions. Some of my most inspirational and important experiences have been volunteering and working with "at risk" innercity kids in Chicago, working with sustainable and natural building professionals, an internship at a permaculture institute and spending time amoung the Maya of Guatemala.
Currently, I'm working on building farm to school linkages at the public school here in San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala for many reasons. To grow food at and for the school will save the school much-needed money. By law in Guatemala, each primary school that holds kids in classes for over 5 hours must serve them some sort of snack or lunch. Unfortunately, the kids in this school get a small snack only a couple days a week, usually Kellogg's brand Corn Flakes and milk, which comes in powdered form and is mixed with store-bought water. These young kids are a major contributor of the household and plantation work done by each family to earn wages. If they aren't at school, they're working hard and have barely the amount of nutrition needed for a kid who sits in front of the television all evening, let alone one hauling wood and buckets of coffee beans or other produce for export.
This particular area is breathtakingly beautiful and rich in natural resources. Unfortunately, 50 years of civil war (backed by the CIA—and if you think this is some kind of conspiracy theory, please read any book on the subject published after the 1970s or better yet, go straight to the CIA website and read the admission-justification for supporting ethnic cleansing here in Guatemala and also in Nicaragua put those natural resources in the wrong hands. The Maya have lived in this area for thousands of years and experienced many hardships, from natural disasters and conflicts with indigenous groups , but most of the damage has been violence and oppression by foreign exploitation. When multinational financing agencies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund began encouraging and selling the idea that countries who lived primarily at subsistence-level should start exporting their raw materials to the US and European countries in order to lift themselves out of poverty, the exact opposite occurred. Several countries were just beginning to work in a democratic manner, electing leadership through popular vote, when these international agencies promoting global free markets saw that their primary pushers' interests were at stake and intervened…sometimes violently. In Guatemala, that happened in 1954. United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was the largest landowner in all of Central America. Several of its acreage was not being used and the fairly elected president began pushing legislation that required that land be bought by the government and redistributed to the people who lived there previously (UFC was able to purchase it cheaply and easily as there had been no land titling system before—there was no need for one when the indigenous groups farmed it communally). The CIA backed a coup that overthrew the reformist president and implemented one that led to 40 years of murder and pillage of indigenous people, their land, their lifestyle, their culture and their food, all in the name of a free-market economy in which only the rich have benefitted. Unfortunately that same export and free market plan to reduce poverty is still in effect and areas that could be producing food for families is producing coffee and other luxury items for export although the prices are always dropping. After seeing the first hand effects, I know why the US and western right wingers are the only ones who still support it.
The two degrees which I recently obtained from American University (Natural Resource Management and International Development) focused primarily on economic and environmental policies and on the sweeping movements which have led to our current disastrous situation. I decided to start with small local movements. No one solution works everywhere and having already spent some time working here in Guatemala on an internship last year I decided to work on a few of the issues I learned about:
1. 1. The ill-advised missions to globalize the community. Increasingly you see Coca-Cola and other processed packaged foods among the younger generation. This is a lot more harmful than it sounds for a community that has rarely had to deal with non-organic garbage and does not yet have a waste disposal or treatment plan. The imported garbage, ahem…foods usually end up in Lake Atitlan…which has lost 25 feet of visibility in the last 10 years. These kinds of foods and items have been introduced through the Evangelical missionaries that have been sending missions here for decades (now including teenage missionaries that are flashy with their I-pods, fancy cars and lots of money), as well as tourism, both domestic and international. I myself do not have the ability to stop missionaries or tourism, but I do think that they can have a positive impact (at least the conventional tourists—the Evangelicals are known to proclaim that they are "saving" these backwards people). We can have a positive impact by teaching the mistakes OUR societies have learned in industrialization (farmers not valued enough, dead zone in Gulf caused by agrochemicals, monocultures that have destroyed several ecosystems and put species on the endangered and exist list, etc) and by participating in empowering events, such as my ecology project! The project's main focus is the native-species garden, which is/will be taught in part by local elders. Tzutujil elders know nearly everything there is to know about the natural world in this region and according to them, the world was (and still is, in some areas) teeming with medicine, nourishment and other fodder that should be chosen over multinational pharmaceutical and food companies.
2. 2. Subsistence farmers think they can no longer farm for their own families because they don't have land and were forced into urban areas (also, if you think ´force´ is too harsh a word, please read ANYTHING on urbanization—know that these people and the majority of the poor in urban areas today do NOT wish to be there). But that skepticism simply isn't true: Havana, Cuba has shown us that urban areas can produce food. 90% of Havana's residents eat food that they have grown themselves. Cuba's situation came about when it was cut off from the world supply of agricultural machinery, biotechnology and world markets. Now is this generations chance to make the switch to sustainable lifestyles through food BEFORE catastrophe hits. There have been very successful and far-reaching urban garden projects in Hong Kong, Moscow, LA, NYC, and Portland. Container gardens, such as this small one we are doing in the school, are a great way to start. And materials (tires, large buckets which cement powder is delivered in, any old makeshift container) come easy and save landfill space.
3. 3. Malnourished children. It simply isn't right to see such skinny, hard-working children eating chips and drinking pop. It is heartbreaking and no matter the politics and economics behind it, no one should stand by and watch. This is my little chance to feed people, because I love people and my family taught me that if you love someone, you put good food in their mouth…
Well..... this is the story of what I'm doing and why I am that person in your life…friend or family member…sending mass emails to everyone they know, asking for money to support their cause. I totally understand every negation, just thought I should try this one avenue (of course, I'm also applying for several grants). Everyone that I know and admire for self-started projects have also had to do this...it´s hard to ask for money from the people you know, much harder than asking for money from foundations (which I am ALSO doing and have earned one small grant already, specifically for introducing ecology courses to the school).
Please send this to anyone you think may be interested or could donate: university students studying sustainable development, international travelers or development workers, gardeners that may have ideas to share, rich people with so much money they don't know what to do with it….(I don't think anyone I know is closely tied to these people…just a thought) I need time and work donations, too!
Money is needed for the following reasons, if you feel stronger about one avenue than another, do say so and I'll make sure that your money goes to what you want it to as well as photographs and brief updates on that particular area of the project.
· Media Outreach: As I search for volunteers and materials, I spend about two hours on the internet a day and also have to print numerous documents to post around town. This has gotten to be one of my primary costs. I've also started writing a newsletter focused loosely around the project and the importance of food and native species, in general. I would like to distribute these to a wider audience and will hopefully in the future have local advertisers to help pay for printing and volunteer writer/photographer/artist/
· Labor: I would like to give a stipend to two local people who are contributing their time and knowledge in the classroom and in the garden. I'm also looking for someone to translate documents (to Spanish AND Tzutujil) that would be useful in explaining the project to local nonprofits and organizations that may want to cooperate or sponsor the project.
· Tools: I have enough tools for myself but would like to provide the school with some additional tools (4-5 small handheld shovels, 30 pairs gardening gloves, for the students to work together when I or any other supervisor is not around. Part of the magic of gardening is discussing your own personal lessons and comparing it to what others think, know, have learned.
· Art Supplies: A side project of this one is to make the school garden fun for the kids and to intertwine the students artwork with the beauty of nature and growing life. Tzutujil art is beautiful and rare and has all but vanished from the school and homes, as they focus heavily on Western science and math. Bringing art into schools can rejuvenate excitement about learning. Examples of some projects I have in mind are painting the containers (first up, those ugly decrepit tires), dying materials with dye plants and flowers native to the area, and artful constructions to place in gardens (would really like to use only garbage to emphasize reusing/recycle ideology, so hopefully this one is costless), and anything else the kids come up with.
Thanks for reading everyone. I wish I could offer some kind of support to you, instead of just asking for a donation. If I can do anything for you or in exchange, please let me know! If you disagree with my projects and point above and would like to talk to me about anything, please do that as well. I´m open and ready to hear other sides.
Also, please consider visiting and volunteer work as a donation-vacation as well!! In mid-month December 2008, I am holding a fundraiser at a VERY popular local bar/restaurant (ask Google: Buddha Bar, San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala) and will be auctioning stuff, there will be music (2 acts-one blues and one solo acoustic guitar/singer) and for purchasing an entry ticket, a complimentary package of random herbs (some medicinal, some for cooking). It's a long way to go for a party, but totally worth it! Consider it!
Since I have no way of collecting money that may be donated to the project, please just write me back and tell me a pledge amount, preference for area to put the money towards and together, we can figure out a way to get it to me here. I have contacts in Washington and also in my family that have access to my banking account and information. Or, I have recently set up a PayPal account and can also accept donations this way.
I will continue sending updates, newsletters and achievements of the project. Please help, if you can. If you can´t, do not worry! I have faith that where there is a will there is a way. And in this case, there is a will and a necessity, so things will surely take off soon!
I welcome letters, postcards, information on similar projects but PLEASE do not send money to the following snail mail address.
Emily Zielke "Proyecto Huertos Escolares"
Lista de Correos
San Pedro la Laguna 07018
Solola Guatemala
Centroamerica
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario