The Majestic Plastic Bag

by Becky Rosaler 

I spotted one on the shoulder of the freeway yesterday!  It made me wonder, “Will this Majestic Plastic Bag complete its journey and make its way ‘home’ to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?”  What is this Majestic Plastic Bag that I speak of?  Watch this 4-minute mockumentary that Heal the Bay created to learn more about the not-so-elusive creature.

Read More

Today Is World AIDS Day

by Beth Clayton Luthye

Today is World AIDS Day. It’s also my daughter’s 2nd birthday.

Before she was born, I bought a small Moleskine journal. I was going to use it to jot down observations and memories, those little moments I’d want to remember. It was a great idea, but I never followed through. I got as far as deciding on an opening quote: “Welcome to the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” This was something Frederick Buechner wrote as a way of trying to describe the grace of God. Over the course of Baby Girl’s short life, the truth of those words has hit me regularly.

We live in a world where terrible things happen — things like AIDS, an ugly but entirely preventable disease that kills 5,000 people every day. Every single day. It destroys families, and it destroys communities. But we serve a God who wants to change the world. It the beauty breaking through the terrible that is a reminder of the “now and not yet” of God’s kingdom in our world.

The HIV and AIDS pandemic is a global concern, but as we all know it has hit Sub-Saharan Africa especially hard, countries like Tanzania and Burundi where Plant With Purpose works.

One of the beautiful ways Plant With Purpose helps to address AIDS in communities is through nutrition.  Without healthy foods, any anti-retroviral medicines are far less effective. But with nutritious foods, people living with HIV and AIDS live longer lives because their bodies can fight infection better.

A garden that allows a person living with HIV and AIDS to grow and eat healthy vegetables is a beautiful thing.

Today is World AIDS Day. It’s also a day where the beautiful can break through the terrible.

Springtime of Hope

By Kate Nare

Springtime is one of my favorite times of year. The wildflowers in San Diego suddenly burst open, creating blankets of hot purple, pink, orange, and yellow. The weather warms up and the days become longer. All of creation seems to wake up and celebrate the coming of spring.

Last night, Plant With Purpose celebrated this renewal during our “Springtime of Hope” special event in Santa Ana by highlighting the hope that’s blossoming in Haiti and Burundi.

It was truly an inspirational evening. Our Haiti Program Director, Guy Paraison, spoke about how the people of Haiti are recovering from the January 12th, 2010 earthquake. Our Burundi Program Director, Lazare Sebitereko, was also present and spoke about how the people of Burundi are working toward peace and reconciliation following years of civil war and genocide.

During his presentation, Lazare shared the story of Leoni. When Lazare met Leoni she was returning to Burundi from exile and looking for work. Lazare said, “I saw that there was hope in her, and that she could change and be whole again.” He introduced her to a community where they had a need for her talent: making stoves. Leoni now travels to other communities and teaches people how to make fuel-efficient stoves, which burn 60% less wood and produce less smoke, improving people’s health.

“People have power,” Lazare said. “They just need someone to tell them ‘you can do it’.”

The night ended on a celebratory note, as the Haitian Christian band, Lounge a Dieu, which means “Praise to God” performed lively Haitian music.

This event followed a week long holistic ministry summit, where six of our program directors from all over the world convened to discuss Plant With Purpose’s mission and vision. It’s such a rare opportunity to have them all together, and it was truly incredible for me to have conversations with each of them about our programs and hear them share stories of hope.

Thank you so much to everyone who came and made this night truly memorable!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day!

Building skills to pay the bills: Plant With Purpose joins with women to build vital skills they can use to earn income, provide for their families, overcome poverty, and serve their communities.

by Aly Lewis

One hundred years ago today, the first International Women’s Day was held to rally women around the world to stand up for equality and dignity. That makes today the 100th anniversary (or cool new word: the centenary) of International Woman’s Day. People everywhere are celebrating the economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present and future. Even Google is spreading the word with their cool doodle and encouraging web users to donate to organizations that empower and uplift women.

Here at Plant With Purpose we want to celebrate women throughout our programs. Plant With Purpose empowers women to overcome poverty and provide for their families in a number of different ways. One way is by helping women identify and develop unique skills and talents they can use to earn income, start small businesses, and serve their communities.

Leoni Karenzo, from the village of Muzye in Burundi, is one such woman. During Burundi’s recent civil war, Leoni escaped to Tanzania to find refuge from the violence.  In Tanzania she received training in a refugee camp on how to make improved woodstoves. She returned five years later to her village with nothing but a small plot of land to rebuild her life and provide for her family. As part of a Plant With Purpose community group, Leoni was encouraged to use the training she received to help herself and others. She received additional training from Plant With Purpose on this improved technology, and she and other returnees are sharing their knowledge with other group members. This skill has helped build Leoni’s self-esteem by giving her dignity in her work and demonstrating to others that she has something valuable to contribute to her community’s future, while at the same time helping Plant With Purpose to promote a valuable technology.

Leoni has also received agriculture training that has helped her make the most of her small plot of land, which is now producing a variety of crops. The improved soil and increased yields have enabled her to feed her family and send her children to school. This is just one of many examples of women who are being empowered to provide for their families and contribute to family income. By empowering women to increase their income in an environmentally sustainable way, otherwise impoverished women have the freedom and ability to make strategic decisions regarding their family’s health, nutrition, education, and economic welfare.

On behalf of Leoni, the Plant With Purpose staff, and all the women Plant With Purpose works with who are experiencing empowerment and transformed lives for themselves and their families, happy International Women’s Day!

To donate to Plant With Purpose’s Women’s Empowerment programs, click here.

For more stories and cool ways you can get involved with Plant With Purpose’s efforts to empower women click here.

Financial Services for the Rural Poor

February 22, 2011

“Can really really poor people save money? The answer is yes!”
—Christina Huizenga, Africa Program Officer at Plant With Purpose

On February 27 Plant With Purpose’s Africa Program Officer, Christina Huizenga, will be attending a week long Village Savings and Loan (VSL) meeting in South Africa. Fifteen organizations will be represented at the meeting to receive training and updates in how the Village Community Banking (VICOBA) system functions. The meeting will be an initial step towards beginning VICOBA in Burundi. Successful VICOBAs in Plant With Purpose’s Tanzania program pool community resources for savings and small loans used to start businesses, send children to school, and cover emergency needs among group members.

Rural subsistence farmers often do not have access to banking institutions, are unable to qualify for even small loans, and cannot read or write. VICOBA, a system that first began in West Africa, has had tremendous success in providing financial services to the rural illiterate poor. Because VICOBA is decentralized, composed of and led by community members, there are few overhead costs that formal institutions require. In addition, all of the interest collected from loans goes back into the group’s fund rather than being drained off to a financial institution outside of the community. To accommodate illiterate populations VICOBAs utilize memorization as well as symbols that represent the number of group pledges.

VICOBA in Tanzania

In Tanzania VICOBAs have experienced rapid growth. Membership has increased and new groups have formed as Tanzanians witness the economic benefits of livestock, small business creation, and increased crop yields generated by community savings and loan money. VICOBAs have a large number of female participants, a reality that has had a transformational impact in gender relations among villagers.

In the area of Tanzanian where Plant With Purpose works, at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, land is owned by the community government and distributed to male heads of households. A woman has very little that she owns and is limited in what she can do without the help of male relatives. Within the VICOBA system men and women share an equal status and women can hold leadership positions. VICOBAs also empower women by creating a tool for them to save money and plan for their future and the future of their children. Women who do well and become prosperous as a result of participating in a VICOBA, gain respect and status in the community.

Farmers in Burundi

In Burundi, VICOBAs have the additional potential of bringing together members of rival Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups. Refugees who fled civil war and genocide are returning to Burundi, an event that sometimes places Hutu and Tutsi people in the same communities. VICOBAs require that participants trust each other as they work together to save and loan their money for the common good. By giving Hutu and Tutsi people the opportunity to invest in their mutual benefit and place confidence in one another, the VICOBA system is a practical way to develop peace and reconciliation in Burundi.

Plant With Purpose Partners for Reconciliation

February 9, 2011
By Dahlia Guajardo

Reconciliation in BurundiSince protestors took to the streets in Egypt on January 25th, I have watched the news, transfixed and anxious. Televisions and computer screens flash images of protestors hurling rocks or hoisting signs into the air while holding up makeshift shields as tanks roll past wounded men and women lining the walls of barricades.

Egyptians are calling for an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s rule, a dictatorship that has lasted more than thirty years. In one image a young man makes a peace sign as red lines of blood cover his forehead and cheeks. Though Mubarak has maintained that he will not run for reelection in September, he has refused to respond to the demand of protestors that he leave immediately. While many hope that the political transition in Egypt will occur peacefully, there is concern about who will take control if Mubarak does step down and the potential instability that might follow attempts to restructure a government accustomed to authoritarian rule.

One of President Mubarak’s main arguments for refusing to resign is that doing so would result in a power vacuum that Egypt’s banned Islamist political party, the Muslim Brotherhood, will readily occupy. From the perspective of some protestors, the conflict has brought Muslims and Christians together in their common outcry and efforts to end the dictatorship’s oppressive rule. Members of the Coptic Church, one of Egypt’s oldest Christian traditions, worry that a new leader could mean increased persecution. What the result of tensions caused by government corruption and religious and political strife will be is uncertain.

As I watch the protests unfold through the visual and intellectual angles of photographers and journalists, it encourages me to know that Plant With Purpose’s outlook is one of genuine concern for reconciliation. The Central African nation of Burundi is beginning to see the benefits of a return to political stability following the conclusion of a forty year civil war sparked by tensions between rival ethnic groups. Refugees that left during the fighting are beginning to return to their homes, introducing the possibility of renewed conflict.

To address this issue, Plant With Purpose partners with Burundian farmers by providing peace and reconciliation training. Healthy relationships are as important as the health of the environment and the economy, all of which are interconnected. Such interconnection comes to light in Egyptian protestors’ complaints about the nation’s stagnate economy, a situation that can be linked to the pressure that population growth has put on available resources. Arable land is limited to regions surrounding the Nile, while the majority of the nation is desert.       

Plant With Purpose sees the strain that people put on their environment, the livelihood of the economy, and tension between individuals and groups as interconnected issues. Christ’s redemptive grace is a model for reconciliation with God, with each other, and with our environment. As Plant With Purpose director, Scott Sabin writes in Tending To Eden, “resolution lies in spiritual transformation. Repentance, forgiveness, and a radical change of heart are necessary” (62).

Talents & Empowerment

By Annie Fikes

I don’t want to brag, but I’m really good at sleeping.

Sleeping might not sound like a great talent, but believe me, it is. I can sleep almost anywhere; benches, stairs, sidewalk curbs, airplanes, cars, floors. I sleep through stress, earthquakes, sirens, and people coming in and out of my room.

My first quarter of college, I hauled myself out of bed three days a week for an 8:15 a.m. philosophy class. It was a little bit miserable. One morning I stumbled back to my dorm and face planted on my bed, feet still on the floor, backpack and rain boots still on. I woke up an hour and a half later with my roommate laughing at me.

I’m also pretty good at working with children and taking multiple-choice tests. I’ve been told I have a special ability to walk around and do other things while brushing my teeth and not get toothpaste all over my face.

In Tending to Eden, Scott talks about how the talents and importance of people in poverty are generally ignored. This idea had never been presented to me before, but now I can see how pervasive it is. The poor are often treated as though they have no gifts to offer. 1 Corinthians 12:4 states that “there are a variety of gifts, but the same in spirit.” The truth is that people living in poverty have just as useful talents as any other person, which is why empowerment is such an important part of the Plant With Purpose mission.  

While at Plant With Purpose, I have come to understand the emphasis on native peoples’ involvement in Plant With Purpose projects. Instead of having people watch Plant With Purpose work, this organization uses native peoples’ skills and ideas, allowing them to make projects their own.

Plant With Purpose instills confidence and self-worth in its partners and strives to change the attitude that the poor do not have the gifts to help themselves. Reading Tending to Eden and working at Plant With Purpose reminds me of the power that the poor have to transform their own lives through their talents.

The Vuvuzela: Echoes of Change in East Africa

by James Ellett, Grant writing intern

If you watched or even were around someone watching the World Cup this year, you no doubt heard the incessant droning of what is best described as the sound of a cloud of angry killer bees.
The source of this sound, the vuvuzela, has become quite a controversial subject since the first (and seemingly only) note broke into the ear canals of soccer (sorry, football) fans across the globe. People have raised arguments that vuvuzelas cause the spread of germs and disease, cause serious hearing damage, and can even be used as weapons. Players have complained of the distraction that the constant din creates on the field. The controversy has caused this descendant of the kudu horn to be banned at various sporting venues around the world—from Wimbledon to Yankee Stadium.
And yet, the vuvuzela plays on.
Try as foreigners might to ban its monotone symphony, the horn remains very much a part of South African soccer. It refuses to silence itself in the face of oppression. It plays as a reminder of the unshakable resolve of the people of the African continent. The ubiquitous hum of the vuvuzela is an illustration of the culture, life, and indomitable spirit of the people who play them.
Nowhere is this spirit more evident than in two of the poorest African nations: Burundi and Tanzania. These two countries have seen everything from poverty and corruption to assassinations and genocide. The World Bank ranks Tanzania and Burundi numbers 192 and 213 in terms of average annual income, respectively. There were 213 countries ranked.
Dire as the situation in these places may seem, it is not hopeless. Plant With Purpose has been working in these poverty stricken countries to give the people there the tools that they need to pull themselves out of poverty and heal their environment. The farmers that we work with are shining examples of the hope that exists even in the poorest of areas.
An exciting development has been made in these countries that gives us further reason to hope. The East African Community (EAC)—made up of the Republics of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and the United Republic of Tanzania—have put into effect this month an East African common market. The goal of the common market is “to enable the free movement of people, capital and services and abolish import duties” according to BBC News. As of July 1, all barriers to trade among the member nations have been removed. The idea is that this will encourage trade and cooperation among the members of the East African Community, much as the adoption of the euro did in Europe.
While this is an exciting development, and it is encouraging to see these poor nations banding together to improve their situation, the market is not without risk. Some are concerned that Kenya will dominate the other, poorer, member countries. People are worried that jobs will leave countries such as Tanzania and Burundi, and go to the stronger Kenyan economy.
Please keep your prayers with the people of East Africa, and specifically with Plant With Purpose’s programs in Burundi and Tanzania. Pray that this common market creates unity and economic health in the EAC, and that Plant With Purpose will be able to work effectively in this new climate to bring about the healing that is so desperately needed.
To learn more about East Africa’s common market, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8769566.stm
To learn more about the East African Community, visit http://www.eac.int/

Healing and Reconciliation in Burundi

By Stephanie Rudeen, Plant With Purpose Intern

Burundi, Africa has a very troubled past and an uncertain future. Burundi is home to the Tutsi and Hutu tribes, who have occupied the land since the country’s formation over five centuries ago. Belgian occupation greatly increased ethnic conflict, and over 40 years of brutal civil war has left the country aching and the land depleted. It is estimated that over 300,000 people were killed in 1993, following the assassination of the then Hutu head of state. When peace was finally achieved in 2006, large numbers of refugees started returning to their homeland of Burundi from Tanzania.

The return of native Burundians to Burundi after a long absence has been an ongoing problem for Burundi. In an effort to make the difficult transition easier, “peace villages” were set up where people returning to Burundi could have a small home, a few goats, and a small amount of money. These villages were set up by the state-run organization PARESI (Project d’Appui au Rapatriement et la Rintigration des Sinistrs) as well as supported by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department. Although these villages do offer hope to many Burundians, and have seen both Tutsis and Hutus begin to live side-by-side, there have still been many problems associated with the villages.

The purpose of the peace villages, set up in 2003, was to lead to healing and reconciliation among three ethnic groups, the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. Yet, as explained in the article, “ ‘Peace’ Villages Come With a Price” from Humanitarian News and Analysis, not all of the residents of the peace villages are receiving reparations. Recently, many of the returned Burundians have not received anything from the state-run organizations, and there has been difficulty accessing water since there is only one water tap for 1,600 people. Added to these conditions is the poor healthcare in the area which especially affects pregnant women who have to “travel long distances, through wetlands, to reach a health centre,” according to the article. Also, young children have had little access to healthcare, many of which suffer waterborne diseases.

Many Burundians have and continue to return to their native land, some of whom have never even been to Burundi yet have a family and cultural history invested there. Although the peace villages have good intentions, they are an example of a movement that is not working as perfectly as planned. The people of Burundi have a past full of suffering and are in great need of healing and reconciliation, as well as a future that entails more than just a small house in a land that has changed greatly since they were a part of the community there.

That’s where I’m proud to say Plant With Purpose comes in. Plant With Purpose trains farmers in peace and reconciliation and focuses on restored relationships between farmers and the land they depend on and amongst historically antagonistic ethnic groups. It is one thing to hand a refugee a plot of land, it is another thing entirely to teach that refugee how to work the land in environmentally sustainable ways that can empower and transform. Plant With Purpose does not just give out handouts; it works with individuals and communities to enrich many aspects of their lives, from income and agriculture, to reconciliation and healthcare. I’m proud to work with an organization that has a holistic approach to transformation and development, and most importantly, offers a new approach to hope for the people that need it the most.