a. Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) training.
This collaborative project between Plenty Belize, the Toledo District Ministry of Health and UNICEF Belize, completed its second year in February 2002. Activities in 2001 focused on training in safe pregnancy and childbirth practices for a second group of 11 women and men TBA candidates from remote rural villages. These TBA candidates were also supervised in the local hospital, and received individual support in their home villages by Plenty midwifery trainer Christina Kahlou. Monthly continuing education meetings were held for all 22 Traditional Birth Attendants receiving training in the project over the last two years. A series of village education meetings for women were held so that the village TBA could present what she’d learned to her neighbors. Thanks also to the New Road map Foundation and the Trull Foundation for their support of this project.

b. Renewable Energy Rural Electrification Project.
The goal of this project, jointly managed by Solar Energy International (SEI) and Plenty Belize, has been to expand understanding and use of renewable technologies in the Toledo District as a way to protect the environment, improve quality of life, and bypass more polluting forms of energy generation. In January, SEI technician and trainer, Ed Eaton, traveled to Belize accompanied by Plenty solar energy technician, Thomas Heikkala. Over a two week period, Ed and Thomas met with primarily farmers and farming families to assess their energy needs and interest in learning more about alternatives. Ed conducted well-attended demonstrations of photovoltaic electric generation for lighting and water pumping in two Mayan villages. In August Plenty received a $10,000 grant from Unity Avenue Foundation to pursue a revolving loan fund for solar home lighting for the 172 member farmers of the Toledo Cacao Growers’ Association (TCGA) with the assistance of SEI. SEI technician/trainers, Ed Eaton and Mark Colby, traveled to Belize in early October to begin work on this project. However, due to Hurricane Iris that had blasted Toledo on October 8, the project plan was revised in order to respond to an urgent request by TCGA members for reforestation of shade trees that provide a canopy for cacao but were destroyed by the hurricane. Unity Avenue grant funds were designated to purchase solar pumping and irrigation equipment for shade tree nurseries.
Solar Energy Demonstrated in Toledo
Hurricane Rips Toledo

c. School Feeding Program and Nutrition Education
Funding granted by Greenville Foundation in 2000 enabled Plenty to continue demonstrating how to grow and prepare high-protein organic soybeans to supplement the diets of Toledo residents who face a high incidence of malnutrition and diet-related disease. Plenty soy and agriculture technician, Chuck Haren, led a series of workshops on the value, uses and processing of soy foods with members of the local and national government School Feeding Program. Two local women were taught home level soy foods processing in the fall in order to continue this education work in the schools. After Hurricane Iris, a crew of Plenty Belize staff and local volunteers went into high gear, producing and distributing thousands of pounds of a high protein corn and soy cereal to supplement badly depleted food stocks.

In 2002, soy foods processing and education work will continue, focusing on nine Toledo District elementary schools participating in the SFP. UNICEF Belize and the Pan American Health Organization will supply funding, and Plenty Belize will provide a quantity of soybeans and technical support. As part of the program, a school vegetable gardens pilot project is underway in collaboration with SFP members and Peace Corps volunteer, Christie Zeoli.
Plenty Belize Assists School Feeding Program

d. Agricultural Assistance
In December 2001, Plenty received a $10,000 grant from the Atkinson Foundation for hurricane relief. This grant provides tools and seeds for approximately 250 farming families who lost their subsistence crops due to the disaster. Plenty is working directly with the Toledo NGO, Sustainable Harvest International (SHI), and the Toledo Cacao Growers’ Association (TCGA), in distributing the relief tools and seeds to farmers.

e. Birding Project—Toledo Ecotourism Association (TEA)
The TEA is a group of Mayan and Garifuna villagers who run a guest house and ecotrail program for tourists. The TEA is attempting to provide income-generating activities that actually help protect their natural habitat while educating their fellow villagers, the tourists, and the Belize government about the importance of protecting the precious ecosystems of the Toledo District. Plenty has been assisting the TEA since it got its start in 1990. In 2001, thanks to funding provided by the Global Environmental Facility (through the UN Development Program in Belize) and Onaway Trust, the TEA, with Plenty’s assistance, has carried out a project to train TEA guides in the art of birding. Twenty members of ten rural villages (ten teams of two) were taught the basics of bird identification, and are monitoring bird counts at specific sites. Environmental education meetings at the village level have also taken place in this program, with the goal of sharing information with community members about environmental issues and identifying local environmental problems and possible solutions. In addition, since hurricane Iris reforestation has become an even greater priority, and Plenty is working with local groups to establish tree nurseries.
Belize Birding Buzz
The Birds of Santa Elena

f. Chairladies’ Fajina Association
This group of Mayan craftswomen manages a small cooperative association to sell their traditional basketry and other crafts. Plenty board member Karen Flaherty, in her job with the Florida Association of Volunteer Agencies for Central America and the Caribbean (FAVACA), arranged for a professional basket-maker to hold two design workshops with CFA members in 2001. Plenty will continue to assist them with marketing and other support as needed in 2002.

2. Kids to the Country
KTC is a unique Plenty program for inner-city children aged 6-13, which completed its sixteenth year in 2001. Approximately 100 kids participated in the program at the Farm community (home of Plenty
International headquarters) over four five-day sessions in July and August. Their experience at the beautiful 1750 acre country facility includes nature study, horse care and riding, outdoor swimming in a spring-fed lake, vegetarian food, organic gardening, nonviolent conflict resolution, music, arts and crafts. Other seasonal activities for KTC
are a Nashville urban Peace Garden outing in the spring (Earth Day); a fall Harvest festival at the Farm; and winter Kwanzaa gift making in Nashville or at the Farm. These events are designed to encourage the young people to maintain their connection to each other, to nature, and to the principles of the program. Thanks to a grant from the P.E.A.C.E. Awareness Foundation in 2001, Plenty was able to purchase a van for the KTC and Pine Ridge projects. Other grants were supplied by the Sheila Fortune Foundation, Bridge Builders, Fred Bay, The Milagro Foundation, and Saturn Corp.
Kids to the Country Summer Program

3. Pine Ridge Reservation
Plenty has been working on projects at Pine Ridge since 1985. In 2001 Plenty sponsored two educational/work trips for volunteers from the Farm Community to the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, where they assisted Lakota people in building projects, while sharing cultures and creating friendships. Building projects included finish work on a prototype house made out of industrial hemp construction materials; and upgrading campground facilities for volunteers and visitors who come to Pine Ridge to work on projects or experience Lakota culture. Plenty also donated a complete computer workstation to Wicahpi Vision, a reservation-based project which supplies outlets and marketing for native craftspeople. Plenty Board member and Pine Ridge Projects manager Tom Cook reports that the home and community garden project (primarily funded by Running Strong for American Indian Youth) distributed 20,000 seedlings and assisted more than 300 vegetable gardens. Thanks again to The New Road map Foundation for their funding of our Pine Ridge program.
Pine Ridge

4. Carib Reserve, Dominica
The Carib people are the last remaining indigenous people in the eastern Caribbean who continue to hold their land in common trust. Plenty representatives have worked with the Carib people since 1983. In January 2001 Plenty was awarded funding from the New England Biolabs Foundation to help the Waitukubuli Karifuna Development Agency (WAIKADA) implement a "Carib Land Use Reform Initiative"(CLURI). WAIKADA is a broad-based, grass roots, community development organization owned and managed by the Carib people. For CLURI, members of WAIKADA, the Carib Council, Organization of Concerned Carib Women, Carib Tour Guides Association, Karifuna Cultural Group, and the Carib Farmers Association are working to improve community awareness of land erosion, loss of watersheds and other land use problems, their causes and solutions. The NEBF grant enabled two Carib residents to work with schools and community groups in organizing education workshops, tree planting, direct erosion control and other environmental actions. WAIKADA staff members organized meetings in various parts of the Carib Territory, to continue discussions towards solutions of land use and protection issues. Representatives of WAIKADA and the Carib Council, using broad-based input, are developing a new land use agreement for their community, which is expected to take another year and a half of community education and grass roots organization work.

5. IMANI House International (IHI), Liberia
In 2001 Plenty staff identified funding leads for the health care and women’s literacy projects of IMANI House, which serves poor communities in postwar Liberia. Plenty also provides a web page for IHI at the Plenty website. Plenty Board member, Sofia Casini worked at the Brooklyn, NY IHI office as a volunteer instructor with IHI’s New York Literacy and ESOL (English as a Second Language) Program which is focused on teaching English to new immigrants and others who have not been able to learn the language.

6. Guatemala (Alimentos San Bartolo—ASB)
ASB is a Mayan community owned and operated "soy dairy" that was a collaborative project of Plenty and the community of San Bartolo, in 1979-1980. ASB continues to produce and market tofu, tempeh, soy milk, soy ice cream and soy milk-sicles and corn & soybean cereal, through its retail outlet in Solola and through health food stores and restaurants frequented by tourists in Antigua, Guatemala City and Panajachel. Six people are employed at ASB. In January of 2001 Plenty representatives met with members of the San Bartolo Village Development Committee (VDC). Plenty donated funds to help the VDC meet the legal costs of establishing ASB as a for-profit business under the ownership and direction of San Bartolo’s new community based nonprofit organization. In 2001 the VDC and ASB representatives requested Plenty assistance in raising funds to establish a new drainage system in the community. They are also asking for a donation of 10 computers for the community school.

7. Guatemala (UPAVIM)
UPAVIM is a nonprofit women’s organization with 70+ members. They manage a clinic for people living in Barrio Esperanza, one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of Guatemala City. UPAVIM provides pre and postnatal health care and education services. They raise funds to help children from low income families meet the costs of going to school. They produce and market US $250,000 in crafts yearly to provide jobs and help support medical and education services. Plenty representatives met with members of Unidas para Vivir Mejor (UPAVIM – United to Live Better) in January and October of 2001. UPAVIM had contacted Plenty to request our assistance in establishing soy food processing, marketing and nutrition education services. UPAVIM wants to set up a small business that will provide jobs, expand availability of low cost and high quality food sources, and help meet the costs of providing much needed social services within Barrio Esperanza.

During 2001 Plenty volunteers helped UPAVIM develop a floor plan for their food processing facility. Plenty helped UPAVIM identify and design equipment that will be used to process soybeans into milk and tofu. In early October, Plenty helped UPAVIM purchase some of the equipment needed and develop a plan for initiating soy food processing, marketing and nutrition education activities during 2002. UPAVIM is requesting continuing technical and program management assistance from Plenty over the next few years. In November the Trull Foundation awarded Plenty $1,500 to help provide technical assistance for UPAVIM and SOYNICA in Nicaragua.

8. Nicaragua (SOYNICA)
SOYNICA is a women’s association that manages health and nutrition education, food supplementation, health care, micro business loans and soy food processing and marketing initiatives that provide direct benefits to women, children and families living in Managua and some rural areas of Nicaragua. In 1992 and 1993 Plenty helped SOYNICA design and secure funding for its soy food processing and marketing business, Casa Nutrem. Plenty helped purchase and install the processing equipment and initiate staff education programs for Casa Nutrem from 1994 through 1995. Since that time Plenty volunteers have provided annual technical assistance, helping staff improve production and marketing skills, and helping Casa Nutrem secure materials and equipment to maintain soy food processing operations. Casa Nutrem is producing and selling about 25,000 half-liters of soymilk and a variety of tofu, okara and toasted soy/corn/rice/oatmeal flour products every month. In September and early October of 2001 Plenty helped SOYNICA staff and administration to: review Casa Nutrem’s processing and marketing operations; identify and address some immediate production needs; and identify human and material resources needed to expand production and sales capacity. SOYNICA is requesting continued technical assistance for Casa Nutrem during 2002.

9. Huichol Center, Mexico
Native Huichol communities are some of the most economically disenfranchised within Mexico. Subsistence farming does not provide enough family income to meet basic needs. Many families are not aware of the combination of nutrients their children need each day to achieve full growth and development potential, and protection from disease. Plenty field workers, Chuck Haren and Casta Calderon, visited the Huichol Center for Cultural Survival and Traditional Arts (HCCSTA) in November 2001, in response to a request to Plenty to help them establish soy food production, nutrition education and marketing activities. Plenty is currently helping HCCSTA design a soy food education program and grant application.
Huichol Center for Cultural Survival and Traditional Arts

Expenses
Administration	14%
Prog Expenses	83%
Fundraising	3%
Expenses
Belize	101,398
Pine Ridge	47,017
KTC	45,498
Education	8,016
Dominica	6,588
Guatemala	4,441
Nicaragua	2,434
Other Programs	1,519
Program Expenses	216,911
Administration	35,132
Fundraising	7,140
Total Expenses	259,183
Revenue
Donations	148,488
Grants	124,472
Interest & Other Income	2,190
Total Revenue	275,150
Revenue
Interest & Other Income	1%
Grants	45%
Donations	54%