Winter Bulletin 2003-04 Vol. 19, No. 4

Introduction
Plenty Boardmembers Visit Belize
Solar-Powered Lights for San Jose School
Clean water for Chimachoy, Guatemala
Central American Food Security Initiative (CAFSI)
Making More Plenty
Dorothy Bates Memorial Endowment Fund

In early November, Peter Schweitzer and I spent two weeks with Plenty Belize staff visiting our projects, partners, and friends, and assessing program needs for the upcoming year. There’s a flurry of activity going on in southern Belize, a region where, in spite of the infusion of millions of dollars in “development aid” over the past ten years, the level of poverty continues to worsen (going from 50% to 80% of the population).

We found Plenty maintaining its reputation as a practical, dependable, no frills NGO. Our work is important to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people there – babies, children, and mothers, as well as families who are struggling to meet their basic income needs. Here is a report from our visit:

Garden-based Agriculture for Toledo’s Environment (GATE) program

There are now 9 primary schools and one high school participating in the GATE (school gardens) program. Four of these are new this year, and two of the original schools have doubled the size of their 20’X20’ plots. The three new primary schools have established their garden sites and posted their fencing poles, as a community contribution. The wire fencing and other tools and materials are then provided by the project.

The addition of Julian Cho High School is very exciting. Julian Cho was head of the Toledo Maya Cultural Council and was an outspoken advocate for the Toledo Maya people and a strong proponent of education for the District’s young people. He died on December 1, 1998 while in his prime. The school is a vocational education option for Toledo village youth, one of two educational choices available to them after primary school (the other is the more academic-oriented Toledo Community College which is called “college” but is a secondary school by US terminology). The Julian Cho school serves 450 students, and over 2/3 need financial help to attend school. (It costs about $300 US per student per year for uniform, fees, books, and travel). Since all of the students take at least one semester of agriculture during their first two years, and can choose agriculture as a focus in years 3 & 4, we were interested to see if and how we might collaborate.

Mark and I visited with the vice-principal Lorna Samson, and the director of their agriculture program, Gustavo Requena. They were very happy to hear that organic gardens are being incorporated into the primary schools through the GATE program, which helps to create a consistent agricultural thread running through the children’s education. In addition to the food-producing garden, the school wants to grow agricultural products such as ornamental flowers and trees to sell to support their Student Financial Assistance Program. They would greatly appreciate help with seeds, tools, shade cloth, nursery bags, an irrigation system, and a water pump. Currently they pipe water in from a long distance and it is intermittent and low pressure, particularly in the dry season. They have a 100 ft. well with a good water supply but the school doesn’t have enough funding for a submersible pump. A few hundred dollars would purchase a pump, which would enable them to have a reliable, sufficient supply of water for their students, irrigation needs, and animals. Donations to GATE are needed for seeds and tools, extension visits twice a month to all ten schools, and special needs such as a water pump for Julian Cho High School.
Read previous GATE articles.
Read next Gate article.

Midwife Training Program

We were able to meet with nine of the 22 midwives, including visiting several of the most active ones who live in villages close to the Guatemalan border. Many of the remote villages do not have health facilities and only receive medical help during “mobile clinics” organized by the local Ministry of Health every six weeks. This of course was the primary purpose of the project, to ensure that mothers delivering babies far from medical services had access to a trained local community member if they wanted or needed help. Not only are many of the midwives called for childbirth emergencies, but also, as they become known and are accessible in their villages, many are being asked to help with other health issues and medical emergencies as well. One of the midwives, Maria Ak, talked to me about an emergency delivery she managed. After delivery, the mother hemorrhaged for three minutes and fainted. Her husband didn’t know what to do, and Maria told him “she dead” if she didn’t get to the hospital right away. They managed to find a vehicle to transport her. After arriving at the hospital, the receiving nurse told the husband “this TBA saved your wife’s life.” Your donations to this program have helped these women get the training and support they need to offer these lifesaving services; and will help them improve their skills in the future.

Future Plans

Plenty volunteer Gary Groll, who has spent his last 20 years advising businesses and managing projects, especially related to appropriate technology and alternative energy, spent five weeks working with Plenty Belize and overlapped with us in his final week. The purpose of his trip was to investigate the current political and economic situation in Belize, the scope of projects the government, NGO and private sector is involved in, to assess how Plenty Belize fits into this ever-changing climate, and to suggest ideas for developing and financing our Belize program. During his stay Gary talked to many organizational representatives and collected, read, and digested more reports than anyone in their right mind should have to! He concluded that Plenty does fill a unique niche in this area of Belize which could and should be expanded.

We talked about expanding GATE’s scope and integrating its program components in the coming year as a major focus of Plenty Belize’s work. These components include: nutrition education for the school cooks and parents, curriculum development with the teachers in environmental education, and maintaining the agricultural extension work. Under GATE, assistance will also be increased to the School Feeding Program (SFP), such as securing supplies and financial resources, providing advisory support to the SFP committee and to new schools interested in starting lunch programs. We will also be targeting at least one garden to develop as a “demonstration site.” This would include a focus on planting nutritious crops which, when prepared together, would provide 100% of the nutrition needed by a child for that meal. Multiuse crops will also be included—ones that can be eaten but can also have value added, such as fruit trees for producing dried fruit and pulp for papermaking. Part of our post-trip work will be to develop the expanded program concept on paper and identify funding for 2004. If you know of sources of funding, or groups that would be interested in hearing about Plenty’s work in Belize, let us know! We can offer CD or DVD slide shows for presentations, a written project plan, and possibly a speaker. Thanks to all our donors for your support of Plenty’s work in Belize!

Plenty Belize Wish List

Our work in Belize could greatly benefit by donations of the following items. Please contact the Plenty office at plenty@plenty.org if you can help:
* Laptop computers for teaching computer skills and for the public library in Punta Gorda (working please, minimum 266 Pentium chip w/modem and power adapter)
* Digital video camera for project documentation
* Book-size stapler; Three-hole punch with brads; Spiral binding equipment for educational materials
* Copy machine
* Educational DVDs for children
* Prenatal vitamins and iron tablets