Plant With Purpose Vision Trips

by Corbyn Small

Each year Plant With Purpose staff leads a few trips to visit our partners in the field. The trips usually will include between 5-12 people who are interested in learning more about Plant With Purpose and seeing its programs firsthand. This creates advocates who become our best “story tellers” who can share their firsthand Plant With Purpose programs experience with their friends and family.

The trip that I wanted to highlight today is to Oaxaca, Mexico on October 21-26. This will be my first trip to visit the field and I could not be more excited. Oaxaca’s Vision Trip provides an incredible snapshot look at all of the Plant With Purpose programs as the group gets to visit about 6 of the 47 villages where we have partnerships with local leaders.

The trip starts in Oaxaca City, one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the new world. After the team orientation we will get to visit a few of the communities and see firsthand the challenges that farmers face and the dramatic progress they have made to better their lives. The trip is set up to take a linear progression from villages where Plant With Purpose has not been a part of the community for very long, to a village where our programs have been embraced and enacted for years.

The trip costs $600 dollars plus airfare and provides a rich time of fellowship and an in-depth

 learning experience of the social, economic, and environmental issues facing the rural poor in Oaxaca. To learn more about visiting Mexico, Tanzania, or the Dominican Republic email Doug Satre at Doug@PlantWithPurpose.org

Let Freedom Ring!

by Kate McElhinney

There is something undeniably magical about holidays. Today is the last day of work for this week, and around our office there is a tangible buzz of excitement as my co-workers share their Fourth of July plans and count down the hours until freedom.

As we gear up for a celebration here in America, Plant With Purpose also views this occasion as an extra special time to reflect on our programs. For us, witnessing the independent victories in the lives of the rural poor has been inspiring.

This morning, we had our own mini-celebration. There were no fireworks or flag waving, but simply a group of us gathering for prayer and praises. Today, we praised God for the restoration of peace in Burundi as the war comes to an end, for the health and sustenance of our Thailand team, and in Haiti, the financial support received by victims of the hurricanes last fall. These are big praises, indeed!

Since Plant With Purpose started working with the rural poor 25 years ago, it has been amazing to witness how the bonds of despair are broken as empowerment is restored. And the communities experience freedom in more ways than one. Environmentally, their lives are transformed as reforestation efforts replenish the land, providing abundant crops and a clean water supply. Economically, farmers become empowered through microcredit loans, which help them to start a business and generate a steady income. And spiritually, communities come together to pray for the future and praise God for his restorative work.

Although reversing the effects of deforestation and eliminating poverty worldwide can seem like huge undertakings, it is encouraging to see examples of empowerment in the lives of the rural poor. When lives are transformed and freedom is restored, then the true celebration begins! This Fourth of July, let’s celebrate the freedom of our nation, but also remember the silent victories of the rural poor in Burundi, Thailand, Tanzania, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Mexico.

Plant a tree and transform a life

Scott Sabin, Executive Director of Plant With Purpose, is featured on SDNN.com today. Read his article to find out why planting trees does more than just reduce your carbon footprint:

Scott Sabin: Stop the carbon footprints

While talk of carbon trading is all the buzz these days, I have to wonder, can tree planting have a greater impact than merely soothing our guilty, carbon consuming consciences?

For many of the world’s poorest people, their very survival is contingent on the health of their environment. Of course the same applies to us, but in a much more removed way. It’s easy to forget that our bottled water actually comes from a stream or our prepackaged food may actually have been grown in this thing called soil.

Around the world, small farmers, desperate to feed their families, are forced to cut down large areas of forested land, clearing it for farming or to sell as fuel wood. The resulting erosion and loss of soil fertility leaves entire hillsides desolate and barren, entrenching poor farmers in a vicious cycle of poverty and deforestation.

For these desperate farmers, their environmental impact is literally drying up the streams that sustain them, eroding the hillsides they farm for sustenance, and threatening their very survival. Now. Not in twenty years when more ice caps melt and sea levels rise, but now.

We all know trees play an important part in reducing global warming, absorbing harmful CO2 and releasing life-giving oxygen, but the full benefits of trees go much deeper. Trees’ root systems provide living barriers that prevent soil erosion, replenish the water table, and restore desolate, unproductive lands.

To the affluent city-dweller, these may sound like fringe benefits, but to a rural farmer, completely dependent on the land for survival, a tree can be the difference between life and death, the difference between hope and despair, thriving and barely squeaking by, a better future for their children and a life entrenched in a vicious cycle of extreme poverty and hunger.

When trees are planted alongside crops-a technique called agroforestry-farmers experience all the benefits of trees while also providing nutritious foods and a sustainable income for their families. For example, Floresta works with farmers to utilize agroforestry and sustainable farming techniques, empowering them to overcome poverty, provide for their families, live in dignity, and fulfill their greatest dream of all-leaving the world a better place for their children.

So for me, the excitement of planting trees results when I can see how caring for the environment actually improves the lives of the rural poor: it’s fighting global warming plus reducing poverty plus restoring environments plus transforming lives. All while leaving the world a better place for our own children as well.

For those hungry to reduce their carbon footprint and do something to alleviate poverty in the world, remember that offsetting our own carbon footprint by planting trees can actually transform the life of a rural farmer. Today.

So plant a tree and transform a life.