United Nations Observations

By Corbyn Small

Who knew there was an 'International No-Tobacco Day?' Yep, you just missed it too, it was May 31. Another international United Nations day that may have passed you right by was World Environment Day last Friday. We celebrated at Plant With Purpose by attending the Encinitas Environment Day fair that took place at beautiful Cottonwood Creek park in North County San Diego. We joined together with like-minded folks to celebrate the efforts of many to keep creation beautiful.

The United Nations has a webpage where you can find out all of the days that the UN observes. Whether you are working for a non-profit and want to make sure you don’t miss an opportunity for publicity or just a passionate individual who wants to share your thoughts with others, click here and you will never have to miss another important day to raise awareness for your cause.

By the way, you probably missed World Oceans Day, which was yesterday, June 8^th. Don’t worry, we forgot to celebrate too… next year. Look for blog posts from us in June on upcoming important world observance days in June such as World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought (catchy, huh?) as well as World Refugee Day.

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.

It takes a village...

The following article by Aly Lewis, Plant With Purpose's Grant Writer, was recently posted on SDNN.com, an online local news network. Enjoy!

Aly Lewis: A watchdog approach may be best

With drought, fires, and global warming, I think it’s no secret that we’re not as disconnected from the environment as bottled water, fast food, and Wii sports would lead us to believe. Nor are we that disconnected from each other.

The San Diego Water Authority recently proposed a water conservation plan in which they distributed Water Conservation Door Hangers to San Diego homes. In an effort to “help neighbors help each other save water,” residents can use these hangers to “tag” the homes of their water wasting neighbors. The public humiliation will hopefully be enough to squelch offending citizens’ water-guzzling habits.

Maybe it’s just me, but somehow I don’t think this will fly in a culture where ‘dependency’ is a bad word and ‘reliance’ is even worse unless it’s coupled with ‘self.’ What’s more, nobody wants to be known as the nosy neighbor. Here in the U.S., we cling to a staunch independence, self-sufficiency, and, in San Diego, an almost religious care-freedom.

But the ever-worsening state of our environment and the ever-increasing need for us to take action force us to re-examine this little thing I’d like to call ‘interconnectedness.’

I work at an organization called Plant With Purpose, an environmental non-profit that works with rural farmers in developing countries to restore their deforested, degraded land to productivity while also spurring economic growth and opportunities. The prideful, credit-claiming part of me wants to boast of all the innovative techniques we’ve taught these farmers; instead, I have to admit it’s these poor, overlooked and often disregarded farmers from the third world who are teaching me a thing or two about caring for the environment.

One of the most important things I’ve learned has been that environmental protection and restoration is a community effort. The farmers we work with live on watersheds—an “area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place,” according to the EPA. Of course we’re a part of a watershed as well, but somehow knowing which watershed my friends and I belong to isn’t as pertinent as knowing which groups I’ve joined on Facebook. Basically, all members of a watershed—human and otherwise—are linked together by their common water source. This interconnectedness has implications for any community attempting to “go green.”

We see it in the field when a farmer at the bottom of a hill labors to construct anti-erosion barriers on his already eroding hillside. His efforts prove futile when the rains come and mud and silt pour down the ravine from his neighbor’s un-protected farm, ruining his crops and destroying his family’s only source of sustenance. Lasting environmental renewal requires collaboration.

We also see this with communities’ efforts to reverse and avoid water contamination. We’ve seen many families begin to use ecologically friendly latrines that keep toxic waste products out of the water table, but it just takes one family using pit latrines to contaminate the water source for an entire region. Not only is the health of the environment at stake; the health of the community is on the line.

I’m not denying the power of the individual or downplaying the heroic steps we’ve seen individual farmers and families take toward environmental renewal and transformation. In fact, they’re almost miraculous. But I would like to recognize the need for environmental stewardship to be communal—both in the developing world and in San Diego.

We blanch at the thought of policing our neighbors’ water usage, but I’m starting to think that perhaps the San Diego Water Authority is onto something with their watchdog approach. If we really want to tackle such pressing environmental issues as drought, fires, and global warming, maybe it’s time we let words like ‘dependency’ and ‘reliance’ out of the doghouse. It takes a village…

Tea Anyone?

By Kate McElhinney Have you ever read a book that’s so good you can’t put it down? You start the first chapter at 10:00 p.m., thinking you’ll read a few pages, and then drift off into a good night’s sleep. But instead, you stay up all night reading, quickly devouring every word until you triumphantly finish the story just as the sun comes up. From the moment I delved into the book Three Cups of Tea, this was the case. I don’t want to give too much of it away, but the story is about a mountain climber named Greg Mortenson who stumbles across a poor village in Pakistan during a failed attempt to climb K2. Appalled at the lack of school buildings in the community, which experiences freezing winds during the winter, Mortenson returns to the United States and begins raising money to build schools for children, particularly girls, in rural parts of the far East. Plant With Purpose has a similar story of altruism. But instead of building schools for girls, we focus on empowering poor rural farmers to lift themselves out of poverty by teaching them sustainable agro-forestry techniques. And in the past 25 years, we have seen tremendous progress as hundreds of hillsides have been reforested, thousands of micro-credit loans have been distributed, and farmers have experienced renewed hope. There are so many good causes in the world. People fighting against AIDS, sex slavery, hunger, and deforestation. What’s your cause?

Learning to Love, In Manageable Chunks

by Aly Lewis Paper or plastic? The haunting question of the millennium symbolizing the sheer volume of choices the average American makes on a given day. If I weren’t an avid supporter of paper over plastic this question would induce a mini-panic attack every time I found myself face-to-face with a checkout boy or girl. In theory. Despite my pleasure at feigning displeasure at all of the choices I have to make on a daily basis, the truth is I love being in control. What really stresses me out or leaves me beleaguered (my new favorite word) are the things I can’t choose. As much as we’d like to charge forward as autonomous, capable human beings, there are a lot of things we can’t control. Where we were born, for example. Who our parents are. Whether or not our retirement fund has decreased by 70% in the past six months—not that mine was anything substantial to begin with. Recently I’ve come to the mini-epiphany that regardless of my circumstance or how I feel about a situation or all of the million and one factors that conspire to render me paralyzed and hopeless, I can still choose love. Maybe you’ve all realized this years ago and I’m just a bit of late bloomer, but I find it incredibly empowering to know that I can choose my response. I can’t choose whether or not the world is fair or children die of starvation in Africa (well, not as directly as I’d like), but I can choose my attitude and my next steps. I wrote earlier about manageable chunks, or small things we can do to make a difference in the world, and still think they’re the best way to bring about lasting change, the best way to learn to choose love. And I guess this isn’t so much of a new epiphany as more of an addendum to my theory that baby steps get the snowball rolling (to mix metaphors). It’s those baby, baby steps of selflessness and compassion that spur us toward becoming more loving, more compassionate, and more fully engaged in our world. The knowledge that I can choose to love and empower and give through my thoughts and actions is becoming exceedingly redemptive for me. I can make a difference little by little. I can learn and grow little by little. I can love little by little. Hound me later if you think I’m being trite, but welcome to my new obsession: “manageable chunks of love.”

I thought a wedding was just about two people?

This last week I was a groomsman in a good friend’s wedding back in Arizona where I grew up. Aside from the sweltering heat and the need to blast my air conditioner in my car at every hour of the day to stay cool, the wedding and events surrounding it were spectacular. The bride and groom met in China as counselors for a high school mission trip from which my friend returned posing the question to me, “would you like to see the girl I am going to marry?” It sounds like a line from a cheesy chick flick, but those were, in fact, his exact words and a year and a half later my friend married the girl of his dreams. I am writing about my friend’s wedding because they are a great example of selflessness in a world that can sometimes seem like “it’s all about me.” Always putting others before themselves, my friends chose to highlight a few non-profit organizations by putting frames on each table at the wedding that told about causes that they support (working at a non-profit myself, I cannot express how effective this kind of exposure can be.) Another gesture of goodwill that the newlyweds showed was to purchase TOMS shoes as a groomsmen present to be worn during the reception. TOMS shoes is a non-profit that is dedicated to giving away a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes that they sell, “One for One” as they say. The wedding party was anything but small, the bride was able to cut her half down to just eight, which is impressive for a girl coming from a family of 13 kids (no wonder she is selfless too). With a large bridal party comes a large groomsmen party and because of the bride and grooms decision to support TOMS shoes and to represent them at their wedding, 8 children in need of a pair of shoes will have that need met by a great organization. At an event that is meant to focus solely on two individuals, more and more we are starting to see those couples turning the attention toward others in an effort to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. Here at Plant With Purpose, we have received sizeable donations contributed specifically for a wedding so that the bride and groom can tell all of their guests that a tree has been planted in each of their names as a thank you for attending their wedding. I would be curious to know if anyone else has ever seen charitable giving at a wedding and would love it if you would share! Best of luck to my newlywed friends as you continue in a life of love, happiness, and putting others needs before your own. Corbyn Small Outreach Coordinator

Planting Hope in a Season of Gloom: Farmers in Haiti work to mitigate the effects of devastating tropical storms

By Aly Lewis The verdict is in: the sky is drenched in clouds and temperatures have dropped. San Diego’s June gloom has officially begun. But the start of June marks another gloomy season for communities around the world: Hurricane Season. For many of the farmers Plant With Purpose works with in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Hurricane Season means storms and flash flooding, mudslides and destruction, lost crops and animals, and even death. Already this year, 11 people have died in Haiti from flooding and the season is just beginning. Last fall, four deadly tropical storms hit Haiti in a three-week period. Families lost crops, homes, and hundreds of animals—their food, shelter, and emergency savings. Plant With Purpose was able to respond to these needs by distributing sheep and goats to over 300 families to replace their lost animals and providing bean seeds to replenish crops to nearly 2,000 families in 44 communities. This is already making a huge difference in the lives of people who had lost everything. The animals restore their economic safety net, and the beans give them hope for the future, as they will be able to plant their land and become self-sufficient again. Furthermore, as the animals have offspring, these will be given to additional families. In addition to direct hurricane relief, Plant With Purpose is working with farmers to reestablish erosion control barriers and plant trees to make the next hurricane season less devastating. Already farmers have constructed 238,833 linear meters of anti-erosion barriers. The hurricanes of 2008 demonstrated the value of these preventative measures, and many more people have shown interest in Plant With Purpose’s restorative work. These preventative measures are taking place on in Plant With Purpose’s Trans Border Project on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic as well. After just two years of working on the Haitian/Dominican border, 77% of farmers have reported a decrease in erosion, making them less vulnerable to devastating mudslides during storms. This year, some taller trees fell down during the storms, but most of the seedlings planted through Plant With Purpose survived. In fact, our Director in Haiti reports a very high survival rate among the 15,000 trees that farmers have planted. Overall, farmers have joined with Plant With Purpose to establish 11 tree nurseries, have planted 15,155 trees, and constructed 8 miles of soil conservation barriers. Because of these new techniques, 56% of farmers have experienced increased crop yields—which means more to eat. This may not sound like much but it is a remarkable change after only two years of participation. In a region where hunger is rampant and the average family eats less than two meals a day, more to eat can be the difference between life and death. Perhaps most significant has been the Haitians’ resiliency and tenacity as communities work together to build a better future for their families. Farmers are learning techniques for better management of their land, and there was less damage to areas where Plant With Purpose farmers have been participating in reforestation and soil conservation efforts. In the midst of devastating storms and a worldwide economic crisis, we are encouraged by the small glimmers of hope and change we are blessed to witness and be a part of in this desperate region. Click here to help farmers in Haiti plant hope instead of gloom.