Fast Facts: Burundi

Check out the latest Fast Facts on Plant With Purpose's newest program in Burundi, Africa:

Burundi has suffered greatly. A brutal civil war that lasted for over 40 years left the country aching and the land depleted. When peace was finally achieved in 2006, Burundi was faced with the challenge of transitioning from a nation on the brink of extinction to a nation of hope. Large numbers of refugees started returning to their homeland and the need for economic development, food security, and ethnic reconciliation has been immense.

This year Plant With Purpose worked with 113 community group members, helping them to revive the land they depend on as well as restore relationships between members of rival ethnic groups.

• 4 workshops were conducted on sustainable agriculture and environmental protection techniques.
• 6,500 trees were planted to revitalize soil and provide income for families.
• 10 fuel-efficient stoves were constructed to save wood.
• 51 farmers were trained on formation of loan groups and savings and loan management.
• 2 workshops were conducted on Peace and Reconciliation and Creation Care, empowering Burundians to live out their faith and be good stewards of creation.

BURUNDI FAST FACTS

FAST FACTS

Location: Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo

Population: 8,988,091

Total area: 27,830 sq km (slightly smaller than Maryland)

Population below poverty line: 68%

Forests: Settlement by rural populations has led to deforestation, soil erosion, and habitat loss. Deforestation of the entire country is almost completely due to overpopulation, with a mere 230 square miles remaining.

Religion: Christian population equals 70%, with Roman Catholics representing the largest group at 65%. Protestant and Anglicans comprise the remaining 5%.

To join with Plant With Purpose's to empower Burundian communities to reduce poverty, to heal environmental and social scars, and to develop healthy, sustainable economies, click here.

Love Lessons from Haiti

By Kate McElhinney I saw a headline this morning that caught my eye: Signs of life and love emerge in devastated Haiti. This positive message jumped out at me as a stark contrast to the sea of depressing headlines I have seen lately about Haiti’s deforestation problems, chronic poverty issues, abandoned orphans, and the daunting task of rebuilding their capitol.

As I read the article, I was startled to see that it described a wedding that took place in Port au Prince in February. A wedding! I know this sounds silly, but my eyes started to water as I read how the couple exchanged their vows under a blue tarp in front of the destroyed church where they were initially going to be married. The bride had sung in the choir there along with other friends who were victims of the January 12^th earthquake and weren’t there to celebrate. People watched from dirty piles of rubble as guests sang hymns accompanied by a lone drummer. Their home is a pile of rubble, their church in ruins, and their honeymoon suite is a tent shared with eight relatives.

As a bride-to-be, (I’m getting married this Sunday!) the story of these people really humbled me. I am getting married in a nice church, with all my family there, and I am leaving for a tropical honeymoon afterward. With all the plans that have been made, I can’t even fathom one thing going wrong with my wedding, (and I swear I’m not a bride-zilla!) The stress of planning leading up to the wedding has consumed me, but this couple’s story, perhaps, is a reminder that it doesn’t matter where you are or what circumstances you are undergoing, love will emerge and can’t be destroyed.

The bride was quoted as saying, "We're still here. No matter what the situation is, we are going to be together." I think this shows the tremendous resilience of Haitians, and I am honored to be a part of an organization that is working to empower people to persevere.

*Photo courtesy of AP photos.

Kate McElhinney serves as the Marketing Coordinator for Plant With Purpose. She plays an integral role in executing the company’s marketing campaigns and PR efforts. Kate also coordinates the annual gala and oversees the production of the company newsletter, The Sower.

A Taste of Thai: Celebrating Food, Culture, and Communities

by Stephanie Rudeen, Grant Writing Intern

Often when an organization enters an impoverished community, it is easy to put aside the country, the culture, and the people that have existed there before the organization, and will continue to exist after. Even for any person, when he or she presses the donate button on a webpage or places a few wrinkled dollars into a Haiti relief jar, it is easy to focus on the immediate problem, and not think about the rich history and past of that community or group of people as well.

While many things make up the complex and rich culture and history of countries and communities, I can’t help but always be enraptured by a community’s food. For me, food is a complex and vital component of any community, and a looking glass into a community’s very structure and survival. Plant With Purpose sees the complexity of cooking and food to a community, and does its part by offering fuel-efficient stoves to many of the communities it works in. Beyond even the environmental, economic, and health benefits of these stoves, fuel-efficient stoves also help marriages grow since husbands spend more time with their wives in the kitchen because there is less harmful smoke. Recognizing the importance and complexity of cooking and the kitchen is recognizing that the heart of a community lays within what has been there all along – the traditions and culture of that community.

One of my personal favorite foods is Thai, a country that Plant With Purpose has partnered with to bring about lasting change. Although I often go to Thai restaurants, I had never researched the traditional foods of Northern Thailand, the part of Thailand where Plant With Purpose works. According to asiarecipe.com, “the northern breakfast [is] known in the local dialect as khao gnai consisting mainly of steamed glutinous rice. Cooked in the early hours of the day, steamed glutinous rice is packed in a wicker baskets made from bamboo splints or palmyra palm leaves. The farmer takes the packed basket to the working rice field and eats the glutinous rice as lunch, known in the dialect as ‘khaw tom’. Dinner or ‘khaw lang’ is served on [a] raised wooden tray or ‘kan toke.’”

As a child I would often watch my own mother bake pie at home, her specialty, and watch her while she delicately pushed the tissue paper thin crust into the bottom of the pan. Yet, as I grew older, I stopped helping and observing my mother as she cooked and baked, and I began to stop recognizing the art that exists within the kitchen. I believe it is important to recognize and observe the art of cooking, and it is also important to listen to the story and culture that is behind each flaky piecrust and grain of rice.

I feel as if lately, an American food staple has been take out from a local chain restaurant, and my mind cannot help but wander off to thoughts of my own family’s cooking. There is no comparison between a greasy, pre-made hamburger wrapped in yellow wax paper and served in a brown bag, and the complex and intriguing story that emerges from each bite of one of my mother’s pies or a grain of cooked rice in Northern Thailand.

Plant With Purpose strives to help communities grow, while at the same time not interfere with what makes each community unique. So next time you press the donate button, also take some time to get to know a different community, because every aspect of the culture, even just a bite of its local food, represents a community with a complex and fascinating story to tell.

Delivering Seeds of Hope in Haiti

Meet Vestor Emmanuel. As a leader of Plant With Purpose's community group in Pennsik, Haiti, Vestor is helping to deliver much needed bean seeds to his community. He's already helped Plant With Purpose distribute 250 pounds of seed to members of his group, which they will plant to increase their harvests and feed their growing households.

Before the earthquake, Vestor's household was composed of 11 people. When the quake destroyed his sister's home in Port-au-Prince, he welcomed his sister and two of his children back into his home. With a now full household of 14 people, Vestor welcomes the extra seeds for this planting season provided by Plant With Purpose. And Vestor's story isn't unique. The average family size in our project area has increased by about 80%, and the number is still increasing!

With Plant With Purpose's help, Vestor will plant 50 pounds of seeds this year (compared to the 35 pounds he planted last year) to cover his family's food needs. Any extra will be sold for cash. And, at the end of the harvest, Vestor will repay Plant With Purpose 20% of the beans he was given, recognizing community contribution and increasing sustainability of the project.

We originally planned to supply 75,000 pounds of seeds to 2,500 farmers, but we have been blessed to serve more than 2,700 farmers and will be buying more seed to meet these new demands. We are excited to see people like Vestor stepping up to their help their communities as we partner with farmers to meet their families needs.

Thank you, Vestor, for delivering seeds of hope in Haiti!

International Woman's Day

Today is International Woman’s Day, and people around the world are celebrating the economic, political, and social achievements of women.

In honor of this special day, we would like to introduce Eloída López Lopéz, a member of the El Oro community in Mexico. A mother of three, Eloida and her husband, Odilón, used to struggle to find enough food to feed their family. Then Eloída heard about Plant With Purpose’s family garden project, and her and her family began participating. With the help of Plant With Purpose, Eloída planted a garden that is now producing nutritious vegetables—maize, beans, squash, and peas, just to name a few. Now there is enough food for everyone!

Eloída has been particularly blessed and excited by the family garden project. She says, “I am very happy because Plant With Purpose has supported me with the project of vegetables. I always have my plants; I eat them and sell them also. Thank you to those who have supported me.”

Additionally, Eloída has joined a basket- and bag-making group and a revolving loan fund, both of which provide Eloída with alternative income sources and have empowered her to follow her dreams and provide for her family.

On behalf of Eloída, 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 Woman’s Day!

Plant With Purpose Program Officer Travels to Haiti

Plant With Purpose Program Officer Milmer Martinez arrived in Haiti this week. Along with our local Haitian staff, Milmer will be overseeing a "Cash for Work" project focused on soil conservation and reforestation. This project will benefit rural farmers by providing them with much needed cash, plus the soil conservation barriers will be a critical barrier against mudslides and crop destruction during the impending rainy season.

Here are some quick updates from Milmer:

-Over 104.38 tons of rice have been distributed and 15,677 liters of cooking oil. Most of the efforts are now concentrated in Fonds Verrettes and Acul du Nord where we have less communities. We are gradually transitioning to the distribution of seeds and Cash for Soil conservation programs.

-We officially started the Cash For Work in Grande Colline with 3 teams of 20 people.

-We started the soil conservation program in Fonds Verrettes with 7 teams of 20 people with its respective team leader.

Below are some pictures from our seed distribution sessions at our Haiti office, as well as from our Cash for Soil conservation project in Martel.

Mighty Mamas

In honor of International Women's Day (officially March 8, but there are events going on nationwide all month), we would like to share a post written by our wonderful new Grant Writing Intern, Stephanie Rudeen, on Plant With Purpose's efforts to empower women and improve maternal health. by Stephanie Rudeen Pregnancy and childbirth kill more than 536,000 women a year, more than half of them in Africa, according to the World Health Organization. That is equal to ten Yankee Stadiums full of people or the entire population of Wyoming! I grew up in a household full of women, so it naturally startles and hurts me to find that so many women die each year from a lack of maternal health care. Africa has some of the world’s highest death rates in pregnancy and childbirth. For each woman who dies, 20 others suffer from serious complications, according to the W.H.O. Tanzania, one of the countries Plant with Purpose works with in Africa, has roughly 13,000 maternal deaths annually. Although this isn’t the worst record in Africa, it is still a major area of concern. Maternal health is a complex issue and has many causes, from a lack of maternal healthcare to a lack of knowledge to even agricultural problems. I am new to Plant with Purpose, but it encourages me to see that this organization also lends a hand towards battling maternal mortality. According to womensenews.org, developing countries also require water to combat the maternal death rate crisis. According to their article, “Water is Key to Reducing Maternal Mortality,” not having enough water can put stress on a woman physically as well as psychologically which leads to a greater chance of death during childbirth. It gives me hope to see that organizations like Plant with Purpose work to bring clean water to the rural poor, especially in countries such as Tanzania. Plant with Purpose works to bring access to more clean, safe water to women and children, as well as allowing access so women and children do not have to walk as long of distances to reach clean water. Another step in reducing the maternal mortality rate is through the empowerment of women. Growing up surrounded by women was a constant reminder of how important women and mothers are to a community, and how important it is to make sure every woman has the chance to live a full and healthy life. A very important part of my life is my pride in being a woman, and I am happy to have begun working with an organization that also supports women’s empowerment, especially in rural communities. Plant with Purpose empowers women to start their own small businesses and offers women a network of support and business training. Although this may not be a direct step in the direction of lowering the maternal mortality rate, I believe every time a woman becomes more knowledgeable and empowered in her life, she also becomes healthier, and more self-aware and confident. While the maternal mortality rate is a complex and multi-faceted issue that concerns me very deeply on a personal level, it brings me hope to work with an organization such as Plant with Purpose. Plant with Purpose is able to indirectly, as well as directly, help women become empowered and improve the health of women in Africa and countries such as Tanzania. Decreasing the maternal mortality rate cannot be accomplished overnight, but it is through continuous effort and hope that women’s lives in developing countries can be changed for the better. For me, every mother saved in any country in the world, is one community that has been improved for the better.