Agros Blog

Journey with a Village (JWAV) is an Agros International program that builds partnerships between rural villages in developing countries and businesses, churches, individuals and community groups that are committed to their support.  Members of the JWAV program are given the opportunity to visit the village they are supporting as part of an Agros “service team” trip.

Terry McNichols is part of an Agros JWAV program and just recently returned from a service team trip to El Salvador. Terry maintains a blog called “Grace and Gravity” and wrote about the recent trip to El Salvador. This was Terry’s fourth trip to this village and this time around was able to ask a group of women in the village what they would do if they “won the lottery“.

Here is what the women in the village had to say:

Monday, February 8, 2010

If You Won the Lottery….

By Terry McNichols

I wonder what you would answer if I were to ask you what you would do it you won the lottery.  What would you buy first?  Second?  Then what?  What would your other family members say they would choose?  On our trip to El Salvador, we invited the women of the community to come to a “conversation circle” and told them they could ask us anything and we would ask them questions.  Everyone was allowed to pass if they didn’t want to answer.  This would not have worked if we had tried this on one of our earlier visits to this community.  But by the time we had visited 3 or 4 times, we thought it was worth a try.

We were surprised at the turnout of women, old and young.  We kept adding chairs and enlarging our circle.  We asked them several questions and they asked us a few, such as how old we are and what we (women) do.  The women in this community haven’t had much to look forward to in the past other than having babies and working all the time,  and they were very interested in what we do in the world.  We were saddened to hear later that they really had a lot of questions they would have liked to ask us, but were shy.  Maybe by the next visit they will have gotten up the nerve to actually ask us.  They got a laugh out of our insistence that we really do look a lot better than we do when we come to visit!  They all are clean and neat and we are all in our REI zippable pants, work shirts, sweat running down our faces, hair straggly, no makeup.  We aren’t used to the heat and have a hard time keeping our “looks” intact!  It was fun to show them a couple of pictures of ourselves actually looking nicer!

One answer that made us sad was the question “What do you do for fun?”  They talked about a Patron Saints Festival in February.  But “what do you do for fun in a normal week?”  The answer?  “Nothing.  We work all the time except when you come to visit!”  They really couldn’t come up with the concept of “free time.”

But the big question was reworded from the lottery to “What would you do if you had a whole lot of money all at once?”  After a long pause, one of the braver women said, “I would buy enough food for my children and family.”  Another said “I would pay off our land.”  “What else?” we asked.  Nothing.  Nothing at all.

I am ashamed of our wealth at times like this.  These families lost 30% of their beans and 70% of their corn crop in Hurricane Ida.  These are their main food crops.  We raised money to help Agros make sure they have food supplies until their crops recover.

I do recognize that there are many in our own country who also do not have enough to eat.  But most of us would have an entire “wish list” of things that we would name were we asked the lottery question!  And enough food for our families wouldn’t even make the list!

Here are a few photos from the trip:

At Agros we depend on volunteers to help our office run smoothly and help ensure we are achieving our mission of ending rural poverty in Central America and Mexico. Over this past year we have had many wonderful and capable volunteers. These folks have come from varying backgrounds and all have offered us so much. This year we would like to honor three  volunteers for providing Agros with outstanding service.

Jenna Swalin began volunteering with Agros in February of 2009. She first learned about Agros while researching different NGOs in the Seattle area and was impressed by the Agros development model and the strength of the Marketing and Communications Department. In the Communications Department, she worked on expanding Agros’ presence on social networking channels and helped with the development and production of other communications pieces including the newsletters and blog entries. When asked what she enjoyed most about her work at Agros Jenna responded, “There are so many amazing and inspirational stories of change, of families that have transformed their lives through working with Agros. Having the opportunity to learn those stories and to convey them to the public was a blessing.” Jenna has just recently returned from Argentina and is looking for work similar to what she has done for Agros.

Alex Richey learned about Agros through a family member and after some research, he found that by volunteering at Agros he would be able to learn more about Latin American culture and help those who are living in poverty. Alex began volunteering at our reception desk in September of 2009. He also helped the Development staff with various tasks. He most enjoyed helping with preparations for the Tierras de Vida fundraiser. When asked what his greatest reward from working with Agros was, he responded, “The people I met. Agros is a collection of innovative, brilliant people, and the company demonstrates what individuals can do to alleviate poverty in Central America.” Alex is currently teaching math to young people in Honduras, and his Agros experience reminds him how much he as an individual can help those that are less fortunate.

Arun Thomas learned about Agros through an enthusiastic presentation of an Agros Journey with a Village (JWAV) trip during a short-term mission introduction at University Presbyterian that he and his wife attended in 2001. In the fall of 2003, Arun and his wife had the opportunity to go on a service team trip to La Esperanza in Guatemala. They enjoyed the experience so much they returned to La Esperanza 6 times within in the following 4 years.  As a result of Arun’s extensive experience with Agros Service Teams and given his background with computers, he volunteered to develop and manage TeamAgros.net, the website/database Agros uses to manage all individual traveler and team specific information.  Arun also participated as a “Champion” for the Agros village of San Diego Tenango in El Salvador and he helped build relationships with that village which he felt was a little more difficult due to the different dynamics between Agros and the villagers. Arun appreciates the long-term sustainable approach Agros takes to development. Arun shares, “The relationships with the villagers and other team members are what keep us going. I am reminded every time that God is at work in peoples lives, whatever their circumstances are; and that he wants us to encourage one another–I feel the villagers encourage us to be more thankful for what we have materially and to exhort us to hope for what we can have relationally with God and with each other.”

Thank you  Jenna, Alex, and Arun… and to all Agros volunteers working to serve the poor with such passion and generosity.

CATALYST Strategic Design Review has just published their most recent edition, and included is a beautiful layout and article on Agros.

The article includes a case study, chart, map, and in-depth articulation of Agros’ work to help rural poor communities create their own sustainable economies.

From their website, “CATALYST articles and posts emphasize the value of applying the creative design process to the solution of complex challenges.”

We all know that systemic, generational poverty has multiple causes.  Alleviating poverty in any region is hard, complex work.  From the magazine’s editorial perspective, strategic design is achieved (in any discipline) when sustainable systems are put in place that solve multiple problems.  This article is an attempt to show how Agros’ development model embodies the principles of a sustainable, holistic, and strategic solution to poverty.

There are two versions of the article, one that includes the full layout and design, and the other in simple text:

READ THE RICH-TEXT VERSION /  READ THE PLAIN TEXT VERSION

Many of you have subscribed to receive the most recent Agros blog posts by email.  Unfortunately, the blog subscription system developed a bug that kept us from pushing out blog posts on a timely basis.

This bug has been fixed, and we will resume sending blog posts to you on a more regular basis.

A recent article from Yahoo News México, discussed a crisis in the rural economy of México. Farmers in rural México have seen their purchasing power decrease by 44 percent. This has affected their ability to buy basic goods such as food, clothing, and medicine. This decrease in purchasing power has caused many in rural communities to migrate to the cities in search of higher paying jobs. The Mexican government has tried to improve the situation in rural areas by issuing families monthly allowances but this unfortunately has not helped improve the situation.

While issuing monthly allowances will help the rural poor of México in the short-term, it will do nothing to alleviate poverty in the long-term. If people are living hand to mouth and are not given opportunities to invest in their families and their communities they will remain poor.

Agros seeks to end poverty by providing farmers and villagers with the necessary tools to build strong, functioning rural economies. Giving people the tools to create jobs for themselves is just one way in which Agros helps whole villages break out of the cycle of poverty.

Agros works in Chiapas, México and the villages there have had a very positive and successful relationship with Agros. Agros México utilizes a farmer centric approach to sustainable rural development and it may help reverse the situation taking place in rural México.

Here in the US we can all push for rural economic development policies that address the deep rooted problems that cause inefficiencies in these markets and ultimately subject millions to an existence of grinding poverty.

Bill Gates, founder of the Gates Foundation, recently gave his first major public address on the topic of agriculture development at the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa. Gates discussed the need for the development of agricultural systems that incorporate productivity gains and sustainability.

Gates finished his address with a call for a more farmer-centered and holistic approach to agricultural development, saying,“Poor farmers are not a problem to be solved; they are the solution – the best answer for a world that is fighting hunger and poverty, and trying to feed a growing population. If farmers can get what they need to feed their families and sell their surplus, hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people can build themselves a better life.”

Not surprisingly, Gates highlighted Africa as a region in need of agriculture development. But another region in critical need of agriculture development is right here in our own backyard, Mexico and Central America, home to 21 million impoverished citizens.  Most of this poverty stems from inequalities in land distribution. Many farmers in Mexico and Central America have no land to work because of decades of policies denying them access and rights to land. Farmers in Mexico and Central America like farmers in Africa need resources and tools that will allow them to apply a holistic approach to their development in order to break the cycle of poverty.

Agros International agrees wholeheartedly with Gates that poor farmers are not a problem to be solved, but rather they are the solution. Agros is in the business of helping rural farming communities work themselves out of poverty. The Agros development model bridges the need for technological solutions with the need for true sustainability.

Land is a cornerstone of the Agros development model. Once rural families have access to land, Agros agronomists assist them with crop development techniques that take advantage of local conditions, markets, and necessary inputs. Agros works with community members to develop agriculture systems in the village that will be used long after Agros departs.

Not long thereafter, Agros village members become the teachers as they impart that same knowledge to other villages in the region, and to their children, who continue the practice of farming in a less destructive, more sustainable way.

The same applies for Agros holistic community development work in a village.  The goal is to leave behind a thriving, sustainable community free of poverty for generations to come.

Agros’ development model is proven to work. When leaders in the development field talk about the need to find technological yet sustainable solutions to agriculture development, we offer the Agros development model as an example of success that could be applied across geographies.

Fair warning: this is long!  However this post is also an attempt to answer two fundamental question at the heart of everything we do:

“What is poverty… and… what is Agros doing to help?”

(Note: if you want the short answer, then watch this video!)

These are basic questions we hear all the time.  Whether it’s on Oprah or at a U2 concert, people hear the statistics, see the pictures, and may even weep at the stories of “the poor”, but with so many approaches and definitions and attempts to help, what does it mean to really end poverty?

The first questions that often come up are numeric in nature: “How many people are poor?”  “How much money do they make?”  “How much money are you asking me to give in order to help?”

Answers are of course numerous.

For example, in terms of the numbers and economic indicators, the World Bank estimates that approximately 3 billion people fall under the international poverty line of $2.50 a day.

In other words, according to the World Bank, almost half of the planet lives in poverty.

Think about that.  Half the planet.

(And in Central America specifically, where Agros works, more than 60% live in poverty.)

But what is poverty?

Poverty is a complex phenomenon, no doubt.  Income is an important component, but access to healthcare, education, employment, sanitation, and clean water also have a tremendous impact on quality of life.

Intangible factors–including discrimination, empowerment, community support, or having a sense of basic worth and dignity are hard to measure, but are all critical determinants of poverty.

At Agros, we have seen that poverty affects the whole person within entire communities.  It’s impossible to isolate single factors that affect just individuals. Therefore, our approach and definition of poverty is holistic.

Agros defines poverty as ‘broken relationships’. We use this definition to create a basis to understand and interact with the multiple dimensions of poverty.

What does this mean?

For the poor (and particularly the rural poor), all of the fundamental connections and relationships that make up a sustainable way of life are damaged or destroyed. This results in the destruction of access to basic community systems, opportunities, and material resources, but also the erosion and eradication of human dignity and worth.

When we define poverty as broken relationships, we’re not speaking in platitudes.

You can measure and quantify the systemic and pervasive effects of broken relationships through per capita poverty statistics including life expectancy, undernourishment, unemployment rates and literacy rates.

Further, the fundamental failures of local systems, infrastructure, and services are exacerbated when village-level relationships with local and national municipalities and institutions break down, resulting in little or no access to education, healthcare, credit, or sustainable employment opportunities.  The resulting desperation is an underlying cause of families being forced apart for months and years to work in urban areas, distant plantations, or immigrating to find work in other countries.

You can measure these broken relationships in the amount of time family members spend broken apart as one or more attempt to migrate for hard-to-find work.

If these broken relationships can be measured, what does this look like in human terms?

Imagine: that your husband and 13 year-old son spend four months of the year working on a coffee plantation hundreds of miles away for extremely low wages. You are left alone during these months, hungry and desperate to provide for the remaining children. You have no access to public services or clean water, and hunger is pervasive.

Imagine: You stumble into a dirt-floor shack after a day of back-wrenching labor. Your work for the day has earned you less than a dollar to feed a family of four children.  You depend on agriculture for your survival and livelihood, but do not own land of your own, so are forced to rent a small parcel of hard, dry land to eke out a meager crop of corn and beans. You go to sleep at night listening to your children crying themselves to sleep with hunger.  The despair is crushing.

Imagine: A barefoot child walks for miles to collect water and firewood for the family. She has never been to school, never owned a book, never been taught to write her name. If she becomes ill, access to medical care is non-existent or limited. There is nothing in her future but more of the same – hopelessness created by the cycle of extreme poverty.

At Agros we see firsthand the impact of broken relationships within extreme poverty.  But most importantly, we also see that these relationships can be restored.

We’ve learned, however, that in seeking to truly eradicate poverty you cannot reduce the solutions  to just the individual or even family level.  To create true, lasting transformation it is critical to address how the causes of extreme poverty stretch across communities and destroy entire generations.

Given all of the above, the basic question that drives everything we do at Agros is this:  what does is take for an entire community to lift themselves out of poverty?

This is the internal question we ask ourselves in response to the more basic question of “how can you help?”

Our answer is in five parts.  Five components, really.

The Agros development model is designed to restore the multiple broken connections between individuals and their communities, empowering them to build back both economic prosperity and human dignity.  We do this through a unique, integrated, holistic model that encompasses five core components:

Community Organization
Help families define a vision for a new community and develop the local leadership required to create a self-sustaining, thriving community.

Land Ownership
Work with families to identify and purchase agricultural land on credit and use their payments to purchase land for other new communities.

Community Education & Training
Create opportunities for adequate healthcare, education, adult literacy and spiritual growth.

Housing & Infrastructure
Implement community and individual construction projects such as houses, schools, irrigation systems, latrines, infrastructure and community centers.

Sustainable Economic Growth
Develop agricultural production and support income-generating activities through microenterprise loans and technical training.

These five components form an integrated approach that we call 360° development. The components are based on this notion of enabling communities to restore for themselves the basic relationships that make up a healthy, thriving, sustainable community.

Economic considerations are key–income, business development, loans and credit:  But looking holistically–empowering women, establishing a community leadership structure, literacy, family planning, access to healthcare, and most importantly–restoring basic human dignity… these are all important parts of the whole process.

And you’ll notice that while these are issues that people in “developed” nations strive to answer, they are nevertheless human issues and must be addressed in even the most remote, rural, impoverished village.

And while we take a holistic, community-based approach, we believe that every life has worth, and every family matters. And rather than base our work exclusively on an assessment of needs, our approach seeks to build on the values, dreams, and resources of the families themselves.

You see, at the heart of all of this, we do not believe the poor are a problem to be solved.  We believe that have what it takes to list themselves out of poverty.

So we don’t work with a village community by imposing a “development program” based on top-down, theoretical solutions. Instead, we work through a participatory, values-based planning process that results in a master plan being created by the community themselves.  This plan will encompass the five components of the Agros model, but the specifics of implementation will be created by the families themselves.

And it takes time.  There is no easy solution to generations of extreme poverty.  However, by empowering villagers to identify, enhance, and grow their own capacity for achievement, social, environmental, and economic sustainability for everyone in the village is ensured.

An Agros village is highly organized, socially supportive, commercially competitive and environmentally sound.  As families thrive under new conditions of stability and security, they are able to develop agricultural businesses; develop and own assets; establish new pathways to education and healthcare; and forge partnerships with other organizations and government municipalities.

All of these integrated benefits and experiences result in the transformation of a community, and are passed on to the next generation.

After living in so many generations of poverty characterized by a fundamental degradation of human dignity, as families are given the necessary training, support, and capital to build a better future, not only is poverty alleviated, but basic human dignity is restored for everyone involved.

Want to see what this looks like? Watch this video!

Agros is in the business of poverty eradication for the long-term. We do not believe in simple, easy ‘fixes’ to complex problems. Our model provides a framework in which communities are capable of indefinitely maintaining their productivity and usefulness to society.

The vision and impact of Agros’ work is designed to end rural poverty across entire rural villages and through multiple generations.  And with 40 village projects across five countries, this is happening… one village at a time!

As many of you know, Hurricane Ida hit El Salvador late Saturday, Nov. 7, fed by 145-kilometer-per-hour winds and causing heavy flooding. The Category 1 hurricane left over 130 dead and thousands displaced.

We are saddened to report that our four Agros El Salvador communities have all been impacted, as follows:

• San Diego de Tenango: The road is inaccessible, a portion of their crops have been lost, homes have been damaged, and families’ health have been impacted.

• Nuevo Renacer: Roofs are leaking and floors have turned to mud. There is considerable erosion to the access road and a loss in basic grains and vegetables.

• La Esperanza: Severe erosion to the road as well as significant loss of basic grains has been reported.

• El Milagro: A large portion of the families’ basic grains were lost.

We are in daily contact with our El Salvador staff, and plans are underway to help these villages recover and rebuild. We will keep all partners posted as this process continues.

In August of 2009 we wrote an article about chili pepper production in Agros villages in Nicaragua. In October of this year the new harvest is in and the results are great!

Six Agros communities in Nicaragua have become a source of chili peppers for Chiles de Nicaragua, S.A, a Nicaraguan chili exporting business. These six Agros villages have negotiated contracts with Chilies of Nicaragua to guarantee a market for their chili peppers. Chilies of Nicaragua provides Original TABASCO® Brand Pepper Sauce, a company of Louisiana, USA, with a large share of the chili peppers that they use in their popular Tabasco sauce.

Through agricultural loans and technical training and support from Agros, families in El Eden and San Jose started a pepper project in March 2006. Since that time, the success of the project increased to 115 families in six Agros communities. This year these communities have harvested 18 acres of chili peppers amounting to a combined yield of 69,993 pounds of chili peppers!

This harvest has earned the communities approximately US $31,352 in gross income. In addition to the huge efforts put toward production, the villagers themselves applied the training received from the Agros technical staff to pursue and negotiate a contract with Chilies of Nicaragua that guaranteed purchase of their chili pepper crops.

Learning new techniques, gaining experience negotiating with an exporter, and receiving a fair price for their crops has contributed to increased confidence among the chili farmers and their families.

San Marcos community leader, Hector, describes growing peppers as a challenging project; one that requires new techniques, lots of time, and many participating hands for the product to succeed and give positive results. “It’s not that easy to work with chili peppers,” mentions Hector. “You have to know when and where to cut, how hot the plants are, and then there are three days when you have to handle the peppers that burn your hands. We’ve also gotten used to working under the hot sun. This isn’t what’s important though. The important thing is that the income from these plants will provide for our needs like education, nutrition, medicine, and improving the quality of life in our homes.”

José, another community leader, agrees about the valuable opportunity this work provides. “A poor man doesn’t have anything except the choice to wake up early and fulfill his duties –more so for us now with the pepper project. It’s our turn to work hard and repay our debt. We won’t rest until the bright sun comes out on the new day when, even though we wake up to work, we will own our own land.”

Pedro, a college student starting his last year of studies in Agronomy, is from the Agros village of La Esperanza. Next year, he will be the first college graduate from his community and his family could not be more proud. Unfortunately, many children who grow up in rural communities in Guatemala do not have the same opportunities or support that Pedro received growing up in an Agros village.

A recent article from The Economist, A National Shame, examines the extreme social, economic and political inequality in Guatemala. In certain indigenous areas of rural Guatemala, chronic malnutrition affects over 80% of children. Malnutrition results in stunted growth and learning difficulties for children, greatly compromising their potential future productivity.

“A National Shame” describes how the government’s failure to provide basic services to rural indigenous populations has resulted in severe underdevelopment: two-thirds of rural Guatemalans live in poverty.  These people were” totally abandoned in the mountains with no infrastructure, no education, no health,” says Rafael Espada, the vice-president of Guatemala. If the government continues to fail to provide good schools and health care for the majority of people, the article concludes, malnutrition will continue.

In Guatemala, Agros works with indigenous communities to help families achieve food security, obtain access to essential services, and start productive agricultural businesses that enable the entire community to overcome extreme poverty.  As rural families in Guatemala build thriving communities, they are able impact both neighboring villages and their regional economy.

We are directly challenging the despair so many feel when faced with constant hunger and extreme poverty.  Working in one of the most impoverished regions in the world, Agros is bringing practical, long-term, sustainable solutions to thousands who were once desperately hungry, and without hope.

Randy Johnson, Founder and CEO of Apple Physical Therapy, compares his involvement with Agros to falling in love:

“When you fall in love, you don’t fall in love with a part of a person, you fall in love with them as a whole person.  I fell in love with the total Agros process.”

Apple Physical Therapy is currently involved in the “total Agros process” through a Journey With a Village partnership with the Agros village of Nueva Palestina in Chiapas, Mexico.

Randy characterizes his experiences in Nueva Palestina as “life-changing” and cites one devastating story in particular that brought home to him the significance of Agros’ work and the tremendous importance of Agros’ mission.

On his first visit with Agros to Chiapas, Mexico, Randy and his two sons, both in high school, were playing an icebreaker game with members of the Agros village Nueva San Pedrito.

One of Randy’s sons introduced himself and described his mother and siblings back in the United States.  As he was talking, a young man in the circle broke into tears.  The interpreter asked why the man was crying and he responded that his tears were “a mix between happy and sad emotions“.

The young man was grateful for the opportunity to work with Agros, but the mention of family made him weep because the previous winter – before Agros began to work in his village – he lost his young son.  He and his wife had no food, money or jobs as winter was approaching, and fearing starvation they gave up one of their young sons for money in order to buy food for the rest of the family.

Randy and his sons were devastated when they heard this story.  The utter desperation experienced by so many rural poor families brought home to them the life-changing impact of Agros’ work.

Today, Apple Physical Therapy is committed to a long-term partnership with families in the Agros village of Nueva Palestina.  In just 14 months, Randy has seen a profound transformation in the village: economic, physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation.

As a self-employed entrepreneur, Randy is especially inspired by Agros’ commitment to empower entire rural villages to work their way out of poverty through sustainable entrepreneurship opportunities.

In Agros villages, individuals, families, and groups of neighbors are encouraged and trained to start small businesses to increase and diversify their income.

Randy describes this economic activity as an upward spiral of positive capitalism that empowers families to send their children to school, find more and greater income-generating opportunities, and improve the stability and security of each family’s livelihood for generations to come.

Randy so believes in the Agros model of development that, following his last visit to Nueva Palestina earlier this year, he came away with a vision of helping Agros develop 100 more villages in Chiapas!

Apple Physical Therapy is a physical therapy provider with a wide variety of outpatient physical therapy services and locations throughout the greater Puget Sound area.  They distinguish themselves by consistently championing values of service and community involvement.

Visit Apple Physical Therapy on the web and let them know you read about them at the Agros website.

Are you fluent in Spanish and have a few hours to donate to Agros?  We have over twenty-five video interviews from Chiapas, Guatemala, and Honduras that need to be translated.

The process is easy and straightforward:

• We will send you an audio .mp3 file of a Spanish interview that you can listen to on your computer, Ipod, mp3 player, etc.
• You type out a word-for-word Spanish transcript of that interview
• You then translate the Spanish transcript into English (just a quick, rough translation)
• Send the word doc back to us and you’re done

The interviews vary in terms of length.  We need all interviews translated by September 15, so if you’re interested please email Maria Jose Soerens at mariajoses@agros.org.  Thanks.

In five Agros villages in Nicaragua, 102 families have combined their efforts and produced nearly 50,000 pounds of Tabasco chili peppers for export. Through agricultural loans and technical training with Agros, these families from the El Edén, Nuevas Esperanzas, San José, and San Marcos villages have already generated $7,500 in profits. The farmers obtained a favorable market price by joining together and negotiating a contract with a Nicaraguan exporter.

The pepper project improves families’ year-round income, and is also an opportunity for families to apply the agricultural and business techniques they are learning. With the help of Agros staff, farmers are using a new drip irrigation system, testing new fertilizers, and exploring different methods to minimize and control insect infestations.  The success of this project is boosting farmer’s confidence and encouraging them to apply new skills to other crops and projects as well.

In San Marcos de Belen, Luis and his family are waiting to build their new house, and in the meantime, the family bikes three miles each day to arrive on time to help with the pepper project. Luis works hard at the project and appreciates the equal effort and responsibility from his neighbors.  He remarks proudly, “I am very happy with the work ethic of Agros; we have to work to gain results.  This gives me pride and dignity and the opportunity to leave something behind for my children.”

On Sunday, June 28, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup. While there are reports of ongoing protests in both Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, the rural areas where Agros works have not been directly affected. Agros Honduras Director Joel Martí­nez has reported that all Agros villagers and staff are safe.

As for travel considerations, we not canceling any Service Team or Vision Trips at this time. As we continue to monitor the situation, we may cancel trips in the future if there is any undue risk.

We will continue to monitor events closely, and will stay in very close contact with Agros Honduras staff. Any future updates will be posted here on the Agros blog.

Here at Agros, we are committed to connecting our supporters with stories, information, and progress made by the inspiring individuals we work with. We do this through a variety of channels: this blog, enewsletters, Facebook, Twitter, our video gallery, and our quarterly village updates.

Every quarter we publish pdf updates on the work and progress of each of our active villages. These updates come directly from Agros’ program staff working in-country and contain the most up-to-date information about projects and programs currently underway in Agros villages along with quotes and profiles of individuals.

All village updates can all be found by mousing over the “Our Villages” tab on the Agros website and clicking on any village to then view and download a pdf.

Here are a few examples of what these updates contain:

• This spring, many Agros village members have made impressive progress starting new projects and expanding their existing ventures. For example, over the past three months, the women’s chicken project in El Milagro, El Salvador has sold a remarkable $1,800 worth of eggs! The group has used profits to pay loans, purchase supplies, put aside savings, and help their families. We invite you to read more about the women of El Milagro and find stories of other dedicated and successful village members by looking in the Spring 2009 Village Updates.

• This spring’s update on La Providencia, Guatemala, profiles Ramon, a community health worker. Each week, Ramon dedicates two days to provide health care for community members and he also administers the village’s supplies of medicine and first aid equipment. The success of the leadership in La Providencia is evident from their support for Ramon as well as the recently completed construction of a three-room school supplied with 200 desks and six teachers for 186 proud elementary students.

• In El Edén, Guatemala, five families recently completely paid their land loans, and many more families are quickly moving towards paying off their loans by investing in successful small business opportunities.

There are many more examples and stories of lives being changed. Enjoy exploring and reading.

I was recently interviewed by Wandering Educators, a “global community of educators, sharing travel experiences”.  They are a fascinating group, and their publisher, Dr. Jessie Voigts, took great care in learning about Agros and sharing our mission with their community.

You can read the interview at their site with photos and video, or here is the text below:

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WE: One of the most important things that we in international education can do to change the world is to help others. Because we travel, live, and learn around the world, we have a unique chance to be change agents for those who need it. I have been so very impressed with one organization, Agros International, that is working on ending extreme rural poverty.We’ve featured Agros International here on WanderingEducators before, as part of a story about SalaamGarage, which leads adventures that collaborate with International NGOs with the goal to cause change through creating and sharing intentional content.  I was so very impressed with Agros International that I contacted Sean Dimond, Director of Marketing and Communications at Agros. He was happy to share all that Agros is doing with our readers, and I was fascinated at this extraordinary project. We were lucky enough to sit down with Sean and talk about poverty, international development, and more.

WE: Tell us about Agros International.

SD: Today, literally half of the people on our planet live on $2.50 per day or less.  The vast majority of those families live in rural areas, dependent on farmable land for income, security, and survival.  A significant majority of those families do not have ownership or a secure stake in the land they depend on.

In our hemisphere, the poorest countries are in Central America, where approximately 65% of the population lives in extreme poverty.  The majority of these families live in rural areas, and are landless.  Landlessness is one of the most important indicators of extreme, rural poverty.

Agros exists to empower rural, poor families throughout Central America and Mexico to literally work their way out of extreme poverty, with dignity.  We do this by providing communities with long-term credit for land purchase, holistic community development, and agricultural business training.  By partnering with Agros, families are able to start, develop, and eventually own a thriving, economically sustainable village.

In a nutshell, Agros exists to end rural poverty in this region – one village at a time.  With almost 40 village projects across five countries, the work of Agros is enabling thousands of men, women, and children to work and achieve the dream of a future free of crushing, long-term, extreme poverty.

WE:  What was the genesis of Agros?

SD: In 1982 Skip Li, a local Seattle attorney, was attending a conference and he heard a speaker casually mention a news article from the morning paper.  The article was about the millions of dollars the United States was spending on covert military activity in the civil wars raging throughout Central America. This speaker made the comment that if you used that money to buy land for the rural poor, the wars might cease.

Skip couldn’t sleep that night. A few months later he was on a plane, flying into Guatemala. Skip was the son of a Chinese diplomat and had spent time growing up in both Colombia and Guatemala, witnessing extreme poverty in these countries on a daily basis.

The burning question that caused Skip to fly into a raging Guatemalan civil war was this — could you buy land privately and loan it to small communities of landless farmers until they secured the resources to purchase it?  Could this be an effective means to ending poverty?  That question launched Agros into existence.

Twenty-five years later, Agros has helped thousand of people across Central America and Mexico start and own economically sustainable villages.  Rural families beat down by war, natural disaster, lack of access to basic services, racism, and extreme poverty are today building new lives for themselves.

Landless families are not only able to achieve the dream of having their own land to call home, to use as a means for food security, to create thriving agricultural businesses — they are also developing assets that they can pass down to future generations.

The exciting thing is that this transformation occurs because the people we work with have the ability to do it themselves — they simply need the support and training to make it happen.  In this way, Agros is not merely providing a hand-out, but a hand-up.  We not only teach people “how to fish”, but we enable them to also own the pond.

WE: So much of international development work seems ineffectual, or top-heavy. How is Agros working to be different?

SD: Argos addresses the root, systemic causes of poverty.  We also use a somewhat unique definition of poverty — we define poverty as “broken relationships”.  And I do not mean this in a Hallmark greeting card sense.

For the rural poor, all of the fundamental connections that make up a sustainable way of life are damaged or destroyed.  Families are broken apart through migration; relationships with local municipalities are often broken; complex environmental and cultural systems break down; on and on… so many of the critical relationships that determine the health of a community are destroyed by extreme poverty.

Further, the causes and solutions to extreme poverty cannot be effectively reduced to just the individual or family level.  Instead, economic, cultural, social and personal factors all play into establishing generational cycles of poverty that extend across communities.

Agros has learned over the years that restoring all of the aspects that make up a healthy community is required to ensure economic sustainability.  A holistic understanding of people leads us to a holistic understanding of human transformation. There is much more to alleviating poverty than technological change, increased income, or the improvement of merely material well-being.

For Agros, we’ve learned that if you really want to get at the root issues of poverty in a way that makes a lasting difference — a difference that offers new hope and opportunity for generations to come — you’ve got to approach these issues holistically.

A holistic model of development requires a connection between the various parts of the whole. In other words, we work to create a context where rural families themselves are, over time, empowered to restore the various relationships that break down in extreme poverty.

We do this by using a participatory, values-based approach.  When we work with a new group of families, rather than do a traditional ‘needs assessment’, we start with the assumption that their needs are self-evident, and a more powerful place to start is by having the families identify and name their assets, their values, their dreams.

Living in extreme poverty has for many destroyed the basic human ability to dream of a new and better future.  We want families to dream again, and not only to dream… but to be empowered to make those dreams reality.

We also realize that there is no magic bullet or single answer to alleviating poverty.  This is tough, difficult work.  Many people here in North America are familiar with the devastating poverty statistics that exist – but you cannot reduce these issues to mere numbers.  We’re talking about real people who are complex and multi-faceted and full of enormous potential.

WE:  How can a sustainable approach work with so many different cultural actors? Are there intercultural differences that you need to take into consideration with each project?

SD: Absolutely.  We have a highly effective, five-component development model, but we realize that this model needs to be contextualized within a given community dynamic.  We do not have a ‘cookie-cutter’ approach.  At the end of the day, our work is only successful if the families themselves are able to create a better life for themselves.  We’ll provide the access to long-term credit, support, training, basic infrastructure, encouragement… but the families have to do the work themselves, and they each have to bring their concerns, hopes, and unique context to the process.

Further, we work with a culturally diverse array of families.  We work with indigenous Mayan communities in the highlands of Guatemala; rural “campesinos” in Nicaragua; refugee communities in Chiapas, Mexico; and so on.  In each case, a holistic approach creates the setting where the unique values, dreams, and aspirations of each family are taken into account.

WE:  How can people help Agros?

SD: In this difficult, global economic downturn it is the extreme poor who suffer the most.  When facing hard economic times, instead of reducing the gasoline, or college education, or food budgets — rural poor families go hungry.  They simply don’t have budgets to cut. Living on the extreme
margins of society leaves these families incredibly vulnerable, particularly in a time of such historic economic downturn.

So to be perfectly frank, what we need is continued financial support.  Please consider a one-time gift, or perhaps a monthly gift, to support and empower rural, poor families to work their way out of poverty.

WE: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

SD: Just my gratitude.  We are, I believe, at a critical time in human history.  The global connections that exist between nations are such that our ability to collectively invest in sustainable solutions to some of the most dire problems on the planet are more important than ever before.  The challenges of resource consumption, the environment, food security, disease, extreme poverty — these challenges must be met by unique and lasting solutions…not by quick fixes and temporary approaches.  The work of Agros International is, I believe, one important voice in this larger conversation.  Further, the families in Central America and Mexico who are learning to dream again have an even more important voice in this conversation, and I’m grateful for being able to share a bit of what we are accomplishing together.

Thank you for allowing us the privilege of sharing this life transforming work.

WE: Thank you, Sean, for sharing Agros International with us. It is incredible, life-changing, important work – and so very inspiring.

Today Agros makes the exciting announcement that Hans P. Theyer has been selected as President & CEO, effective June 1, 2009.

By way of introducing Hans to the Agros community we recently asked him to respond to the following questions.

What drew you to the Agros position?

The possibility of helping and serving the poor in both the regions where Agros is already working, and in regions where Agros is considering to one day expand.

Agros has a model that actually breaks the cycle of poverty for rural communities. In developing economies, this cycle of poverty and suffering is passed on from generation to generation and sadly is not a condition children can easily overcome.

The key to breaking cyclical poverty for the rural poor is in taking a long-term, holistic approach. This must certainly include empowering families to work and increase their income, as well as helping them to build long-term assets. But in order for the economic component to be successful we must also look at the whole person within the whole community.

To use a familiar analogy, what Agros does is not only teach families how to fish, but how to sell the fish, and to care for the pond. And most importantly, Agros does this in a way where the families themselves become owners of the pond!

We already know that bottom-up strategies that empower rural families over the long-term are more effective than short-term, individual interventions. And for the rural poor, those families depend so much on land for food, security and shelter. Being able to own your own land for these families is not just a dream, it’s essential!

These are just a few of the reasons why I’m honored to be able to join and serve this unique mission!

And then from a personal perspective, working for Agros is a dream come true. Working at Agros is a place where I can integrate the personal, spiritual and professional realms. I come from a background in Latin America where men define themselves in terms of their careers and professional accomplishment, and this does not necessarily go hand in hand with personal growth and serving others.

As you think about the days ahead for Agros, what excites you the most?

It is hard to prioritize — there are so many things. Let me share just a few.

Today I was looking through pictures from our Program Director, Laurie Werner, of families in El Salvador signing their land title deeds after paying off their land loans. Even from a distance I can feel what this means to them and how, previously, obtaining land ownership was a far away dream. But now the dream for these families has come true.

As I’ve had the chance to interact with (Agros founder) Skip, the board and the Agros executive leadership team, it has indeed been a pleasure as they set such a high personal and professional example. I have also interacted with several Journey With a Village partners, and have seen how their eyes and smiles brighten when they speak of their experiences and their connection to their “extended families” in the villages. I can sense how enriching these partnerships are to villagers as well.

I also remember how the Agros staff welcomed me so warmly just a few days ago and I must admit this is one of the most dedicated and knowledgeable teams I have ever seen.

Lastly, for me as well as for my wife and two sons, this opportunity is a joy and a blessing.

Tell us about your past work experience and how it relates to Agros?

First, I believe that my experiences with rural realities in so many different countries give me a good understanding of the challenges our villagers are facing and how Agros’ holistic approach can offer a lasting solution. I have had the chance to work in South East Asia, China and India, as well as throughout Latin America. While these regions are all fairly different from one another, they also have commonalities and similar challenges in their underserved communities.

Secondly, with a background in business, economics, and most recently having brought leadership to Microsoft’s rural computing efforts for emerging economies, I feel I can bring Agros a balance between strategic vision and a results-driven approach, knowing that strong partnerships, relationships, and teamwork are essential.

I have also worked both in the field and in corporate headquarters, giving me an understanding of “both worlds”, a valuable asset for managing our Seattle and country teams in the five countries where we operate.

Lastly, I have worked with and led multicultural and interdisciplinary teams, creating partnerships between many diverse entities, which is also the case at Agros. Creating effective partnerships across cultures, languages, and geographies is a key part of what Agros does.

As you look forward, what do you see in store for Agros?

A time for growth and larger impact! As I recently shared with the Leadership Team, Agros’ work is not only unique and effective, but transformative for everyone involved. Agros has done a good job sharing the work with their current base of supporters, but I believe we have an opportunity to gently but firmly take Agros’ light from under the basket and let it shine in many new places!

Globally, there are so many issues that cry out for sustainable solutions.  Whether it’s the world food crisis, environmental sustainability and over-consumption of resources, or the increasingly linked economies of the developing and developed world; we are in a time where Agros has much to offer.

Alleviating poverty is hard work. There are no quick solutions and so much depends on the generosity of supporters. However, I simply believe that Agros’ work is too effective, too transformative, and too important to not work as hard as we can toward that dream of “mil-Agros”  (In Spanish,  “a thousand Agros Villages” and/or “a thousand miracles.”)

Any last thoughts you wish to share?

Yes. I want to thank Skip, Susan Moulton and the Board, as well as the Agros Leadership Team and staff for how they have already welcomed me. And I can’t wait to meet our hard- working field staff and country directors.

I also want to thank our donors and partners for their support in making Agros the blessing it is for so many today, as well as for the many more rural, poor families we wish to touch. I look forward to meeting and getting to know our current family of supporters, as well as reaching out to new supporters and partners.

You all deserve my very best professional, personal and spiritual effort to assist in this transforming journey called Agros. Thank you.

As the World Health Organization (WHO) raises the swine influenza A (H1N1) pandemic threat alert to level 5, Agros is carefully monitoring the situation in the countries and regions in which we work.

Of the five countries Agros works in, “Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico”, Mexico is the only country with confirmed cases of swine flu to date. On Tuesday of this week health officials from member countries of the Central American Integration System met in Managua, Nicaragua to coordinate and discuss preventative swine flu measures, which include tightening border and immigration controls. In addition, these health ministers signed joint accords committing to unite together, and to use all resources available to confront the epidemic.

Agros villages are located in the rural sectors of these countries. We have field staff who are in regular contact with our villagers and if anyone starts to show swine flu symptoms we will work to make sure they obtain medical attention. In addition, our staff are conducting hygiene reminders in every village and making sure villagers know what to look out for.

As for travel considerations, we not canceling any Service Team or Vision Trips at this time. As we continue to monitor the situation, we may cancel trips in the future if there is an undue health risk in any region where we travel and work.

Lastly, here are a variety of helpful links:

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/
http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/default.aspx

US STATE DEPT TRAVEL RECOMMENDATIONS
http://travel.state.gov/

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL INSURANCE SITES
http://urgent.internationalsos.com/default.aspx
http://www.hthtravelinsurance.com/extras/swineFlu.cfm

GENERAL NEWS SOURCES
http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/swineflu
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/

This spring, Agros has become even easier to keep track of.

Agros launched a Facebook Cause page last year, but have additionally started both a new Facebook fan page as well as a Twitter Account.

Did you know that each post on Twitter is called a “tweet”?  Check out our tweets to find Agros updates, information about upcoming local events, and relevant and interesting news articles.  Set up a twitter account yourself so you can comment on our postings! The Agros twitter username is @agrosintl.

Next, it’s time to become a fan of Agros on Facebook.  Our fan page has updates on recent happenings, general information on Agros, a place to view blog posts and a selection of photos and videos. At the Agros cause page,  you can show your support for Agros’ cause and make a donation. Become a fan and connect with other supporters of Agros to share your experiences.

Following are a list of educational, film, and international development events in the Seattle area:

May Events

Meaningful Movies, ‘Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad’ (A Little Bit of Too Much Truth)
May 1st, 7:00 p.m.
Keystone Church, Wallingford, 5019 Keystone Place

“Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad” shows the story of a community of farmers, workers, and students organizing in Oaxaca, Mexico to tell their story of oppression when the mainstream media refused to report it.  Filmmaker Jill Freidberg will be in attendance and host a community discussion after the film.

International Worker’s Day Rally and March
May 1st, 3:30 p.m. rally, 4:00 p.m. march
Judkin’s Playfield, behind St. Mary’s Church, 611 20th Avenue South
(206) 324-6044

Join El Comite Pro-Reforma Migratoria y Justicia Social for the annual May 1 rally & march in support of workers everywhere.

El Centro de la Raza Cinco de Mayo Celebration
May 2nd, 3:00 p.m.
Jefferson Community Center, 3801 Beacon Avenue South
(206) 957-4602

El Centro’s 4th annual Cinco de Mayo celebration will feature traditional food, arts and crafts, children activities, local vendors, and entertainment.

Sandra Cisneros at Town Hall Seattle
May 7th, 7:00 p.m.
Town Hall Great Hall, 8th Avenue and Seneca Street

Author Sandra Cisneros celebrates the 25th anniversary of The House on Mango Street, a novel about a young girl growing up in Chicago’s Latino neighborhood.

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa
Featuring Dr. Dambisa Moyo
Kane Hall, Room 130, University of Washington

The World Affairs Council presents Dr. Dambisa Moyo, member of Cambridge University’s Center for International Business and Management and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Dr. Moyo argues for more innovative ways for Africa to finance development, including trade with China, accessing capital markets, and microfinance.

Pacific Northwest Microfinance Conference
May 8th, 7:00 p.m. and May 9th, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Upper Gwinn Commons, Seattle Pacific University

The Pacific Northwest Microfinance Conference brings together local organizations on the forefront of microfinance to collaborate and share ideas about reducing global poverty. The conference features a talk from Skip Li, Agros founder and Laurie Werner, Program Director.

Genevieve Albers Forum: Bill Gates, Sr.
May 19th, 7:00 p.m.
Piguott Auditorium, Seattle University
(206) 296-5732, haukeb@seattleu.edu

Seattle University Albers School of Business hosts Bill Gates, Sr., discussing Showing up for life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime. Gates, Sr. is the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is involved in various philantrophy and non-profit projects.

International Relief, Development, and Conservation in the Cloud
May 21st, 7:00 p.m.
Museum of History and Industry, 2700 24th Avenue East

The World Affairs Council presents four CIO’s (Chief Information Officers) from leading NGOs, Ed Granger-Happ from Save the Children, Simon Jennings from Oxfam, Vida Durant from CARE, and Jean-Louis Ecochard from The Nature Conservancy. They will discuss the effect of information and communications technologies on the work of humanitarian agencies.

Environment in a Developing World
May 26th, Time and Location TBA

Join the discussion with various Washington-based groups on how to improve working conditions and the environment in the developing world.