Agros Blog

I recently had the opportunity to take Claude Nikondeha, founder of the Amahoro Network, to see our work in Nicaragua. Claude is from Burundi, and he is interested in contextualizing and implementing the Agros development model in East Africa. This is what Claude shared with his network after our trip:

Dear friends,
Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Latin America for the first time. I arrived in Nicaragua to learn first-hand about the work of AGROS INTERNATIONAL. Upon my arrival, I immediately recognized that the people of Nicaragua are wonderful people with the most beautiful language, living a simple life of caring for each other and the land that God has given them. As I walked through their communities and witnessed the pride in their agricultural accomplishments, I was impressed with their eagerness to work hard to bring about lasting change in their villages. Their joy was contagious, and I found myself infused with deep delight with each encounter, with each story told and each meal shared together. Cultivating and owning your own land, is good news, indeed!

The vision of Agros is “to restore hope and opportunity to the world’s poor.” In other words they go after what Jesus called ‘the least of these’ and give them tangible hope in the form of farmland. For the last 25 years, Agros has been doing rural community development in Latin America with a simple but very transformative process — building self-sustaining and thriving communities.

While mistakes have been made, it is success that thrives as Agros creates communities with land, local leadership, homes, and a spirit of generous hospitality. Their work is a visible manifestation of God’s good news to the impoverished people of Latin America.

I went to Nicaragua hoping to be inspired for ‘the least of these’ in my own homeland of Burundi. Indeed, the rural farmers of Nicaragua inspired me beyond what any book or essay on rural development could have ever done! These are people who are getting their ‘first chance’, their first real opportunity to build a home, own land, run a business, lead in their village and experience the goodness of God’s provision. Their industrious and gracious spirit reminds me of my African kinsmen, and I feel like I have got a glimpse of hope for the countryside of Burundi.

For many years I have looked for a way to sustain healthy development in a rural setting and a communal culture. I believe this is it, this is what it can look like! Agros offers a paradigm that offers me hope; it is a model that can deliver real transformation on the ground. This model allows communities to grow, leadership to develop and opportunity to spring up like wild flowers. I have seen what is possible in Nicaragua, and I believe that it is possible in Burundi and across rural Africa. By partnering with the poor and making land, agricultural knowledge, community development and leadership training available to them, good things can grow. This can be good news for Africa! This summer while my family and I spend time in Burundi, one of the things we will be exploring will be a potential local NGO who can partner with Agros to bring this opportunity to the poor of Burundi.

Amahoro,
Claude Nikondeha

By now many of you on our mailing list will have received an invitation to Tierras de Vida 2007 (TdV). Below is a brief interview with Doug Haley, the Agros Resource Development Associate in charge of making the event happen this year. The event is open to all, so please come - and bring a friend!

What is Tierras de Vida?

“Tierras de Vida” is Spanish for “Lands of Life”. The event is Agros’ yearly fundraising event, and the theme this year is “Challenge Despair — Bring Dreams to Life”. This year we hope to bring together and inspire upwards of 350 people by the life-changing work Agros is doing in Central America and Mexico. Through words, photos, music, and video — we will connect you to the hearts of the extraordinary people we serve. Guests will get a sense of the need that exists in these countries, and they will hear what Agros is doing to meet that need. I guarantee you, people will come away from this event deeply inspired!

What will people experience at TdV this year?

This years event will include great food, music, colorful settings, drama, a new video, and speakers from both the Northwest and Nicaragua. Our founder, Skip Li, will emcee the evening. Tim Dearborn, from World Vision, will be our keynote speaker. Other speakers include Libby Boatwright from Lake Grove Presbyterian Church in Oregon, and Mario Gaitan, our Country Director in Nicaragua.

Why is this event important to Agros?

Not only are the funds raised at this event essential in helping us break the cycle of poverty in Central America and Mexico, we also want people to hear and see the joy of transformed lives. The stories of the people in Agros villages are simply incredible, and we want people to hear them and be inspired!

Who is coming?

Everyone is invited! This is a perfect setting for those who already know about Agros as well as those who are curious and want an introduction to our work. So please invite your friends and come join us for a fun night!

When and where is it?

TdV is being held in Upper Gwinn Commons at Seattle Pacific University on Saturday, November 3, 2007. There will be a reception at 6:00 with dinner, and the program begins at 7:00. The address is 3310 6TH Ave West, Seattle. Click here for a map.

How can I get tickets?

You can order tickets in three ways. You can order online at Brown Paper Tickets, or by calling the Agros office at 206-528-1066, or by emailing Doug Haley at dough@agros.org. Tickets are $50 and include both dinner and the reception.

Anything else?

Imagine if you can what it would be like to live life in crushing poverty, with no hope for anything different. Can you imagine living without dreams or hope? Worse yet, can you imagine someone who has lived in poverty for so long that they have lost the ability to dream?

The work we do at Agros allows rural poor families to not only dream, but to actually work to make those dreams come true. We are seeing this unfold in over 6,000 lives throughout five countries. Come see how you can be part of “Challenging Despair and Bringing Dreams to Life“!

Click here for more.

As Agros continues to grow and serve the rural poor in Central America and Mexico, our team in Seattle is growing as well. Our current office location in the University District can no longer accommodate our space needs for the US staff. We are looking to relocate to a larger facility and could use your help!
We’re looking for the following:

• 4,000 - 6,000 sq ft.
• Geographic area: Northgate to SoDo/Columbia City; west of Lake Washington
• Public transit accessible; economical parking highly desirable
• Current lease ends in February - looking to move early 2008

We are doing a traditional search working with Dean Johnson from CBRE but also want our larger Agros family to be aware of our need. Please send any information or leads to Kathy Riper at kathyr@agros.org. Thanks.

This is to announce a job opening at Agros, for the new position of Service & Education Manager.  Following is a brief job description:

Primary Job Description:
Expand and manage the Agros program to train and educate partners, including donors, JWAV (Journey with a Village) champions, service team leaders and others. Oversee the entire Service Team (ST) program, maintain service team program materials, continue development of new educational and training materials about Agros’ program, and work in coordination with Agros’ Resource Development staff and Agros’ program staff as it pertains to working with partners.

Click here for more information.

This is to announce the opening of a new position at Agros. We’re seeking qualified candidates for a Service Teams Logistics Coordinator. Please read the full details on the Agros Careers page, and feel free to forward the opening to any qualified candidates.

Here at Agros, we believe that ending poverty is about restoring relationships. And anyone who cares about real relationships knows that it is not always easy, or efficient.

In North America we are constantly looking for ways to make life and business more efficient. Efficiency is part of what it is to be entrepreneurial; finding ways to do something better, faster, all the while cutting down on expenses. In today’s world, this often means eliminating personnel through technological advances such as online purchases, self check-out stands at stores, Automatic Teller Machines, etc.

Even in real estate technology, our penchant for efficiency has almost eliminated the need for real estate agents. In today’s world if you want information about the house, you don’t even have to pick up the flyer under the sign. You can go to a website and find out all you want to know about that house and more, with photos at every angle. You can virtually go through the entire selection process without even meeting the seller or dealing with an agent face-to-face. All in all, it can be a pretty depersonalized process. And yet it is efficient.

At Agros, we also believe that efficiency is important, but not in a way that sacrifices relationship. Dealing with the core, root issues of poverty, we are committed to the transformation of real lives over the long haul. Our commitment is to entire villages over the course of many years, and so relationship is integral to everything we do and to who we are.

When we talk about buying a piece of land for a new village, it is the culmination of a very complex and lengthy process that involves lots of people and lots of relationships, and at every step of the way Agros emphasizes the relationships involved - from the farmers and their families who will eventually own the land, to the relationship with the seller. It may take a year or more to form and get to know a group before Agros even begins to look for land. We don’t hire a real estate agent to look through the Multiple Listings for large farms. The people in the group look for the land. Can you imagine trying to buy a house with 30 other families involved in the process? That’s what is involved in an Agros purchase of land.

Once the land is identified, then the study and negotiations begin. Again, this is not a simple process. It involves lengthy studies at various legal offices; there are no title offices that have everything on file to make sure there is only one owner, no liens, etc. These negotiations are a very personal process for all involved. During conversations for a recent farm in Nicaragua, the owner invited all 20 people who were visiting to have a meal.

So, why does Agros go to such lengths to actually buy a piece of land - why spend so much energy focused on relationships over the course of so many years? We’ve learned that those who suffer from extreme poverty have lost their most basic connections; connections to land, to community, to one another. Poverty can never be reduced to mere economic measurements. And while we believe that providing economic opportunity is essential, we have learned that alleviating the root causes of poverty is about restoring these broken relationships in all their forms.

This is why Agros cares about relationships. They are integral to everything we do. It’s a simple idea, but a complex task. And while it may not always be efficient, perhaps a better question to ask is - is it effective? To hear villagers answer for themselves, watch this clip from our newest video:

Agros Helped To Remove All Our Misery

So while all of this is going on in the field, in my next blog post I’ll talk about how Agros goes about a similar process here in North America to develop relationships with potential partners….stay tuned!