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US $2,750 is wired to El Salvador for Emergency Assistance

EPIC is coordinating relief efforts with Gloria de Rivera, Executive Director of APRODEHNI, the Association for the Promotion of Human Rights for the Children of El Salvador. Emergency funds will be used to purchase the following badly needed items: food, medicines, housing repair supplies, potable water, tents, bedding, lamps, and emergency cook stoves.

The Ecumenical Project for International Cooperation, EPIC, a relief and development organization based in Allenspark, Boulder County, has launched an emergency campaign in response to the disastrous earthquake measuring 7.6 magnitude that struck El Salvador on Saturday. EPIC will wire all funds received to its partner organization in El Salvador, the Association for the Promotion of Human Rights for the Children of El Salvador (Asociacion Para La Promocion de los Derechos de la Ninez en el Salvador - APRODEHNI).

In an e-mail received today from Gloria de Rivera, Executive Director of APRODEHNI, she said that her organization is doing a needs assessment in all the communities that have been affected by the disaster. According to Rivera, this task has been made difficult because not only have telephone services been interrupted, but some of the roads have been made impassible for travel. Gloria herself lives in Santa Tecla, the city that was the site of the highest number of deaths. She reported that 300 families in her community were completely buried in their own homes when a wall of dirt from a mountain above came crashing down upon the community. According to Rivera, emergency funds will be used to purchase the following badly needed items: food, medicines, housing repair supplies, potable water, tents, bedding, lamps, and emergency cook stoves.

EPIC has worked with APRODEHNI in the past and holds the greatest respect for that organization. Last year EPIC provided travel assistance so that its Executive Director, Gloria de Rivera, could attend the International Summer School for Peacemakers at Corrymeela, Northern Ireland. The focus of the summer school was mediation, conflict transformation, and the consolidation of peace in countries striving to overcome the wounds of war. According to EPIC's executive director, Paul McKay, "APRODEHNI is a very professional and competent organization and we are certain that any funds donated to that organization for emergency assistance will be carefully administered.

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Hurricane Mitch Reconstruction

Honduras - La Semilla del Progreso Agricultural Training Center In late October 1998, Hurricane Mitch stalled over Honduras and 50 inches of rain fell on the mountains in 5 days. Water flowed down steep denuded slopes farmed without soil conservation practices, picking up huge quantities of soil and then rocks and trees. These avalanches rolled down valleys causing tremendous destruction of lives and property. As EPIC learned of the extent of the damage, we contacted friends and co-workers in Honduras and asked how they would respond if we could obtain funds. Laureano Jacobo immediately responded saying that eroded hillside farms must be made productive again to reestablish livelihoods for survivors and to increase available food.

Project Photos

Unless eroded hillside farms could once again be made productive, farm families would be forced to migrate to the already overcrowded urban areas, and many of the hillside farms which had produced much of Honduras' basic staple foods before Hurricane Mitch would be abandoned.

Laureano and Francisca Jacobo responded to EPIC's fax with one which stated, in part, "Honduras has received many donations, thanks to the nations of the world, but these have been food, medicine, toys, and materials to restore bridges and roads. There has been very little for agricultural tools, seeds, and teaching. For food security we need funds for these things, because the time of receiving donations will finish, and if we do not prepare the people to produce again we will have failed miserably."

During 1999, with funding from EPIC and the Dunamis Peace Institute, La Semilla del Progreso implemented a training program for 72 community leaders from 6 municipios (counties) of the region devastated by Hurricane Mitch. This training program has worked towards the following goals

• Increasing immediate food production

• Restoring eroded farms

• Teaching soil and water conservation for mitigating the effects of either future hurricanes or droughts

Based upon their past experience in teaching sustainable agricultural techniques, Laureano and EPIC's Executive Director developed the following program design for La Semilla del Progreso's reconstruction work. Each group of 15 to 20 farmer/leaders receives 2 five-day residential courses at La Semilla del Progreso Training Center. Both courses are followed by staff visits to the farm of each participant, one after the first course and two following the second. During these visits Laureano works with the whole family of the participant. The purposes of the 3 follow-up visits to each damaged farm are to monitor the progress of work accomplished, to give encouragement, and to provide advice on individual hurricane related erosion problems.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the program is the leadership Laureano has been able to recruit. Working through the regional Catholic Relief Services and the Central Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo, Laureano has sought out committed Christian leaders who have received the training Laureano provided as a gift to be shared. Many of the persons trained in 1999 are now working with groups they have formed in their own communities.

Based upon the excellent work accomplished during the first year of the program, La Semilla del Progreso Agricultural Training Center received funds from New England Biolabs Foundation, Dunamis Peace Institute, and EPIC to continue training new groups of farmer/leaders during 2000. Between the end of February and the first of September, La Semilla del Progreso has selected and trained leaders in four municipios (counties) that are still suffering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch. In this second year many of the leaders attending the courses have been women, far more than in 1999. All of these farmer/leaders received extensive motivation and training in those practices that will preserve the environment by conserving and managing soil and water resources.

The devastation in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch serves to point out the impact that above normal amounts of rainfall can have in areas where hillsides have been deforested, denuded slopes farmed with no soil retaining practices, and river beds heavily silted. Much restoration work still remains to be done. In EPIC's opinion, Laureano has been very successful in developing a program focusing on helping people prepare for the next weather-triggered disaster in Honduras, whether it be another hurricane or a drought.

History of La Semilla del Progreso Agricultural Training Center

The Seeds of Progress Center for Teaching and Learning, El Centro de Enseñanza y Aprendizaje La Semilla del Progreso was founded in 1993 as a self-supporting family run training center. The mission of the center is to motivate and enable rural people to obtain a more dignified life by improving their agriculture and nutrition as a result of implementation of sustainable organic agricultural methods based upon respect for and harmony with the environment.

The encouragement to create the center came from Honduran agronomist José Elias Sanchez who has worked in leadership training and sustainable agriculture in Honduras for almost 50 years. Funding for the building of the dormitories, classroom, kitchen and dining room was provided by CIDICO, the International Cover Crop Clearing House, Tegucigalpa, Honduras and the personal resources of the Jacobo Xajil family. During its six years of operation La Semilla del Progreso Training Center has gained an impressive reputation and proven its financial sustainability by providing courses for both governmental and non-governmental institutions. Client institutions have included the National School of Forestry, farmer cooperatives, the Honduran land reform movement, the Reformed Church of Honduras, and the United States Peace Corps (for in-country volunteer training).

La Semilla del Progreso Training Center has provided training in soil and water conservation and sustainable organic agriculture to approximately 500 men and women each year for a total of over 3,000 persons since its inception. Laureano Jacobo, co-founder of the center, was a student of don Marcos Orozco. Marcos Orozco was a Guatemalan Maya whose practical conservation strategies for small farms made him known in Central America as the "father of soil and water conservation" and gained him the respect of conservation experts from around the world. Before Hurricane Mitch the areas of competence of Laureano and his staff were:

• Motivational training

• Soil conservation

• soil building and improving soil nutrients on hillside farms

• Cover crops and green manures

• Organic cultivation of basic grains and vegetables

• Compost making and use

• Agro-forestry

• Organic coffee production

• Seedbed preparation, tree nurseries, and grafting

• Organic pest control

• Health and preventive medicine

• Nutrition and hygiene

• Medicinal plants (propagation and use)

• Care of the environment

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The Loma Linda Agricultural Training and Demonstration Center was to be the legacy of a lifetime of effort by José Elías Sanchez. Suddenly, with the rains of Hurricane Mitch, the training center where Elias had given courses to 40,000 persons since 1972 was washed away when water, mud, rocks, and trees roared down the canyon where it stood. Also his home, office, and personal library were destroyed. Only the terraces of the sustainable agriculture demonstration area remained as testament to his effective soil and water management practices.

A new cement block center now stands on higher ground above the stream. The Canadian International Development Organization covered the cost of blocks and mortar to build a large classroom/dinning room, a conference sized kitchen, two dormitories, and bathroom facilities. Teams of Honduran volunteers put in innumerable construction hours of labor. EPIC and the Dunamis Peace Institute, have together provided $7,357.98 to purchase furniture, equip the kitchen, and buy other educational supplies including a TV, VCR and videos.

To the great sadness of all who knew him, on the Saturday before the rebuilt Loma Linda Training Center was to have been inaugurated, Elías died very suddenly (18 March, 2000). He most likely had streptococcal pneumonia and before treatment could take effect, he passed away. On May 18, a beautiful celebration of Elias' life took place on the patio of the new Loma Linda Center. Representatives of two Central American universities, numerous national and international NGO representatives, representatives from Honduran government agencies, including the Ministry of Natural Resources in which Elías served, joined campesinos and the family in declaring the important contribution that Elías had made to the world. Elías was a most talented teacher and proponent of sustainable agriculture, soil and water conservation, and living harmoniously with the environment. He also believed deeply in the abilities and intelligence of the Honduran farmers who he inspired to take action.

His widow and co-worker, Candida Rosa Osorio, is committed to continuing the important work initiated by Elías. On July 22, 2000, a group of friends and former colleagues of Elías signed the notarized document legally constituting the group "Amigos de Loma Linda". EPIC was represented and became one of the "amigos". The purpose of the group is to support Candida Osorio and the Loma Linda Training Center in the continuation of Elias' life long work, "building the human farm". The "Amigos de Loma Linda" have now had several meetings and Loma Linda is again an important Agricultural Training Center for Honduras.

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In November 2000, EPIC received the following project proposal. A group of 5 Maya women leaders want to compliment the soil and water conservation work being done by FUNDAMARCOS in the watershed of the Río Motagua with a program of preventative health care education. The project is yet unfunded and EPIC is currently looking for the money to fund this project.

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In February, 1998, FUNDAMARCOS with seed money from New England Biolabs Foundation initiated a comprehensive ten year conservation program to protect the dwindling water supply of the Rio Motagua, the most important endangered watershed of Guatemala. Working with municipal governments, FUNDAMARCOS is promoting soil and water conservation and teaching practices of sustainable organic agriculture.

The fact that the water volume of the Rio Motagua is significantly decreasing in Guatemala's dry season is of great concern to FUNDAMARCOS. Excessive deforestation is causing the drying up of the springs that feed the river. In addition, poor soil management practices cause there to be massive erosion with tons of fertile soil carried away by rain water. During a six week period in June and July of 1999, Kim Walton, an Appalachian State University graduate in Technology with a Geology minor, did regular sampling of sediment loads of the Río Motagua for FUNDAMARCOS in order to develop baseline information related to soil erosion in the watershed. Regular water samples were taken from the river at a location near the village of El Cimarrón, Pachalum. Ms. Walton prepared a report of her research entitled Río Motagua: Baseline Suspended Sediment Study, July 1999. The results of Kim's study show clearly the incredible erosion taking place in the watershed. As stated in the study's summary, in July 1999 on days when there was little or no recent rainfall, the Río Motagua transported in suspension between 3.7 K/second and 9.6 K/second of sediment. The sediment quantities soared when there was moderate to high rainfall. It then measured from 460 K/second to more than 1,312 K/second. If these figures are converted into tons/hour, the sediment load would measure between 15 tons/hour and 38 tons/hour on days with little or no rain. However, on days with moderate to high rainfall, the sediment load increased to between 1,825 tons/hour and more than 5,206 tons/hour. This means that at this location on the upper portion of the river, the Río Motagua is carrying 124,956 tons of soil every 24 hours on days of heavy rain. As Kim states in her conclusion, "rainfall washes unprotected soil off the farms and into the river in huge, measurable, and alarming amounts". Kim Walton received a grant from EPIC to assist her in this field work in Guatemala. To see the data click on "Sediment Carried by the Río Motagua in July 1999"

The data collected by Kim indicate what is occurring with normal rainfall. The devastating floods that happened in Honduras when Hurricane Mitch brought extraordinary rainfall is exactly what could happen in this region of Guatemala. Forests are clear-cut and replaced with hillside farming, where loose volcanic soils are planted with annual crops, like corn, without respect to the contour nor any type of terracing. For these reasons it is urgent that proper methods of soil and water management be employed in this vital watershed.

Project History

FUNDAMARCOS began soil and water conservation work in the Municipio of Pachalum, Department of Quiché in February of 1998. Pachalum is in the Guatemalan central highlands and borders the upper portion of the Río Motagua on the north side of the river. In 1999, the program expanded its work to the south side of the river, near Mixco Viejo, in the Municipio of San Martin Jilotepeque, Department of Chimaltenango.

Grants received from New England Biolabs Foundation, Behrhorst Partners for Development, Latter-Day Saint Charities, Dunamis Peace Institute, and EPIC for support of this project to protect the watershed of the Río Motagua have been most helpful, allowing FUNDAMARCOS to follow through with those farmers who have begun or want to initiate soil and water conservation work on their land.

Work began with visits to municipal authorities (mayors and assistant mayors) and community leaders. With the support these persons, community meetings were held where FUNDAMARCOS agricultural teachers gave motivational talks. If possible, slides of work already done by other farmers or appropriate videos were shown. There are excellent examples of soil and water work done by local farmers in the region and educational field days for farmer-to-farmer exchange have proven extremely valuable in motivating participants from new communities. On these educational field trips new program participants are taken to see the farms of people who have already tried the new practices and hear the testimonies of these farmers. This educational process builds environmental awareness and encourages new farmers to then participate in hands-on workshops which take place on the participants' own farms. As a general rule, instruction in these sustainable agriculture workshops consists of thirty percent theory and seventy percent hands-on learning.

Project Mission Statement

FUNDAMARCOS will promote an environmental consciousness in the communities that occupy the watershed of the Rio Motagua and thereby achieve ecologically based management of local natural resources. By teaching methods of ecologically appropriate organic agriculture, FUNDAMARCOS will also increase production and contribute to greater food security for Guatemala's growing population. The agro-ecological methodologies taught by FUNDAMARCOS have the following characteristics:

• emphasis on stewardship of soil resources by limiting erosion and increasing available nutrients

• utilization of locally available resources instead of purchased, industrially produced inputs

• acknowledgement of the interaction between maintenance of local culture and ecosystem sustainability (e.g. the positive role of indigenous culture in maintaining plant genetic diversity)

• promotion of conservation of the ecosystem based on the Maya world view and utilization of local indigenous knowledge.

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Fundación Agri-Cultura Marcos Orozco (FUNDAMARCOS) is in the process of creating a Maya cultural center/museum, La Casa de la Cultura Maya, in Antigua, Guatemala. The educational program of the center will have 3 important purposes:

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Maya Foundation Builds Leadership

In Guatemala on October 8, 1996, 18 founders signed incorporation papers legally forming the Fundación Agri-Cultura Marcos Orozco. The "Agri" portion of this Maya foundation is dedicated to the preservation of Guatemala's environmental resources while the "Cultura" portion is committed to preserving Maya culture. The officers of the foundation are all Mayas.

The foundation's name honors Marcos Orozco, a great Guatemalan Maya teacher and scientist who is known throughout Central America as the "Father of Soil and Water Conservation." Fundación Agri-Cultura Marcos Orozco, also known as FUNDAMARCOS, will continue teaching the methodologies for maintaining natural ecosystems developed by Marcos Orozco.

FUNDAMARCOS is a Maya foundation legally recognized by the Guatemalan government. It was established just prior to the signing of the peace accords between the Guatemalan government and opposition forces in December 1996. Under these accords, the Maya people of Guatemala were recognized as equal under Guatemalan law for the first time since the Spanish conquest over 500 years ago; and, for the first time, Guatemala officially recognized herself as a multiracial, multiethnic and multilingual society.

For more information regarding the current work of FUNDAMARCOS see:

• Protecting the Rio Motagua Watershed

• Creation of a Maya Cultural Center

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Healing the Wounds of War

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Internships at the Resource Center for Non-Violence

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Student Delegate Attends Mennonite World Conference
Peace Council

EPIC provided travel assistance to Mark Smith, Bethel College junior from Kansas, who represented the Western District and South Central Conference of the Mennonite Church USA at the World Conference Peace Council meetings in Guatemala. Also present were representatives from the Congo, Japan, India, Germany, France, Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Argentina.