HUMAN SERVICES
St. David‘s Child
Development &
Family Services
INTERNATIONAL
Trees, Water and People
CARE: Afghan Women
as Entrepreneurs
HOUSING
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Trees, Water and People Fort Collins, Colorado |
2004 $17,000 Grant |
Trees, Water and People was founded with the belief that the best development plans are generated locally, based on the needs of a local community. Sundance Family Foundation granted Trees, Water and People $17,000 to support local solutions to community problems in Guatemala.
The Trees, Water and People program helps replace and protect forest resources by training farmers to produce fast-growing forest and fruit trees that can be sold as firewood, can produce food for the family, and also work to prevent soil erosion. The program also reduces the demand for forest resources by helping families build “Justa” stoves that use up to 70 percent less wood than the traditional open-fire stoves used by 90 percent of Guatemala’s rural residents. Training in use of the stoves is provided for the families. With the Justa stoves, health is improved for women and children with the removal of toxic pollutants from the home via a chimney. (A recent report from the World Health Organization says that 1.6 million people die prematurely every year due to respiratory complications linked to indoor air pollution.)
Trees, Water and People believes, intrinsically, that poverty and natural resource degradation are closely linked.
Finally, the livelihood of each community is improved by saving families time and money, providing training and technical assistance to start their own tree nurseries, and by producing and selling diversified varieties of trees including new varieties of fruit trees.
The Sundance grant assisted with the purchase of materials and supplies for the construction of Justa stoves, development and operation of a tree nursery in southern Guatemala, and money for the salary of the Trees, Water and People project manager.
The evaluation of this specific program in coastal Guatemala, including data from an eight-month period shows that: 1,284 fruit trees and 2,688 forest and agroforestry trees have been planted and 96 new Justa stoves have been constructed and implemented in homes. (As activity in tree reforestation begins to slow during the summer months, concentration on stove construction and use will improve substantially adding to the more than 400 stoves built in early 2005.)
This international organization based in Colorado, started in 1998, and serves communities in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Chiapas, Mexico. The mission of the program is to amalgamate agricultural principles and practices with basic technology to better the income and health of families, as well as preserve the environment. Trees, Water and People believes, intrinsically, that poverty and natural resource degradation are closely linked. Thus, the program is designed, weaving people, reliance on other forms of fuel besides wood and reforestation together in a holistic fashion to solve community problems.
Trees, Water and People’s International Director, Stuart Conway, won the prestigious Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy, presented by HRH Prince Charles in London in 2005. This is one of the highest honors that the organization’s international programs could be awarded for their field of work.
Copyright 2006 Sundance Family Foundation. All rights reserved.