image sourced from ethicalfashionforum.com

The garment factory fire and building collapse in Bangladesh last week was brutal and shocking. In some ways it feels like worlds away, in a country many of us Westerners know little about. But the reality is that our day to day lives are closely connected to this tragedy. We can see this connection more clearly because the factories in this building quite literally provide the shirts on our backs.

We have more clothes than ever and yet clothing represents a much smaller proportion of our monthly budget than it did 50 years ago. Somewhere along the line someone is paying the price for that savings. Have you noticed an increase in “Made in Bangladesh” labels in your clothes from popular brands? That’s because Bangladesh produces garments cheaper than China can nowadays. Cheaper than most other countries in the world.

So what is the solution? Do we refuse to buy anything “Made in Bangladesh”? And where do we draw the line? This would be a simple solution but not the best solution. In fact many “sweatshop” factory workers would choose their jobs over the alternatives. Tom Murphy for Humanosphere provides a good overview of the situation here.

Sweatshop clothes are also called  “Fast Fashion” a reference to the disposable nature of clothing nowadays. We buy cheap clothes, lots of cheap clothes. They don’t last long both style and quality wise. And when we tire of them we dump them. Often we give them to a charity and feel pleased that our garbage is “helping” someone else.

So what can we do? Here are some tips to help, from the simple to the more demanding:

1) Respect your wardrobe. Take good care of the clothes you have and try to keep them in good shape for as long as possible.
2) Buy quality items. Buy the best you can afford and stop seeing your clothing as disposable.
3) Admit that every time you donate your used clothing, the reality is you aren’t really helping anyone but yourself. Is this better than the garbage? Yes. Is your old tank top going to help someone in need? Not really.
4) Buy used clothing (ahem… vintage clothing) in your home town and prevent it from being shipped overseas.
5) Choose clothing that is “sweatshop free.” These items are often more expensive, but they are better quality and last longer.
6) Shop in locally run stores that pay attention to where the clothing they sell is made. Ask the shopkeepers if their clothing is “sweatshop free.”
7) Research what brands are “sweatshop free” and share this information with your friends.
8) Encourage big brands to be accountable to their workers. Get your classmates involved in a campaign.

It’s Earth Day. What does that mean to you?

In my world, community development and the environment are so interconnected I can hardly separate them. And the connections are almost endless. But to drive myself a little crazy I am going to think of all the ways that the projects we work with are connected to the environment.

If you have travelled to one of the projects or know them well, why don’t you challenge yourself to do the same and then see how your list compares to ours?

Cambodia: PEPY Tours

•  They source locally run service providers. This means that money stays in the community and supports local businesses. Buying locally encourages local economic development and self sufficiency.
•  They encourage travellers to explore the country by bicycle.
•  They place volunteers with a local community project that is focused on self sufficiency. CRDT even converts poop into energy. Pretty much everything is reused.
•  While at the home stays, volunteers have showers the local way- cold and by bucket. Enough said!
•  They focus on people, not materials. To them success is not about building a new school or filling it with objects. It is about ensuring schools have great teachers.

Costa Rica: ASVO

•  ASVO is focused maintaining its beautiful national park system and promoting Costa Rica as a world leader in biodiversity.
•  Seeing all the pineapple and banana plantations alongside canals and beside national parks is a reminder that buying organic is just as important to the local environment as it is to our body’s health. The pesticides get into the local water systems and wreak havoc on local wildlife.
•  ASVO teaches local community members about the importance of sea turtles.
•  ASVO actively discourages beach lights and development in sea turtle habitats.
•  ASVO recognizes that local people need economic alternatives to poaching and are exploring opportunities for local economic development at projects such as Quelonios.

Guatemala: Project Somos

•  Project Somos recognizes that economic and environment self sufficiency is equally important and is looking at how the Village can sustain itself beyond donors.
•  Fruit trees will grow around family homes bringing self sufficiency as close to the door as possible.
•  The Village is already growing its own vegetables.
•  The Village is looking at grey water catchment.
•  Adobe bricks were produced onsite for the exterior walls and other projects.
•  The houses are earth bag constructed using massive coffee bags filled with the excavation earth!!
•  The bamboo scaffolding is sourced from the coast.
•  The local construction workers are trained in how to use these locally sourced materials.
•  All the paid staff in Guatemala are Guatemalan. The foreman and cook are local. And the construction workers come from the neighbouring community.
•  Visiting a lush country like Guatemala that exports cheap broccoli, while much of local population suffers from malnutrition, (hopefully) makes visitors think about who really benefits when they can buy imported broccoli at a $1 a pound any day of the year.
•  I could go on and on.

*2:07PM Already thought of another one- The interior walls are filled with eco-bricks. Pop bottles collected by local kids and stuffed full of plastic garbage.

Uganda: Multiple Partners

•  We work with existing local schools and try to work with their current buildings.
•  We source as much supplies locally as possible. For example, most of the books purchased last year came from East African publishers.
•  Groups purchase supplies from one partner organization in Uganda to provide for another.
•  We focus on partners that encourage the local economy or existing local schools.
•  We partner with stellar organizations like the Kitengesa Community Library, Solar Sister, Tekera, and AfriPads that all work towards supporting the local economy and maintaining a small footprint.
•  AfriPads manufactures reuseable menstrual pads in a small factory with only a little solar electricity. The factory workers are local people. They are looking to source local cotton.
•  Solar Sister employs local women to sell solar lanterns. These lanterns replace dangerous, stinky and deadly kerosene lanterns. Some can even charge mobile phones.
•  The Kitengesa Community Library provides a local hub for community members of all ages to improve their literacy and knowledge and find their own solutions to local challenges. The library is entirely solar powered and local community members can charge their mobile phones here for a small fee, avoiding travel into the larger town.
•  Tekera has a farmers’s cooperative. Local farmers work together to sell their produce at competitive prices moving beyond subsistence farming to being able to provide for their family’s health, education and other needs. They have cornered the local market providing unusual and “exotic” herbs and vegetables to the nearby hotels such as basil.
•  We support the national park rangers’ services while on safari and stay in simple accommodation just outside the parks.

Okay partners, how did we do? What did I miss?

Happy Earth Day!

I had a chance to really think of where I wanted Stratosphere to go over the coming years. And how Stratosphere programs could support good community development. My biggest challenge is that at Stratosphere we believe you have to be very careful to support people’s rights to come up with their own ideas for their own communities. It is very easy to suggest the next best thing. Or to encourage communities to embrace your idea. It is also easy to give things- like shoes, glasses, clothing… food. But that can create a cycle that is hard to break.

In our workshops we like to also challenge the “teach a man to fish” saying. Who are we to teach someone how to fish in their own community? Why the men? Maybe there are no fish? Maybe the access to the market is difficult? Maybe they already know how to fish but it is not the right economic move? This social justice approach to development helps us recognize that it is the community’s right to determine what is best for their own needs and that quite frankly the community members know best.

So we come to a standstill- we are reluctant to get involved in aid, and we are reluctant to pass on our supposed “wisdom” but we want to get involved in international community development. We see a value in helping people get a leg up so they can help themselves and their own community. Let’s leave the “why” for another post on global citizenship.

So what do we do? The first time I went to Uganda the most important thing I learned to do was keep my mouth shut and listen. And what I learned was people (especially in more rural areas) needed sources of information, needed to know how to navigate that information, and needed a space to congregate to share ideas with one another. This “knowledge hub” would essentially be a combination of a library and a community centre. It really is a new way to envision a library.

Earlier this year I was running a workshop in a secondary school library outside of Vancouver. And I asked the group of very intelligent dedicated students whether they spent time in their school library. They said really they only used it as a place to study. I asked about the books and they said they do all their research online and read novels on their Kindles. It was a sign that we need to rethink libraries everywhere.

So when I think of what kind of development Stratosphere wants to support when possible it is certainly this idea of a “knowledge hub.” It fits with our approach to global citizenship, community development, and social justice. It helps people get a leg up without meddling in their decision making process too much. And it is certainly the path Stratosphere will be pursuing when possible with our programs.

This summer a group of dedicated York House students helped start a library at a rural primary school in Ibanda, Uganda. The first step was to find the space, make it inviting and stock it with books the school requested. However, this is really only the beginning and we hope to see the students gain access to the internet and support and encourage local teacher training in both literacy and the internet.

And even though it only currently exists in my mind, and the mind of our Uganda director Daniel Ahimibisibwe…. some day Stratosphere will be supporting the creation on Ibanda’s own “knowledge hub.” I impatiently wait. In the meantime, feel free to let me know if you want to help get that dream out of minds and into reality.

But I have to admit I was never terribly passionate about it. I care about the environment but I thought the closest thing they did to community development was to educate the local population about the importance of their ecosystem, for example, to help prevent the extinction of sea turtles.

The purpose of my trip was to check logistics and visit the 2 main projects my volunteer groups will visit. On the Thursday morning we got up very early to start our drive from San Jose, up into the mountains and on to the Caribbean coast. We passed through 3 different types of rain forests, past banana and pineapple plantations, before arriving at a man made canal not far from the sea. 27% of Costa Rica is protected land. You practically can’t throw a rock without hitting a national park. The flip side is that intertwined you will fine plantations using huge amounts of pesticides to grow exports that we love to consume (big sigh- pineapples are “very, very, very bad” for pesticides… the scientific description from a conservation biologist I chatted with). And with a huge proportion of their economy focused on coffee, pineapple, and banana farming there is likely always going to be a struggle between protecting the environment and continuing to grow produce for export. Their economy and their environment need to find a way to co-exist.

We finally arrived at the manmade canal and climbed into a boat not too far from the Caribbean. Along the journey we passed howler monkeys (their scream sound like some sort of jungle monster- seriously freaked me out at first), beautiful birds, and apparently crocodiles and manatees (sleeping away from the heat). Eventually we came to a natural canal that spans most of the country’s coast line. It divides a thin strip of land bordering the Caribbean where people live mostly electricity free relying on fishing and… sea turtle poaching or conversely sea turtle conservation to eke out a living.

For many years sea turtle conservation primarily included some local education and lots of patrolling. When the turtles lay their eggs, volunteers and biologists work 24 hours a day patrolling the beach to protect the turtles and eggs from natural predators and human poachers. The conservationists fought an uphill battle against a local population that had few other opportunities to earn a living.

ASVO started Quelonios south of the famous Tortuguero National Park around 5 years ago. And it didn’t take long for them to realize that the local population needed economic alternatives to poaching. But what can you do on a small strip of land where there was little to no food production? Quelonios quickly evolved into a community development experiment- becoming a test lab for sustainable economic opportunities, sustainable living, and self sufficiency. A place where local people can see successful alternatives to sea turtle poaching.

There have been successes and set backs. A major storm destroyed their butterfly farm. And crocodiles have invaded their fish pond. But successes include using local compost, coconut coir, and soil to combine with the mostly sandy land to actually start growing food (the coir helps keep moisture in the ground). There are now a variety of fruit and vegetables grown there. And even a medicinal plant garden. Production has also included vanilla bean plants that are naturally pollinated (unlike neighboring countries that have to rely on artificial pollination).

The project is also focused on sustainability living. This includes how they process sewage, pump water from the ground, and fuel cooking. Project supporters are advocating to keep electricity lines from spreading to this area of the country. With electricity lines often come bright lights which are extremely damaging to sea turtle conservation (the sea turtles will not come ashore in bright lights). Instead they are encouraging the government to provide local solar electricity so people can maintain and improve avenues of communication, lighting, and other benefits of electricity into their homes, schools, and businesses.

You know, I actually didn’t even see their sea turtle hatchery. It is still off season so that’s part of the reason why. But their enthusiasm for their other projects quickly overshadowed the original purpose of Quelonios. Come sea turtle season I have no doubt they will be patrolling 24 hours a day and working hard to continue their sea turtle conservation. But they are determined to maintain and grow their community development project.

Will Quelonios be successful in its endeavor? I suppose it remains to be seen. I met one former poacher taking coconut oil to town to sell. I believe as long as Quelonios continues to reach out to the local community to share economic alternatives to poaching they will be successful. Already they are demonstrating a number of alternatives and battling through the local challenges of weather and predators along side their neighbours. Nothing makes better sense to me than to combine environmental conservation with economic and self sustainability.

My immediate reaction was entirely emotional. I felt like I needed to do something, anything… and fast. My second reaction was a little more practical. I took the time to research local charities already working with homeless people. I wanted to find out what they really needed. How I could best support them.

Since then I have taken time here and there to learn more about local charitable work. Not too much time, but enough to start figuring out what is the most effective approach to local charitable giving.

I learned a few basics along the way- like work with existing charities (they are the experts), really listen to what the charity is requesting (not what you want to give them), and often the best donation is a cash donation.

I have also over the years, again and again, learned to take a hard look at myself and why I do things. So often we think we are trying to help, when what we are really trying to do is alleviate some guilt and/ or feel good about helping out. When your approach to giving is based on your needs and your emotions, can you really be the best donor possible?

The best donations are based on what the charity has requested, and better yet before that even happens are based on the requests of the person receiving the donation. How does a charity know what people want and need? They ask their recipients or they make it possible for their recipients to request specific items.

My good friend Iha is responsible for community outreach at Byrne Creek Secondary School in Burnaby. This area has an extremely high refugee population. The refugee population is very diverse- from former doctors and professors to former subsistence farmers. But all of them are struggling to get by. While looking for jobs they are trying to keep themselves and their children fed, clothed, and healthy.

Can you believe that very few charities focus on the needs of a secondary student in Greater Vancouver? There are lots of charities for elementary students. There are some wonderful charities that support teenagers that have left school. But very few are available to help provide basics that will keep secondary students in school- keep their bellies full, keep them warmly clothed, and help them with extra resources like sneakers for PE.

This year Iha and her colleagues quietly approached students and their families about what they need. They received over 150 requests for winter coats and clothing. A local rotary club managed to get 100. Through friends and family Iha got most of the rest. There are still a few students in coats that are too small or worn out.

The school is now on the Vancouver Sun Adopt a School program… with NO bites. Not a single offer to help them out with their needs. They are trying to get a food program going, they hope to support some special programs for parents, and they still need lots of hats, mitts, and scarves.

So what’s the point of all this? I confess the story of Byrne Creek is a side bar but relevant. Saundra from Good Intentions wrote a phenomenal and simple guide to holiday charitable giving. It is less than $4 to purchase and I cannot praise it enough. It is worth every penny and then some.

To give you a few snippets… I learned that my blanket purchase could have caused more harm than good (could have increased the chances of hypothermia because it is cotton). I learned that doing similar feel good activities like driving downtown to deliver sandwiches and hot drinks on the streets means homeless people are inundated with quite possibly too much free food options in December, and go back to being very hungry after the holidays. I learned that way too often we donate based on our needs and not what is actually needed.

So please, please do yourself and the people you want to help a favour and take the time to read Saundra’s guide. Then take a few more minutes to read the donation page of the charity you want to help before deciding what to give. And even better, think a little bit off the beaten track- to segments of the population that seem to be overlooked like the secondary students at Byrne Creek. And then this Christmas Eve while visions of sugar plums dance in your head, you can truly rest easy knowing you helped out in the best way possible.

My challenge is that students want to know exactly what they will be doing on the ground when they travel 6 to 9 months from now. When an organization is building a school or fixing up classrooms this is relatively easy to explain. But Stratosphere does not do that kind of work. (We support existing organizations and schools.)

In fact many times being able to explain exactly what will happen on the ground months out turns the program into a “make work” situation. The craziest example I heard recently was about an organization in east Africa that readily admitted they allowed student groups to paint walls over and over again (when it certainly wasn’t needed).

I am trying to perfect the art of explaining this challenge to secondary students. Essentially I tell them the general idea of what they are doing and that much closer to the departure date we will map it out in more detail. But that waiting until we arrive or close to arrival ensures they will be doing what is actually needed at that time in that community.

My other challenge is if students are not building schools or painting walls, then how do you demonstrate they can have an impact on the community they visit? It is true they personally will benefit a lot from the trip (this is quite easy to see). Sometimes it is harder to see how a young or less experienced person can contribute to community development.

In fact it can be hard to track the successes of international community development in general- primarily when change is focused on social justice issues such as gender. So I want to give you an example from the projects Stratosphere works with.

Forgive me, I feel a little uncomfortable representing these people. But I hope this post will motivate them to write something for our blog in the future!

There is an amazing social enterprise in Kitengesa- a rural village outside of Masaka, Uganda. If you didn’t know the background you would be curious to understand why it exists there in this tiny off the map community. Afri-Pads is a small local factory that makes reuseable, washable menstrual pads. They are sold at a very reasonable price (the equivalent of 1 month’s disposable pads). And the factory workers are local women. They also have a successful outreach program tackling the taboos of menstruation. They are trying to combat menstrual related absenteeism- one of the major reasons girls miss school (up to a week every month!).

Watch this amazing video on Afri-Pads.

Why Kitengesa of all places? Afri-Pads wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the collaboration of the community members and international visitors that came a number of years before. Did you watch the video? Did you notice that the male school principal talked openly about menstrual related absenteeism? Without blushing? I don’t know many men that can do this in Canada, let alone a country like Uganda where these topics can be extremely taboo. In fact, I met a university student volunteering in eastern Uganda who tried to talk about menstrual related absenteeism with community leaders. She couldn’t get a single conversation going- it was quickly shut down.

So why has it worked in Kitengesa? I believe it is the result of many years of discussions, research, sharing stories, and exposure of community members to different ideas. This was not a one sided conversation. It started with a Canadian education masters student Shelley Jones who was researching why girls missed school. She spent a year working with local girls, getting to know them, sharing stories. And learning about their day to day struggles. She in turn shared her results with community leaders and members.

Other international visitors came and went and years later another education masters student Carrie-Jane Williams arrived. This student was armed both with Shelley’s research and a prototype of a washable menstrual pad. This prototype came from Luna Pads, a very successful and well known producer in Vancouver.

Carrie-Jane then met two North Americans Sonia and Paul who were volunteering and visiting Uganda. And they came up with the amazing idea of starting a factory for Afri-Pads. In fact their first location rented space from the secondary school in the former community library (a good sign they were accepted by the community). Luna Pads was willing to not only share their product secrets but went above and beyond in helping them source reasonably priced cotton. And then Sonia and Pauls adapted the product to suit local demand.

This idea needed a community that was open minded. How was this possible? Any one of us that has travelled somewhere different knows that a new experience in a new culture can shift or even transform our perspectives. After each new trip we start to approach challenges from new angles and I believe this gives us a huge advantage. But what about the community members you visit? How do they benefit from this shift in perspective? Sharing stories can provide a similar transformational experience as we begin to learn about other cultures and ways of living. We start to see there are alternatives. We start to tackle challenges that have existing in our communities with a new perspective and we try things that have not been done before.

In Kitengesa when girls got their period many just simply stayed home. They were embarrassed about the rags they used. Disposable pads were simply too expensive. They were ashamed. And they were worried about having an accident at school. But mostly this is just what girls did. It was accepted. Girls missed out on 1/4 of their education because that’s just what girls did.

Through open discussion and sharing stories, community members began to realize that things could change. Girls should be in school regardless of whether they were menstruating. The topic became less and less taboo. And when Sonia and Pauls suggested they start a factory that not only tackled menstrual related absenteeism but employed local women, the timing was right.

Community development focuses on long term change and progress. It is not as simple as saying this many schools were built, this many people were inoculated. It is a process and a journey that starts with stories and new perspectives. It is about tackling barriers to social justice and over time, perhaps very quietly, being part of real and lasting progress.

from trespassmag.com

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)… Why is it that seemingly harmless words or phrases are somewhat tainted nowadays? In an ideal world a commitment to CSR would focus on all aspects of your business- from how you source and manufacture your product, to how you sell it. In reality CSR can many times mean a corporation continues to do exactly what it wants to do to improve the bottom line while dedicating a small amount of time to a charitable commitment.

What if we had the power to influence a company’s behaviour?

The fact is that CSR isn’t that far removed from personal social responsibility. Many of us like the lives we lead. Or maybe we are just reluctant to change. It may not improve our bottom line all the time but sometimes we do things to make life as easy as possible. We drive to work (no time to organize a car pool or take the bus), we buy our lattes in the disposable cups (forgot the reuseable one at home again, thank god they are now recycling), we shop to alleviate stress (it’s good for the economy right?) and from time to time we support a charitable cause (that just happened to tug at our heart strings). We lead busy lives and our priorities may conflict with doing the right thing all the time.

So where does that leave us?

Not much better off than before. Life is a little like those shopping sprees we love. We feel good for a little while, but eventually in the not to distant future (probably long before the credit card bill arrives) we start to feel a bit bummed again. And likely a bit guilty. And the cycle starts again.

So how do we alleviate this cycle?

We need to change… come on folks just a little bit. It really isn’t that difficult.

First, we have to recognize that our actions have consequences and these consequences can have global implications. The good news is that for some of us that have the privilege of not living dollar to dollar, we have the ability to make choices that go beyond the bottom line. The very coffee that we bought this morning is a great example. How you choose your coffee can impact the lives of people half way around the world. And I am not just talking about remembering your reuseable coffee mug! I am talking about how the workers are treated and paid, what chemicals are used as pesticides, and how far the coffee has to travel.

In a world where we often choose quantity over quality, this decision making process is more important than ever. We love to buy, and we love a great deal. But someone always pays the price eventually for your 50c a pound broccoli or $20 jeans.

So how do I tie this back to CSR?

Well, the crazy thing is if we start to think about how we spend our money… And we recognize that our decision making has consequences… Then quite naturally we will support those companies that are socially responsible.

And maybe, just maybe we will look past superficial corporate charitable partnerships and start to ask the questions that really matter. Like, where do you produce the goods you sell? And how are the workers treated? What is the impact on the environment?

Funny how when you put money where your mouth is you can actually affect change.

*This blog is a contribution the The Aid Blog Forum. More details can be found on Tales From the Hood.

For Canadian university students, this skill set was not a problem! So Tess and Jess armed themselves with some computer workshops that had been successfully used by a group in Ghana. They worked with the teachers from Kimunyu Memorial Primary School, the teachers and students from Ankole Secondary School, and a locally formed community business cooperative Kafunjo Cooperative. Teachers wanted to learn how to use the computer to more effectively track student marks, secondary students wanted to learn basic skills for future job opportunities, and the business cooperative hopes to start applying for small grants.

Back in May I profiled the community business cooperative in the blog post “Community.” Today I want to take time to profile the primary school partner…

We are so proud to have Kimunyu Memorial Primary School as a Stratosphere partner. The school was founded by Ibanda community leaders who wanted to give back to their home town.

The school set up shop in an old, run down school that had closed. I had the pleasure of meeting the board members that founded the school and the current principal. These friendly meetings left me with no doubt as to why our Uganda Program Director Dan Ahimbisibwe recommended them as our first primary school partner. The board members are local community members that saw a need for another local primary school and felt it was a great way to contribute to their rapidly growing community.

The school is funded through low tuition fees and a boarding facility. They have a flexible tuition program that allows families to pay late, or in the worst case scenario they will allow families to skip a payment if they are really struggling.

Kimunyu Primary School and Ibanda are off the map of international NGO’s. It is a simple private school that has raised funds through these low, flexible tuition fees. This means the facilities remain very basic. There are only a few textbooks per classroom (including the teacher’s copies). There are no doors or windows in the classrooms. There is no library. There were no computers until this summer and teachers had limited if any experience with a computer. But teachers and students make do. And the school is proud of their sports programs and academic offering.

Stratosphere believes strongly in supporting locally run, existing schools. Schools abound in rural Uganda, but many are basic like Kimunyu. They struggle to maintain their existing facilities, let alone upgrade what they have. We also believe that parents should be empowered to support their own children’s education, which is why we support the development of local business cooperatives and business development. We would much rather see parents pay for their own child’s education.

So what does that mean for Stratosphere? We concentrate on helping partner schools improve their facilities and supplies. We are particularly interested in facilities that improve literacy because we believe being literate and passionate about reading is one skill set that all people can benefit from for the rest of their life. Literacy exposes people to new ideas and new opportunities and it creates lifelong learning. If you are curious, I wrote about developing a reading culture back in May.

Our participants will support our partner schools developing their library resources. And the students that travel to Uganda will encourage a love of reading through story telling activities.  More on these plans soon!

Heather quicky impressed me with plans under way for a children’s village that would provide a permanent home (with Guatemalan foster mothers who commit to many years) for as many as 35 or more orphaned and abandoned children. This is a small sprinkling of the 340,000 orphaned and abandoned children (according to UNICEF) in a country of only 13 million.

Their approach is quite unique in a country famous and recently infamous for international adoptions. At one point a full 1 percent of children here were adopted internationally. I recently read Between Light and Shadow which tells the story of one adopted girl’s reunion with her birth mother. The book talks of a complicated world where poor Guatemalan mothers were often pressured to give up their children for supposedly better lives in El Norte. And where people from wealthy countries desperate for children believed they were saving these children for horrible lives of starvation and poverty.

It’s both easy to understand and hard to explain this attitude. But in a brief encounter with a Texan couple, the husband commented “they need us here.” This comment reveals a deep seeded belief that life in Guatemala is hard and brutal and life in America is full of the best opportunities. A belief that many Guatemalans and wealthy foreigners share.

Pressure from the UN eventually closed the door on all international adoptions from Guatemala, putting an end to the solution of rescuing children for a better life in El Norte.

Did you know that in many countries an orphan is a child with less than 2 parents taking care of them? Many orphans have relatives and even parents that have given them up because they simply cannot afford to keep them at home. Our philosophy at Stratosphere is to support programming that helps children stay with their families. One example is to support existing schools (private and public) that have a flexible policies for families that cannot afford fees. Another example is supporting local business cooperatives that pool finances to provide zero interest loans for school and medical fees. And of course to support opportunities for parents to find work so they can support their own children. These steps can make a huge difference in families keeping their children at home.

I am not discrediting the wonderful life that adopted children have. But I personally believe the ideal situation is for children to be raised within their own culture with love and opportunity. To be cliche, the love and happiness is apparent in Guatemala. The people are friendly. And the country is incredibly lush and stunning. (Don’t get me started on why there is malnutrition in a country that exports to Canada and the USA many of the fruits and vegetables we take for granted 12 months of the year.) I am very much interested in local programs that combat the rampant machismo, that are looking to improve nutrition and education, and that look to improve business opportunities for parents.

I confess that Project Somos was not a typical program for Stratosphere to connect with. But in a country with over 340,000 orphaned and abandoned children the need for a caring, long term home is very apparent. And I was so incredibly impressed with Project Somos’ plans and philosophy. So what makes Project Somos different?

1. It is not an orphanage. The children will live in permanent homes with a caring long term Guatemalan mother.
2. They are very careful to protect the children’s needs. Volunteers will not be involved in any day to day care. And the village will be off limits to foreign visitors.
3. The children will integrate with the local community and go to the local school.
4. The project will be sustainable- plans are under way to lease and use some of the land for social enterprises.
5. The project hires local Guatemalan experts and labourers to build the property.
6. The project has already started outreach projects to support the local school and interact with the local community.

What did I come away from Guatemala with? I was so impressed with the beautiful traditions of the Mayan cultures. As a Canadian, it is amazing to visit a country where 50% of the population is still indigenous. I was disturbed that such a lush, abundant country has rampant malnutrition. I was tormented that people struggle working on massive farms that export to North America so we can have cheap produce year round. I gained some respect for the challenges of tackling a long seeded belief that El Norte is the only means for opportunity. I saw hope for a country that is still pulling itself out of years of war and genocide (long since ended). I was impressed by some of the wonderful things local and international participants are doing to encourage local community development. And I am excited to see what the future holds.