The mounting effects of climate change have put new importance on our partners doing innovative crop development and reforestation. Vicente Guerrero is one such partnership doing work in the dry Mexican state of Tlaxcala. Their Maguey Project plants a more reliable agave variety, whose cultivation has been largely forgotten.
This project not only contribute towards climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, it also invite s community members to become custodians of the natural environment that holds them, while providing them an additional source of income.
Baja Verapaz: Sustainable Agriculture – GUATEMALA
Baja Verapaz - Sustainable Agriculture program begins work with farm families by focusing on increasing yields of the basic food crops, which in Guatemala are corn and beans. By implementing extremely effective new practices of water management, soil conservation and resilient sustainable agriculture, program participants usually double their corn and beans harvests in the first year.
Baja Verapaz: Health Education – GUATEMALA
Baja Verapaz - Health Education program fights persistent malnutrition by teaching poor indigenous families in rural Guatemala to produce abundant nutritious food. This is important because Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world and the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Health Education for Youth – HONDURAS
Since February 2017, EPIC has been working with a health promotion program for teens in Honduras. It is the initiative of 2 graduate students of the University of Honduras. The topics covered are self-esteem, drugs, sex education, dental hygiene, and nutrition (especially the constant consumption of junk foods).
La Buena Tierra Preschool and Primary School – MEXICO
La Buena Tierra was started in 1999 as a preschool for children of very poor families who were entering first grade with no preparation. Next, the mothers dreamed of a quality elementary school. The children had become excited about learning, but they became frustrated and lost interest in the poor, under-funded and overcrowded public elementary schools.
La Semilla del Progreso: Agricultural Training – HONDURAS
La Semilla del Progreso, an agricultural training center providing intensive training for farmers from surrounding communities and afterwards continues to support them in the sometimes delicate transition from conventional practices to regenerative organic agriculture.
Creciendo Juntos: Community Action – COLOMBIA
In a violent and poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Bogota, the local Berna Mennonite Church is working with the children and young people who were displaced by Colombia’s civil war. The project Creciendo Juntos (Growing Together) has two areas of emphasis:
Maya Cultural Center – GUATEMALA
The Casa Para La Cultura Maya is a cultural center and educational resource: to preserve, esteem and promote all expression of Maya culture including Maya dress, music, dance, art, weaving, agriculture, cuisine, and community, spiritual, and family values; to reach out to the non-indigenous (ladino) population of Guatemala with special programs and events; to serve as a place where Mayas will have the opportunity to present their own interpretation of Maya culture to Guatemala’s international and national tourists.
Vicente Guerrero – MEXICO
EPIC, and Proyecto de Desarrollo Rural Vicente Guerrero began a collaboration to encourage organic agricultural production in Axochiapan, Mexico. The past work of Fundación Don Sergio Méndez Arceo had been fighting effectively and forcefully for human rights in Mexico.
ADISA – GUATEMALA
Nila Eliza was born with hydrocephalus and later contracted meningitis, her parents were made aware of the lack of services available for people with disabilities in Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala. They began to contact other parents with similar needs and organize a support system for children with disabilities.
Fundación Sergio Méndez Arceo – MEXICO
This Mexican foundation annually presents the Human Rights Awards for the individual and the group most on the forefront of working for human rights in Mexico. By receiving this award, the person or organization is given publicity and support for the work in which they are engaged.
“Laudato Si” Organic Agricultural Program – MEXICO
EPIC, and Proyecto de Desarrollo Rural Vicente Guerrero began a collaboration to encourage organic agricultural production in Axochiapan, Mexico. The past work of Fundación Don Sergio Méndez Arceo had been fighting effectively and forcefully for human rights in Mexico.
Friends of Nepal Pariwar Foundation: Women’s Health – NEPAL
Friends of Nepal Pariwar - Women’s Reproductive Health: The mission of Friends of Nepal Pariwar Foundation is to improve the health and well-being of women and their families in rural Nepal by supporting a network of registered nonprofit community organizations in Nepal and strengthening their capacity to sustain and expand health and development services
Casa Aq’ab’al – GUATEMALA
Casa Aq’ab’al is a family crisis center for women and children escaping domestic abuse. Its shelter opened in 2016 and provides the only such assistance for persons suffering from domestic abuse in the whole Department (state) of Sololá. Unfortunately, domestic abuse and violence against women is very common in Guatemala. At the shelter women find a safe place to stay and food. They also have access to counseling and legal advice. Children can stay with their mothers.
La Segovia Food Production – EL SALVADOR
In 2011 EPIC sponsored a visit to Honduras by Salvadoran farmers to see the work of COSECHA, another EPIC partner organization. This began a very valuable farmers-to-farmer teaching experience between people living in similar dry areas and dealing with similar problems.
Goals For Kids: Sports Program – GUATEMALA
Goals for Kids works with teens and young children who have previously had no PE in school. This exciting project gets kids moving and is more than fun. They learn to work together, stay healthy and, most importantly, build the confidence that need to take on life.
Trees and Hope for Life – HONDURAS
EPIC, and Proyecto de Desarrollo Rural Vicente Guerrero began a collaboration to encourage organic agricultural production in Axochiapan, Mexico. The past work of Fundación Don Sergio Méndez Arceo had been fighting effectively and forcefully for human rights in Mexico.
The Land Institute – USA
Researchers at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, are breeding perennial varieties of grains that eliminate erosion and actually help build soil. By crossing high-yield annual species like wheat and sorghum with their wild perennial relatives, the Land Institute aims to create food crops that don't require intensive tilling, tending and spraying.
Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center – U.S.A.
The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center is a multi-issue organization that works to promote peace, restore and protect the Earth, and insure human rights are respected. Rooted in the spirit of unconditional nonviolence, it educates, organizes, and acts and build community and create a culture of justice and peace.