ECHO Blog

ECHO's Global Impact initiates response from Naples United Church of Christ

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

by: Darren Thomas

Global missions have been on ECHO’s radar since their establishment in 1981. From that time, lives have been drastically impacted and hunger reduced in the areas ECHO has been present.

With ECHO being a non-profit Christian organization, funds have to be acquired through donations, grants, etc., to keep the vision of ECHO alive. This vision is to honor God through sustainable hunger solutions; ECHO has received sponsored help from several organizations including Naples United Church of Christ (NUCC). Without the help of organizations like NUCC ECHO would not be able to fulfill such a powerful vision.

As NUCC saw the need at ECHO for funds; 5,000 dollars in grants were then donated from The Bargain Box at NUCC to fulfill ECHO’s mission of equipping people with resources and skills to reduce hunger and improve the lives of the poor.

At NUCC the very embodiment of giving towards missions organizations lies within The Bargain Box. The Bargain Box serves as an outlet for “meeting the needs of others”. They provide a constant fixture in serving the needs of the Naples community and meeting those needs.

The store itself strives to offer reasonably priced merchandise to community shoppers with genuine need, to others who love bargains, and to many who are committed to helping others. All funds are then donated to 50 charities of NUCC’s choosing, including St. Matthew’s House, Youth Haven, and Grace Place for Children and Families, with NUCC making significant impacts like these in the local Naples community and ECHO.

The Bargain Box is a valuable resource for any person truly in need. Behind every great organization lies a catalyst that drives them to victory, ECHO, NUCC and its volunteers at The Bargain Box stand as that catalyst for those in need.

Taking action on Malnutrition

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Taking action on malnutrition

May 3, 2013 By canwefeedtheworld

A lack of sufficient nutrients in the diet is responsible for around 2.6 million deathsof children per year, the largest killer of children in the world. Those children that do survive will be stunted in their physical growth and mental development, which can not only cause health problems but will detrimentally impact their education and earning potential for the rest of their lives. This is a risk faced by some 165 million children across the world.

This year, high-level decision makers will come together on 8^th June for a Hunger summit, hosted by David Cameron, ahead of this year’s G8, and nutrition will likely be on the agenda. But what action can leaders, donors and people on the ground take to tackle undernutrition?

The Montpellier Panel, in their 2011 briefing paper on Scaling Up Nutrition, outlined the urgent need for children to receive adequate nutrition in the first 1000 days of their lives (from conception to 2 years old). It also detailed the measures the United Nations Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement was taking globally to combat child undernutrition. The SUN movement works with partner countries (35 to date) to integrate nutrition into development plans across sectors such as health, education and agriculture.

In particular the SUN movement supports the following interventions and policies:

Specific Nutrition Interventions

Support for exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months of age and continued breastfeeding, together with appropriate and nutritious food, up to 2 years of age;
Fortification of foods;
Micronutrient supplementation; and
Treatment of severe malnutrition.

Nutrition-Sensitive Approaches

Agriculture: Making nutritious food more accessible to everyone, and supporting small farms as a source of income for women and families;
Clean Water and Sanitation: Improving access to reduce infection and disease;
Education and Employment: Making sure children have the energy that they need to learn and earn sufficient income as adults;
Health Care: Improving access to services to ensure that women and children stay healthy;
Support for Resilience: Establishing a stronger, healthier population and sustained prosperity to better endure emergencies and conflicts; and
Women’s Empowerment: At the core of all efforts, women are empowered to be leaders in their families and communities, leading the way to a healthier and stronger world.

Recent interest has focused on the contribution of agriculture to ending hunger and malnutrition. Agriculture plays a crucial role in access to nutritious and diverse crops, affordable sources of foods and as an income source but the links between agriculture and nutrition are not always clear. Several recent reports have summarised how agricultural development can have positive outcomes for household nutrition.

In a World Bank report, released in April 2013, authors synthesise a series of guiding principles linking agriculture and nutrition from existing published guidance. These principles were grouped into four categories, namely:

Planning for nutrition, such as incorporating explicit nutrition objectives into agricultural projects, programmes and policies; understanding the context to appreciate causes and constraints; measuring impact and working across sectors.
Taking action, such as empowering women, managing natural resources and educating people about nutrition.
Combining with other approaches, such as diversifying agricultural production, producing nutrient-rich crops, reducing post-harvest losses and increasing market access.
Creating a supportive environment, such as advocating for nutrition, building local capacity and improving policy coherence and governance.

Similarly, a report and briefing paper launched recently, entitled Small scale, big impact: smallholder agriculture’s contribution to better nutrition, investigated the impact of smallholder agricultural development projects on nutrition and food security. Commissioned by the UK Hunger Alliance and produced by the Overseas Development Institute, the case studies reviewed showed that sustainable agricultural projects, such as promoting small-scale farming like home gardens and fish ponds, empowering women and complementing agricultural programmes with education, health services, and clean water and sanitation, can be beneficial for nutrition. As an example, “Child stunting was cut by 16% in three years under the rights-and-livelihoods based SHOUHARDO intervention in Bangladesh involving 400,000 households. This included the integration of home gardens, women’s empowerment, mother and child health, vitamin A supplements, awareness-raising on improved nutrition habits, immunisations, savings groups, and cash-for-work as a safety net.”

The report concludes with three ways that smallholder agriculture can have greater impact on nutrition:

Empowering women farmers;
Promoting home gardens and small-scale livestock and fish raising;
Complementing agricultural programmes with education and awareness-raising on improving nutrition habits, health services, clean water and sanitation.

And three areas of recommendation for UK and G8 leaders:

Scale up public support for small-scale environmentally sustainable agricultural systems
Increase support for women small-scale producers
Promote improved, more accountable and joined-up country-led nutrition and food security strategies and approaches

The June 8th Hunger Summit is an opportunity for the UK to show its commitment to nutrition and to encourage other leaders and donors to make tackling child malnutrition a global priority. Such a focus will also be important to ensure progress on nutrition is carried into the development agenda once the Millennium Development Goals expire in 2015.

Chaya Reducing Malnutrition in Guatemala

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Miracles in Action is an ECHO Network member promoting nutrition and poverty reduction in Latin America! They are doing some amazing work!

"Thought you would like to see how we are spreading chaya in Jutiapa/Jalapa, to address the terrible malnutrition in this area - which is dry, with less trees and vegetable production. At this same farm, we would also like to plant trees for seedlings to help reforest.

The Doppenberg family are Canadian missionaries working with a group of nuns with a malnutrition hospital. Two weeks ago they planted 1000s of chia seeds in soil trays, and this week, about 4,000 chaya cuttings. They are our newest "Chaya Chums", who quickly adopted this sustainable nutrition/agriculture project.

Thank you, Miracles in Action, for using what you learned at ECHO to help the poor!

Here are some pictures of the approximately 3,400 cuttings which we did on Tuesday! What a day!! :)

Filling the soil bags... we dug up up 3 FULL truckloads of soil from Hector's land!

Great system going for passing and sticking the cuttings rapidly!

Still going... becoming a sea of cuttings in soil bags!

Hector.... looking slightly concerned, lol, but very happy!!

That is a LOT of cuttings!! :) We are all so very excited with all of this!

It was well into the dark before we finished for the day....

We will be finishing planting the rest of the cuttings this morning! I will send pictures of all of them finished. Thank you all so much again!

Dordt Student Engineers Meet Energy Needs And Build Educational Tool

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

A team of three senior engineering majors at Dordt brought their finished Solar Power Generation System to the Education Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO) headquarters in Fort Myers, Florida, in April.

Hannah Orlow, Ryan Tholan, and Tyler Woudstra planned and built the machine as part of their Senior Design II class this spring. It gives ECHO an alternative source of energy and allows them to use the solar generator as an educational tool for employees who travel around the world to aid in stopping hunger.

"The beauty of this design is that it is made from parts that can be bought off the shelves, and we labeled and documented it so any non-engineer could compile and construct their own," said Tholen.

The Dordt engineering department chose to take up ECHO's request for a concept design for such a generator. The Dordt students' design was chosen over that from a team at another college. The engineering department is excited about other possible applications for the student-designed machine.

"ECHO works with many agricultural development workers and missionaries who go to various parts of the world, and our students' design gives us a chance to help in their mission," said Engineering Professor Nolan Van Gaalen.

"This project was a great way for Dordt to continue building relationships with ECHO, an organization that has already worked with our agriculture department," said Tholen.

The solar generator has a capacity of 2.3 kilowatts and can do anything from running a village's water pump to charging cell phones.

"This kind of project is what you hope for as a student engineer," Tholen said. "It's a chance to meet needs in a positive way."

"This design has almost endless possibilities," Van Gaalen said. "It's meant to stand alone, run without being connected to a power source, and store energy. It's easy to put together and can easily be scaled up or down to any needs. Now ECHO is going to be able to share with their constituents how this tool can aid them in the field."

Dordt's new science building will include a similarly designed generator that can be used to provide power and as an educational example for students at Dordt.

"It's great being part of a project where you not only get to create an idea but you get to see it come to fruition and help people for years to come," Orlow said.

Tropical Agricultural Development Course at ECHO

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

"All week in the classes and in the gardens I thought, 'I can't believe I get to be here!' ... Thank you, ECHO, for an awesome week of training and opening up new dreams for our orphans!"

ECHO is proud to offer training courses like the one mentioned above. Follow this link to read more of her experience at ECHO's Tropical Agricultural Development Course, held last week on the ECHO Campus.

Earth Day!

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Happy Earth Day! Today we celebrate the 41st Earth Day in the United States. Here’s how some reflections from ECHO staff members from around the world:

Cara Donahue, ECHO Headquarters: (@caradonahue)

Earth Day at ECHO is part of a long-term commitment to sustainability. It encompasses making hard choices that keep a balance of conservation with innovations. ECHO works hard to show our commitment to the earth. Some of the ways that we do this at our headquarters are compost & recycled paper goes to earth bins, which turns into to organic matter, redeeming soil and waste; fruit from our trees is used as fertilizer after we have donated to local food pantries, sold and eaten everything that we can harvest; corporately using recycled plates at all ECHO Farm functions; using natural products that are easier on the earth; moving from paper files to digital files; recycling the paper from our shredders into the worm bins.

Around the world, Earth Day may look a little different. Here at ECHO, we take it one sustainable choice at a time.

Rick Burnette, ECHO Asia:

As I travel around throughout much of tropical Asia, and beyond, I see exactly how poor natural resource stewardship and simple human greed are negatively impacting God's perfect creation through deforestation, soil erosion, loss of wetlands, overuse of water and climate change. I see clearly how unsustainable practices are impacting everyone, especially the poorest persons living on the margins of society. They're the ones most vulnerable to drought, flooding, poor crop yields, diminishing fisheries, etc.

As a professional change agent with a privileged vantage point that comes from travel and access to the media, I spend much of my time focusing on the sustainable use of resources by smallholder farmers. I read about saving the world. I teach about natural farming. I share technical resources for sustainable agriculture. I warn about climate change and even worry about my carbon footprint.

However, nothing that I do even comes close to the daily collective effect of small farmers living on the margins. Despite having limited access to land and other resources, many are practically self sufficient with regard to food, fuel and housing. Their consumption of resources is small and they are not wasteful. They find it necessary to live in tune with their natural surroundings despite weather patterns, government policies and economies that are in drastic change around them.

Folks such as these are the original sources of much of the information, ideas and seeds that ECHO Asia shares with its network. Some of them gladly host visits from ECHO Asia's clientele of development workers and farmers who desire practical knowledge about agroforestry, home gardens, natural farming and green manure cover crops. They're what we call the real deal.

So as we recognize Earth Day 2013, let's not forget those who practice Earth Day everyday, whether they realize it or not. We owe it to them.

Erwin Kinsey, ECHO East Africa:

I thought to share a couple of Leland Kinsey, my cousin's poems.

I hope that we learn to care better for the earth, like our forefathers. I read a profound book: "The End of Nature" by Bill McKibben, which drives the point home.

Grandfather's Onions (from Not One Man's Work)

If it hadn't melted,

my grandfather would shovel

the snow from his garden in April,

or at least the rows for his onions.

He wanted his sets in early,

to be the first in his part

of the country, prized onions.

By the time he seeded the rest

of his garden in late May

the green onion tops were well up,

fragrant rows to be hoed

carefully, any close weeding

to be done by hand.

"Nothing special about the kind,"

he said, "it's what you do for them,"

but then he'd tell us

onions were a major food

of the ancient Egyptians

and were still a mainstay of China.

He'd say, "Developing good onions

wasn't one man's work

but caring for onions

is good work for one man."

He dug them every midsummer,

almost rolled them out of their rows.

When he had cut off the tops

he'd bent weeks before

to promote full growth,

they looked like someone was manufacturing

duckpins on a large scale.

He sold them to the same fair stall

every year - WORLD'S LARGEST ONION RINGS-

the false, and saved three to win

a blue ribbon in the produce shed.

His death left the taste of acid,

our memory of him as sharp

and long as that of an acrid fume.

We did as he asked and his ashes

are now wholly alkaline

in his onion soil.

The Place Where Lions Used to Live (from In the Rain Shadow)

Poles - electric? telephone? aged telegraph? -

run from a remote town to a remoter village,

but no wires run between. Jackson John,

a name self-chosen when is tribe chose

religious self-exile from Kenya,

walks me out two hours

in the mid-day heat to view the village

they are creating in the bush out of the bush.

He pointed toward three ridgelines when we started.

"We will walk beyond the place where lions

used to live, to where we will live."

The main road would be a poor cattle lane

back home. The worn paths are often

from the long walks women and children must make

to carry water kilometers home.

Five-gallon white plastic pails are balanced

laden on even ten-year-olds' heads.

The pails are ubiquitous and handier

than various constructions of the past.

We walk past

four long-haul-truck-sized boulders

jumbled together as if crashed there

stop a high sloped ridge, visible for miles

and giving miles of visibility

where lions used to live. I ask if it was part

of the rush. "Perhaps," Jackson says,

"but they are gone fifteen years now."

"Did the people kill them?"

"There was no need. People killed

all the game. The lions left."

"Where?" "That way we think.

Some game still lives that way."

"Is it taken still?" "Kimorro."

All the wire from the telephone lines,

good copper wire, stolen right after it was hung,

stolen by the poachers to use as snares.

Strong wire for big animals. The meat was sliced

into big pieces, very thin, goat sized,

and dried quickly on hot rocks -

some of the best are the big boulders

where lions used to live - kimorro,

bundled up, smuggled across the border.

"They pay well there. They are eating our game.

All their game has long been eaten

but they think it is better to eat game.

They may have eaten the lions,

I have heard of such a thing.

No lions live here now."

"Are the people here angry?"

"When there were lions it was very dangerous

but there was game. Our elders remember

the lion killing test. It is everyone's fault.

We wish it back, but raise goats and chickens,

and now cattle. They do not raise these

across the border. Telephones are very useful,

we often need help, families are wide

in the land, but people must eat to talk.

Tina Ugland, ECHO Headquarters:

Earth Day is special to me because it marks the day as a reminder of how our everyday choices affect the planet and its inhabitants. We make choices all year such as water conservation and recycling and we should be cognizant of how those everyday choices affect the long term health of our planet. Are your choices honoring God and his creation?

Abram Bicksler receives Young Humanitarian Award from U of Illinois

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Fort Myers, Florida, April 1, 2013— Dr. Abram J. Bicksler, Research Advisor to the ECHO Asia Impact Center, will receive the Charles C. Stewart International Young Humanitarian Award, presented by the University of Illinois.

This award recognizes the meritorious contributions, research, and commitment of the University of Illinois’ young international humanitarians. Dr. Bicksler is being honored for his work on sustainable tropical agriculture in Thailand and Cambodia, which has the potential to make a significant contribution to alleviating hunger and poverty among farming communities throughout Asia. He also works with the ECHO Asia Impact Center, which provides technical support for individuals and organizations working in agriculture and community development activities among smallholder farmers throughout Asia.

Abram's current research with ECHO focuses on increasing the efficacy of extension (partnering with USAID MEAS), sustainable tropical agriculture production systems, the promotion of underutilized crops, and indigenous low-input seed saving technologies.

Abram is currently the Director of Sustainability Research for the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute (ISDSI) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Prior to moving to Thailand, Abram completed his M.S. and a Ph.D. in natural resources and environmental science at the University of Illinois, which focused on the ecology and use of cover crops in sustainable vegetable production. Abram looks forward to beginning a new chapter in Chiang Mai on June 1, when he becomes the Director of ECHO Asia.

About: ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) provides sustainable options to world hunger through agricultural training, innovative options, and networking with community leaders and missionaries in 180 developing countries. ECHO seeks to find agricultural solutions for families growing food under difficult conditions. ECHO’s international headquarters is located in Fort Myers, FL.

http://nres.illinois.edu/News_Abram_Bicksler

http://illinois.edu/lb/article/2500/72240

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Researching Small Farm Resource Centers

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Since January of this year, ECHO Asia Impact Center staff, with major involvement from Dr. Ricky Bates (Penn State University), has been carrying out research for a case study entitled, “The Small Farm Resource Center’s Current and Future Roles in Extension and Advisory Services in Southeast Asia.” Administered by MEAS (Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services) through the University of Illinois with major support from USAID, the study aims to document, evaluate and empower existing small farm resource centers as a useful research-extension tool in South and Southeast Asia operating outside the formal government/academic extension model.

Defined by ECHO’s first director, Dr. Martin Price, a Small Farm Resource Center (SFRC) is a research-extension tool that coordinates trials at a central site, as well on the fields of individual farmers, with the purpose of evaluating, within the community, ideas that have been proven elsewhere. The SFRC concept is that any new ideas, techniques, crops, or new varieties of a local crop may first be evaluated at the SFRC and promising ideas extended to local farmers with little risk. This adaptive research is done directly by the non-governmental agency (typically missions organizations and other small institutions) and local farmers and extended to the community.

Related to this study, the overall objective for MEAS is to “define and disseminate good practice strategies and approaches to establishing efficient, effective and financially sustainable rural extension and advisory service systems in selected countries.” With the support of MEAS, ECHO Asia staff and Dr. Bates have visited seven SFRCs across Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines) and interviewed their community-based beneficiaries to attempt to determine whether the SFRC concept remains a viable means of conducting research and extension for smallholder farmers.

With the SFRC case study currently concluding, ECHO Asia and MEAS look forward to publishing the findings and sharing the results at the upcoming ECHO Asia Agriculture and Community Development Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand in early October 2013 as well as at the ECHO Agriculture Conference in Ft. Myers, Florida in December 2013.

Improving Livelihoods in the Philippines!

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

During March 5-7, ECHO Asia and Aloha House (http://www.alohahouse.org/) co-hosted the Philippines Agriculture Livelihood Workshop at the Aloha House Farm on the outskirts of Puerto Princesa, Palawan in the Philippines. With 30 participants from across the Philippines, as well as one attendee who traveled from Laos, the group was exposed to numerous topics and hands-on activities including:

The principles of soil fertility
Green manure/cover crops
Small-scale livestock production: goats, hogs, chicken and fish
Foliar fertilizers
The production and use of bokashi for fertilizer and animal feed
Perennial vegetables
Agroforestry
Intensive nursery production
An introduction to seed saving

A key ECHO Asia workshop activity, an introductory seed exchange event, took place in which seed from many types of crops were shared between participants.

ECHO Asia is extremely grateful to Keith and Narcy Mikkelson and the Aloha House team for co-hosting this event.

ECHO East Africa Symposium - A participant's view

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

So, have you ever wondered what it would be like to attend an ECHO conference? For missionaries and development workers in remote areas, it's more than just workshops and speakers...

Caleb Meeks, a missionary in Tanzania, left his family for a few days for the chance to spend some time learning and networking at the ECHO Symposium. He gave us permission to share his blog post here. It is a very real view of the opportunities available to conference participants. Enjoy:

http://calebnkristina.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/photo-log-of-the-echo-conference-in-arusha-tanzania/