Gift of a Tree

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.... Genesis 1:11

For poor farmers, receiving access to new varieties of fruit trees can have an enormous impact on their lives by providing alternative food sources and increasing yearly income. The papaya tree pictured below is an example of a fast-growing and very plentiful producer. It can provide an abundance of fruit in twelve to fourteen months.

ECHO partnered with Project Mercy in Ethiopia with the goal of providing fruit trees to 200,000 families where food insecurity is a major concern. With the help of local volunteers, ECHO shipped more than 330 trees to help start a nursery in Ethiopia that will be an ongoing source of quality fruit trees for that country. Sara Hendershot, a former ECHO Intern, spent six months in Ethiopia to help establish a nursery and taught local leaders how to propagate the trees.

Gift of Grafting

$50 will provide grafting material (budwood) for improving fruit tree varieties so a family can have healthy food and an ongoing source of income.

Give The Gift of Grafting >>

 

 

 

 

 

Gift of a Fruit Tree

$250 will send one of the best fruit trees for the country's climate, soil type, elevation and rain fall. This includes the special permits and packaging to minimize damage in transit.

Give The Gift of a Fruit Tree >>

 

 

 

 

Gift of a Nursery

$1500 can jump-start a fruit tree nursery with multiple trees to enable overseas farmers to provide income for themselves and a reliable source of quality fruit trees to improve an entire community.

Give The Gift of a Nursery >>

 

 

 

 

Gift of a New Crop

"Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." Matthew 13:8

Helping ECHO send trial sized packets of seeds overseas is one way you can empower a family to help themselves. A farmer can experiment with a new crop that may produce higher yields or produce in dry conditions. This can also provide a way for a farmer to share a successful new crop with his neighbor by sharing seeds.

A report from Brazil told us how one package of moringa seeds multiplied into 65,000 trees in only two years! The nutritious moringa leaves can be a sustainable source of food for a family or an entire community.

Moringa seeds can also be powdered and used to purify water. One seed can remove 90% of the bacteria in a liter of contaminated water.

Gift of a New Crop

$25 will help cover the cost of introducing a new crop to one family by sending a packet of seeds overseas.

Gift of a Community Garden

$250 will help introduce 10 new crops for a community garden for an entire village.

Give The Gift of a Community Garden >>

 

 

 

 

 

Gift of a Book

"A truly good book teaches me better than to read it.  I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint.... What I began by reading, I must finish by acting."  .... Henry David Thoreau

Over the past 27 years, we have accumulated a collection of invaluable books, journals, and relevant plant files to assist the small farmer. These books focus on both adaptive research and useful techniques for food production and appropriate technologies. A core element of ECHO's mission, problem solving, is made possible through these resources.

Gift of a Book

$50 helps provide the money to select a new book for our research library or translate vital material for our website. Over 72,000 documents are downloaded each month from ECHO's website in French, Spanish and English that can help solve a agricultural problem.

Give The Gift of a Book >>

 

 

 

 

Gift of a Library

$250 can help send a complete development library of over 1700 publications on one CD that deals with sustainable agriculture and provide an assortment of books and training DVDs from ECHO's Research Library.

Gift of Knowledge

"Effective people are not problem-minded; they're opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems." .... Stephen Covey

A key component of the ministry of ECHO is to provide education and training opportunities for community development workers, interns, missionaries, and volunteers.

Interns like Joanna Lippman (pictured below) carry their hands-on agricultural experience to overseas assignments. It is here where they share their newfound knowledge and skills with other community leaders. This process of ?training the trainer? has proven to effectively empower the poor with solutions of hope.

Education Gift

$100 will help to provide several days of hands-on training for a student interested in teaching sustainable ways to produce food for the farmer and his family.

Give The Gift of Education >>

 

 

 

 

Intern Assistance Gift

$1,000 will assist us with housing and training an intern for one month while they gain practical experience and guided study, preparing them to serve overseas.

Gift of Appropriate Technology

"Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different" .... Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Alternative fuel options are examples of how ECHO can help a poor family immediately save money, eliminate health hazards and improve thier standard of living. For example, a simple design for a bio-gas fuel source pictured below uses a mixture of cow manure and water in a recycled 55-gallon drum. This will produce enough methane gas to cook two meals a day for an entire family for up to four months!

Gift of Appropriate Technology

$75 will assist ECHO staff to share simple solutions such as how to produce purified water and alternative cooking fuels like solar energy or methane gas bio-fuels.

Gift of an AT Demo

$750 will help set up a working demonstration model on the ECHO farm of an appropriate technology that can be used in workshops and classroom instruction.

Give The Gift of an AT Demo >>