Green Design » Community

Youtube in the Amazon: Rural Peru’s Transition to the Internet

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:57:17 +0000

Intro by Henry Jenkins:
The following account will appear later this month in an issue of In Media Res, the newsletter of MIT's Comparative Media Studies program. It was written by Audubon Dogherty, one of the graduate students I am working with this year. She is affiliated with the Center for Future Civic Media, which is funded by the Knight Foundation.

Youtube in the Amazon: Rural Peru's Transition to the Internet
by Audubon Dogherty

We arrived in Cajamarca in northern Peru just in time for an information and communications technology (ICT) training session for local internet entrepreneurs from rural villages across the country. The training site was picturesque - a large house surrounded by cows, streams, mountains, dirt. The minister of technology was in attendance, as was the project manager from FITEL - a public fund distributing subsidies to national telecommunications companies to set up wireless internet in thousands of villages - as well as representatives from various NGOs. I had come to film some of the trainings and try to get a sense of how technology for development was being implemented.

All this was part of a documentary I was making on the use of new wireless internet in extremely rural areas of the Peruvian Andes and Amazon, a project funded in part by the Carroll Wilson Award via MIT's Entrepreneurship Center. An old friend of mine had become the chief project manager for Rural Telecom, a Peruvian company based in Lima. The company had won a government subsidy to provide internet and basic tech and business management training to people in 2,000 rural villages, locals who volunteered to become entrepreneurs and start their own internet "cabinas" or cabins.

The idea was that cabina proprietors would independently finance the purchase of a few computers (often by selling cattle or taking out bank loans), and Rural Telecom would build a wireless tower to provide internet access and sometimes public pay phones, then conduct an initial training with end users in the community. Entrepreneurs would charge a small hourly fee for local internet users, often young people, which they would use to pay monthly connection fees (about $40 USD) to the telecom.

The project, dubbed Banda Ancha Rural, began in 2007, and I had come to assess its progress and the impact the internet was having on communities. Due to safety and language concerns, I hired Maurice, a bilingual Peruvian photographer and videographer, to accompany me on the trip and help conduct interviews in Spanish with entrepreneurs. He was an invaluable asset, but neither of us really understood what we were getting into.

Over the course of six weeks, we spent endless hours on buses, planes, taxis, four-by-fours and hiking on foot to visit communities in Andean regions (Cajamarca, Huancayo), rural areas outside Lima (Cañete, Huaral) and tribal areas in the Central Amazon (Satipo, Pangoa). I had expected to find mixed reactions by villagers: perhaps the adults are wary of the internet and computers, I thought. Perhaps they don't feel it's valuable for agricultural societies. Perhaps some entrepreneurs have gained advanced skills from the technology trainings and are now using the internet to sell their goods online and improve their local economy. Perhaps they've learned to blog but don't want to write about their village because they're not interested in encouraging tourism.

I was wrong about all that.

What we did find were communities that had embraced internet implementation, understood its value and its potential for education and business development, but who had not received enough training to fully utilize internet services and most often had huge problems with the wireless connection. We visited over 40 villages, more than half of which had slow or broken connections.

But telecom representatives had no idea there were problems because the government subsidy they received was not sufficient to cover further technical assessments or in-person trainings for every internet cabina, especially since these communities were often difficult or impossible to access by public transportation. And the communities that did have working internet still needed help promoting its use since their financial intake was usually barely enough to break even after paying for electricity and internet.

To counter this, Rural Telecom has endeavored to forge private contracts with NGOs, universities and technology corporations interested in supplementing funds for the project. They also hold ICT trainings a few times a year for groups of internet entrepreneurs who have the time and money to attend. Presently they are beginning a pilot project to provide online trainings (via the open source platform Moodle) to 120 entrepreneurs with reliable internet connections.

'Critical Hub' for Learning

What struck me was how internet proprietors see themselves: sure, they are entrepreneurs running a business, but they also see themselves as contributing to the cultural and technological development of their community. A majority of cabina owners define themselves as educators, responsible for training children and young adults in media literacy. Most villages have one local school, usually without internet, and no library; the internet cabina therefore becomes a critical hub for learning.

Cabina proprietors help kids with their homework online, teach them how to search for information and make sure they don't visit questionable websites. Although many adults lack the time or literacy level to use computers, some farmers come to research agricultural prices; mining areas often receive business from engineers and other professionals who rely on the internet for communication; and some local adults learn to use email and chat for communicating with family members in other areas.

It was striking to see how important computers became for cabina proprietors whose standard of living was otherwise extremely low. In one village outside of Cajamarca, we visited a cabina that was part of the entrepreneur's house. It had dirt floors, thatched roofs, chickens everywhere and an outhouse several meters away. But for the proprietor, keeping the computers in his home was a top priority. This man had studied computer science and was also an elementary schoolteacher; local kids saw him as a resource, and began to rely on the internet cabina as a place they could go to get help online with math or history lessons.

The proprietor's six-year-old son worked quietly at one computer as we interviewed his father. When the interview was finished, I asked the child what he was doing on the internet. "I'm looking for my favorite video," he told me in Spanish, inputting the word "dinosaur" (in English) into YouTube's search field. "This is it," he said, clicking on an animation about dinosaurs and hooking up external audio speakers into the hard drive so he could hear the narration. A few minutes later, he was searching for juegos, online games, from an educational gaming site in Spanish.

Although the proprietor joked with me about his son's technological prowess, it spoke to a crucial need for ICT projects in rural communities: sustainability. Many entrepreneurs start internet businesses but then leave the area to pursue job opportunities elsewhere; conversely, older cabina owners rely on their children to run the business, only to be left without managerial or technical skills once their kids go elsewhere for college or to find employment. Training the younger generation is essential, the proprietor told me, not just for their own education but for the continuation of the business itself, and to enable villagers to communicate with the outside world.

A few hours away was another teacher who doubled as an internet entrepreneur. She complained about the inconsistent internet connection and the competition from cheaper internet cafés in the nearby city of Cajamarca but explained that young customers from the village still preferred to come to her cabina because of the personal assistance they received. She envisioned turning her small cabina into a library of sorts, not with books but with online references and one-to-one teaching. She wanted to learn VoIP applications like Skype to allow users to make free calls online, as well as upload news and information about her community to a website. Although Rural Telecom offers a section of their website for entrepreneurs to upload information about their village (contactorural.com.pe), many proprietors don't receive enough training on the web interface or don't fully understand citizen journalism and the incentive for publicizing their village.

Paying for Access

The downside of garnering a loyal clientele is that internet users become upset when the connection goes down. We met young users, now used to relying on the internet for information and communication, who will commute to the nearest city to find an internet café - a trip that is often long and unsafe. A few proprietors we met have begun to supplement internet services with offline gaming consoles, such as Playstation, so that thy can stay open and make a little money even when the internet connection breaks. One woman used the revenue from gaming to pay her electricity bill, which had gone up with the installation of new computers.

Some entrepreneurs we met were also artisans, hoping to sell their stone carvings or painted crafts online, although still without the tech knowledge to do so. Alejandro Cipriano lives in a mountainous area outside Huancayo and runs a family business making traditional painted gourds (mates burilados). He became an internet entrepreneur after a friend in Lima started taking orders for his crafts via email, which came in from as far away as Japan. Although his internet connection has been down for months, he still hopes to eventually have his own website and sell his goods directly to international consumers online.

We also heard about a nearby Andean village that had transformed their economy through online self-education. A governmental ICT manager told us how the community made money from selling fresh river trout but could only sell the fish to local buyers. With the arrival of the internet, they found online resources outlining the process for canning trout. This revitalized their industry, allowing them to sell preserved river trout as far away as Lima.

The Peruvian jungle presented a completely different context. Native tribes still live throughout the Amazon, and despite tribal protests over land disputes that blocked roadways for weeks, we were able to visit two native villages where internet had been set up. Although leaders from both villages were wary of tourism and wanted to preserve their traditional way of life, culture and language, they saw technology as a critical means through which to develop their community - to further education for children, to stay informed about the latest prices for agricultural products, and to communicate with people in other areas.

We spoke to a teacher in one native community who emphasized the need for more governmental support for technology education, including more computers and lower rates for internet connections. "I would also like my school to have a video camera like yours," he told me, "so the students would be able to put footage from this village online."

Perhaps if I embarked on this project five years from now, I would be able to focus on the innovative uses of internet and communication technology in areas previously cut off from all forms of communication. But the rural internet project is still in development. Until the government or private telecoms can increase funding to secure stable, affordable wireless connections and expand training for entrepreneurs, there is little progress.

While pressing needs for basic services in extremely rural areas remain - for better education, phone lines, improved roads - there still exists a great desire by rural Peruvians to develop their communities through technology. Cell phones, for instance, have become the primary means of communication in remote areas. Perhaps the next time I visit Peru, internet will be in wider use through mobile devices, and I can make an entirely new documentary - from my phone.

Audubon Dougherty is a filmmaker and digital activist interested in the role of media in international development. She studied writing at Emerson College before transferring to Smith College to complete a degree in anthropology with a focus on visual culture. This led her to the field of human rights, where she traveled to Southeast Asia in 2006 as a blogger and photographer to assess disaster relief projects assisting tsunami survivors. She returned to Thailand the following year to provide multimedia training for an organization serving Burmese migrants and undocumented workers. As a communications specialist for a labor union, she helped develop a new media program which utilized e-communication, streaming video and mobile messaging to help organize 22,000 home care workers in Massachusetts. Outside of work, Dougherty formed her own video production collective, producing and directing films for exhibition at festivals and on the web.

This piece originally appeared on Confessions of an Aca/Fan

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 11:57 AM)

A Poor Measure of Poverty

WorldChanging Team — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:50:57 +0000

by Roger Valdez

To reduce poverty, we need to measure it better.

If we want to fight poverty, the first step is to measure it. Otherwise, we can’t know the scope of the problem, or where to focus our energies.

But measuring poverty is easier said than done, not only because the data on low-income families is spotty, but also because there are so many conflicting ideas about what it means to be poor.

Of course, there is an official US definition of poverty, based on federal guidelines first established in 1965 largely through the work of Mollie Orshansky (pictured here). At that time, typical families spent about a third of their money on food--so federal researchers defined the poverty line as a rock-bottom monthly food budget, multiplied by three. It was crude, but the best available measure at the time.

Since then, though, the government has simply adjusted the poverty line upwards for inflation every year – ignoring the fact that food prices have gradually fallen in real terms, while housing, health care, and child care costs skyrocketed. Fast forward 46 years, and the federal poverty line has become almost meaningless—it’s no longer grounded in the real-world cost of living. In fact, most experts and anti-poverty advocates think that the poverty standard is too low: you can be well above the poverty line and still be too poor to afford what society considers basic necessities. But the poverty line still drives government programs and services—meaning that some people who genuinely need help aren’t eligible, because they’re not considered “poor.”

Diana Pierce of Wider Opportunity for Woman (WOW) developed an alternative to the federal poverty guidelines: a “self-sufficiency” standard that measures “how much income a family of a certain composition in a given place needs to adequately meet their basic needs—without public or private assistance.” Unlike the federal measures, the self-sufficiency standard recognizes that different regions have very-different costs of living – and uses real-life data to calculate how much money a family actually needs to get by.

The University of Washington just released the latest self-sufficiency standards for Washington State. According to their findings, a Seattle family of one adult and one preschooler needs $40,485 annually—nearly three times the current “poverty” level. Across the Sound in Kitsap County (excluding Bainbridge Island), the same family would have to earn $32,866. In the east part of King County--Bellevue, Issaquah, North Bend--the family would need to earn $48,060. By comparison, half of King County families earn less than $65,000 – suggesting that there are quite a few families who fall below the self-sufficiency standard.

To reach “self sufficiency,” a single King County wage earner needs to earn at least $23.11 per hour—three times the minimum wage—to pay for basic family needs. Clearly, even a small family is expensive—and the federal poverty level just doesn’t cut it as a tool to determine where people might need help.

Housing costs weigh heavily in self-sufficiency calculations. A “self-sufficient” family of one adult and a preschool child in Seattle spends about 30 percent of its income, or $963 per month, on housing. In contrast, a single “self-sufficient” adult spends 51 percent of her monthly income, or $796 per month, while a family with several children would pay 21 percent of their monthly income, or $1362.

These numbers show not only the weakness in the federal poverty lines, but also in the standard measure of housing affordability. The “housing cost-income ratio,” the most widely used measure of affordability, assumes that housing should be no more than 30 percent of a household’s budget. In reality, the share of income devoted to housing varies widely, from 21 percent to 51 percent, based on family size.

So the self-sufficiency numbers point toward a new definition not only of poverty, but also of housing affordability: ideally, both should be based on how much things actually cost, rather than arbitrary or outdated standards. We’ve also been looking at alternatives to traditional measures of housing affordability including the residual income model of housing affordability but we’ll look at that in a separate post.

Underlying any measure of poverty is the question of when government and society should intervene to prevent families from suffering from the impacts of being poor. If we agree that intervention is necessary then establishing the threshold of that ought to be based on the best economics, not arbitrary lines.

This piece originally appeared on Sightline Daily

Learn more about poverty in the US and around the world in the WorldChanging archives:
Tools for Understanding Poverty
Ending Poverty
High Food Prices: Challenges and Solutions
Closing The "Climate Gap"

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 11:50 AM)

VIDEO: Block Parties Bring Long-Term Neighborhood Benefits

WorldChanging Team — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:10:22 +0000

by Lily Bernheimer

Hang Chau is a future medical student who researched block parties and public health as an undergrad in Philadelphia, and is now organizing more in San Diego. In a new StreetsWiki entry on block parties, she examines the way these public community events encourage people to invest in their neighborhoods by highlighting the positive (outdoor fun, personal connections) rather than the negative (litter, crime):

When neighbors know one another, they know who belongs on the street and are more likely to respond to suspicious activity. [One] examination of the effects of family ties shows that respondents who know more families in their neighborhoods are more likely to engage in neighborhood improvement activities; block parties facilitate the creation of those relationships.

Rounding out: Tom Harned, a New Haven-based transportation planner, shares some helpful insight into Level of Service measurement; Harlem & Hamilton Heights LS encourages you to give your feedback on NYC's new BRT plans; and PA Walks and Bikes shares news of a Safe Routes to Schools grants program. We also welcome a new UK-based Spanish language group Los peatones opian, a forum for Portland, Oregon street repair, and a discussion group to ensure that the new LAPD chief is livable streets-friendly.

This piece originally appeared on Streetsblog New York City

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 12:10 PM)

iCommunityTV

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:00:08 +0000

As part of the PlaceMatters toolbox, iCommunityTV is a program that allows citizens to post local news videos about developments in their communities. The site is dedicated to giving citizen journalists a video platform and to adding locations to news footage hosted on Youtube.

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 3:00 PM)

iCommunityTV

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:00:08 +0000

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 3:00 PM)

Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:01:00 +0000

Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle
by Matthew Klingle

Both pushing the cutting edge of scholarship and speaking deeply to the people working to build more sustainable cities, environmental historian Matthew Klingle reminds us that understanding the complexity of Seattle's past gives us leverage on the problems it faces today; a lesson any city would do well to learn. As he says in his preface, "Thinking historically can help us live with the consequences of being imperfect creatures in an uncertain world..."

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 11:01 AM)

Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:01:00 +0000

Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle
by Matthew Klingle

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 11:01 AM)

Global Fund for Women: Advancing Human Rights

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:46:41 +0000

Kavita Ramdas: The Global Fund for Women is the largest independent, publicly supported grant-making foundation to advance women's human rights internationally. It works in over 160 countries around the world. I think what makes us unique is that we are really investing in women's leadership and women's creativity in developing local solutions to some of the world's most challenging problems.

Read more in the Worldchanging Archives

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 10:46 AM)

Global Fund for Women: Advancing Human Rights

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:46:41 +0000

Kavita Ramdas: The Global Fund for Women is the largest independent, publicly supported grant-making foundation to advance women's human rights internationally. It works in over 160 countries around the world. I think what makes us unique is that we are really investing in women's leadership and women's creativity in developing local solutions to some of the world's most challenging problems.

Read more in the Worldchanging Archives

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 10:46 AM)

Gapminder: Open Source, Interactive Graphics

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:18:37 +0000

Gapminder is full of amazing interactive graphics demonstrating big global trends in poverty, health and other aspects of human development. Which countries are healthiest, wealthiest and most educated? Powered by Trendalyzer and Google Spreadsheet, this free, open source, learning tool can help you investigate the world's sustainability issues right from your computer.

Read more in the Worldchanging Archives

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 10:18 AM)

Gapminder: Open Source, Interactive Graphics

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:18:37 +0000

Gapminder is full of amazing interactive graphics demonstrating big global trends in poverty, health and other aspects of human development. Which countries are healthiest, wealthiest and most educated? Powered by Trendalyzer and Google Spreadsheet, this free, open source, learning tool can help you investigate the world's sustainability issues right from your computer.

Read more in the Worldchanging Archives

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 10:18 AM)

The Green Report Card: Rating University Policies and Programs

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:08:41 +0000

Sustainable Endowments Institute's Green Report Card is the only independent evaluation of sustainability in campus operations and endowment investments. It evaluates and "grades" a range of policies and programs, from green dorms and car sharing to shareholder advisory committees and renewable energy investments.

Read more in the Worldchanging Archives

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 10:08 AM)

The Green Report Card: Rating University Policies and Programs

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:08:41 +0000

Sustainable Endowments Institute's Green Report Card is the only independent evaluation of sustainability in campus operations and endowment investments. It evaluates and "grades" a range of policies and programs, from green dorms and car sharing to shareholder advisory committees and renewable energy investments.

Read more in the Worldchanging Archives

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

CC photo credit

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 10:08 AM)

Nature’s Benefits in Kenya: An Atlas of Ecosystems and Human Well-Being

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Nature's Benefits in Kenya: An Atlas of Ecosystems and Human Well-Being
by World Resources Initiative

In this innovative report, environmental think-tank World Resources Initiative integrates socioeconomic data with geographic data on "ecosystems and their services (water availability, wood supply, wildlife populations, and the like) to yield a picture of how land, people, and prosperity are related in Kenya." The findings strengthen our understanding of the strong relationship between environmental crises and social instability, and why developing world communities with sound environmental practices often see faster gains in alleviating poverty.

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 10:00 AM)

Nature’s Benefits in Kenya: An Atlas of Ecosystems and Human Well-Being

WorldChanging Team — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Nature's Benefits in Kenya: An Atlas of Ecosystems and Human Well-Being
by World Resources Initiative

In this innovative report, environmental think-tank World Resources Initiative integrates socioeconomic data with geographic data on "ecosystems and their services (water availability, wood supply, wildlife populations, and the like) to yield a picture of how land, people, and prosperity are related in Kenya." The findings strengthen our understanding of the strong relationship between environmental crises and social instability, and why developing world communities with sound environmental practices often see faster gains in alleviating poverty.

This piece is a part of Resources from the Worldchanging Library. Throughout this series, we will present the best resources from our archives. To view the complete list, please click here.

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 10:00 AM)

Masons on a Mission: Enabling Safer Cooking in Mayan Communities

WorldChanging Team — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:55:00 +0000

Nominated by David Foley

My nomination goes to a modest group, doing a small thing, making a huge difference. They are Masons On a Mission, started by my friend Pat Manley. The organization constructs safe masonry cook stoves for impoverished Mayan villagers in the highlands of Guatemala.

The problem they're addressing is summed up on their website:

A smoky three stone fire in Ixtahuacan -2000

We are replacing what are known as 3 stone fires, with hand built masonry cook stoves, known locally as estufas, or la plancha. The 3 stone has a fire in the middle of 3 stones set as a triangle, with a metal plate (often the lid from a 55 gallon drum) laid over the top to cook on. These 3 stone fires are commonly located within a dwelling, providing heat as well.

The problem with this method of cooking and heating is that there is no way of properly venting the wood smoke. These open fires are the sole source of cooking and warmth for thousands of Mayan families, but also the source of much misery.

There are deadly and debilitating results from constant exposure to the toxic smoke from a wood fire while inside the dwelling. There are the obvious respiratory illness’s and the stunting of growth in children’s young lungs. At higher elevations there is also a decreased level of oxygen in the air. Not usually a problem, you or I would just walk a bit slower and just huff and puff more as your blood tries to absorb some oxygen. In a high altitude smoky dwelling it is much different. Everyone's blood has an affinity for carbon monoxide, meaning it prefers to absorb poisonous CO2 over what little Oxygen is available to begin with. No one needs to do any special studies to determine it is a very unhealthy situation. One that is easily made better with smoke vented from their dwelling.

It also makes the women that live and cook with the 3 stone fire all day, cry every day. Their eyes are wet and red, and faces drawn, as the result of years of constant exposure to hot, toxic wood smoke. Such exposure results in what they call “clouds” in their eyes. Here we would call it significant loss of vision, or blindness. There are also many very serious burn injuries from children's accidental falls into the open fires.

Each estufa (which is of a Central American design) that we build adds MANY YEARS of health, and vision, to the lifetime of every member of the family, especially the children. ALL of the money we raise is used to buy (in Guatemala) the masonry materials that we need, as well as to hire and train local Maya to help us to build hundreds of estufas, even after we come home.

It costs about $150 U.S. to build an estufa. Masons On a Mission is training Guatemalan masons to build them, and raising money to get them built.

This piece is part of Worldchanging's Attention Philanthropy campaign. All week long, the Worldchanging Network will be delivering "attention grants" to worthy projects, individuals, resources and more. You can learn more about these gifts of notice and find other entries by clicking here.

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 7:55 AM)

Masons on a Mission: Enabling Safer Cooking in Mayan Communities

WorldChanging Team — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:55:00 +0000

Nominated by David Foley

My nomination goes to a modest group, doing a small thing, making a huge difference. They are Masons On a Mission, started by my friend Pat Manley. The organization constructs safe masonry cook stoves for impoverished Mayan villagers in the highlands of Guatemala.

The problem they're addressing is summed up on their website:

A smoky three stone fire in Ixtahuacan -2000

We are replacing what are known as 3 stone fires, with hand built masonry cook stoves, known locally as estufas, or la plancha. The 3 stone has a fire in the middle of 3 stones set as a triangle, with a metal plate (often the lid from a 55 gallon drum) laid over the top to cook on. These 3 stone fires are commonly located within a dwelling, providing heat as well.

The problem with this method of cooking and heating is that there is no way of properly venting the wood smoke. These open fires are the sole source of cooking and warmth for thousands of Mayan families, but also the source of much misery.

There are deadly and debilitating results from constant exposure to the toxic smoke from a wood fire while inside the dwelling. There are the obvious respiratory illness’s and the stunting of growth in children’s young lungs. At higher elevations there is also a decreased level of oxygen in the air. Not usually a problem, you or I would just walk a bit slower and just huff and puff more as your blood tries to absorb some oxygen. In a high altitude smoky dwelling it is much different. Everyone's blood has an affinity for carbon monoxide, meaning it prefers to absorb poisonous CO2 over what little Oxygen is available to begin with. No one needs to do any special studies to determine it is a very unhealthy situation. One that is easily made better with smoke vented from their dwelling.

It also makes the women that live and cook with the 3 stone fire all day, cry every day. Their eyes are wet and red, and faces drawn, as the result of years of constant exposure to hot, toxic wood smoke. Such exposure results in what they call “clouds” in their eyes. Here we would call it significant loss of vision, or blindness. There are also many very serious burn injuries from children's accidental falls into the open fires.

Each estufa (which is of a Central American design) that we build adds MANY YEARS of health, and vision, to the lifetime of every member of the family, especially the children. ALL of the money we raise is used to buy (in Guatemala) the masonry materials that we need, as well as to hire and train local Maya to help us to build hundreds of estufas, even after we come home.

It costs about $150 U.S. to build an estufa. Masons On a Mission is training Guatemalan masons to build them, and raising money to get them built.

This piece is part of Worldchanging's Attention Philanthropy campaign. All week long, the Worldchanging Network will be delivering "attention grants" to worthy projects, individuals, resources and more. You can learn more about these gifts of notice and find other entries by clicking here.

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 7:55 AM)

zAmya Theater: Bringing Homelessness Center Stage

WorldChanging Team — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:36:53 +0000

Nominated by the Worldchanging team

ZAmya is a Minneapolis theater group made up of community members who are both homeless and housed. Individuals collaborate to create a theatrical performance that will be used to increase awareness and understanding of homelessness. According to the organization:

"Our plays emerge from script development workshops held at shelters, homeless camps, schools and corporations. Not surprisingly, they tend to focus on homelessness. We tell stories, improvise and do some role playing, which gives us the basics of the play. Then we go straight into script writing and rehearsals"

The lights come up for six performances during National Hunger and Homelessness Week. The money we raise through performances goes to pay the actors, the director, the playwright and the musicians. It’s not much. But it is food, clothing and a down payment on the possibility of a better life. A little goes a long way."

This piece is part of Worldchanging's Attention Philanthropy campaign. All week long, the Worldchanging Network will be delivering "attention grants" to worthy projects, individuals, resources and more. You can learn more about these gifts of notice and find other entries by clicking here.

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 7:36 AM)

A Feast of Great Links: David Holmgren, Chris Watkins, Alexander Laszlo and more…

WorldChanging Team — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Nominated by Paul T. Horan

Thanks to all you good folks @ worldchanging!!! Kindly grant more supportive exposure to the following folks' good work.

Let's feature these 4 guys again:

Stuart Cowan (previously on Worldchanging)

Cliff Figallo (previously on Worldchanging)

David Holmgren (previously on Worldchanging)

Chris Watkins (previously on Worldchanging)

For anyone interested in "evolutionary guidance systems," Bela H. Banathy's later work offers a great start. These next two links introduce one of the folks furthering Bela's work:

Alexander Laszlo

Syntony Quest

If good ol' human good will is gonna help us get outta this mess, we gotta include these 3 folks:

Irshad Manji so courageously promotes critical thinking (and has such a corny sense of humor) she gives terrorists nightmares. Find her work here.

Marshall Rosenberg has bold fun with folks eager to engage in cease-fire explorations. Find his work here.

P. M. Forni's Choosing Civility gently helped me confront how much I've forgotten about kindergarten etiquette. Find his work here.

Nominator Paul Horan is co-founder of YESSS and open=contests.

This piece is part of Worldchanging's Attention Philanthropy campaign. All week long, the Worldchanging Network will be delivering "attention grants" to worthy projects, individuals, resources and more. You can learn more about these gifts of notice and find other entries by clicking here.

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 7:25 AM)

A Feast of Great Links: David Holmgren, Chris Watkins, Alexander Laszlo and more…

WorldChanging Team — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Nominated by Paul T. Horan

Thanks to all you good folks @ worldchanging!!! Kindly grant more supportive exposure to the following folks' good work.

Let's feature these 4 guys again:

Stuart Cowan (previously on Worldchanging)

Cliff Figallo (previously on Worldchanging)

David Holmgren (previously on Worldchanging)

Chris Watkins (previously on Worldchanging)

For anyone interested in "evolutionary guidance systems," Bela H. Banathy's later work offers a great start. These next two links introduce one of the folks furthering Bela's work:

Alexander Laszlo

Syntony Quest

If good ol' human good will is gonna help us get outta this mess, we gotta include these 3 folks:

Irshad Manji so courageously promotes critical thinking (and has such a corny sense of humor) she gives terrorists nightmares. Find her work here.

Marshall Rosenberg has bold fun with folks eager to engage in cease-fire explorations. Find his work here.

P. M. Forni's Choosing Civility gently helped me confront how much I've forgotten about kindergarten etiquette. Find his work here.

Nominator Paul Horan is co-founder of YESSS and open=contests.

This piece is part of Worldchanging's Attention Philanthropy campaign. All week long, the Worldchanging Network will be delivering "attention grants" to worthy projects, individuals, resources and more. You can learn more about these gifts of notice and find other entries by clicking here.

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Community at 7:25 AM)