A plea for help from El Salvador's Permaculture Institute

I received and email recently that broke my heart.  I've been working to help the permaculture institute (http://permacultura.com.sv/) in Suchitoto since I visited them on a trip to see my dad last year.  I was hoping to do some projects with them like distributing efficient wood burning stoves (e.g. http://biolitestove.com/homestove/overview/ ) to the campesinos of Suchitoto.  They told me they were having funding problems and that they'll soon be losing staff and possibly closing.  I told them I would reach out to friends and family to see if Institute's work inspired them.


 My father, Alfredo Monge, spent his life trying to help the campesinos of El Salvador from a legal perspective (during the revolution he was named the Attorney General of the Poor) but near the end of his life he said the projects that he thought were the most important were the ones that protected their environment and that provided campesinos ways to continue living off the land in a sustainable manner.  The Instituto de Permacultura de El Salvador  (IPES) is a perfect place to enable that.  They focus on very practical education and focus on leadership programs for campesino leaders in techniques in permaculture.

After the leaders are trained they are expected to bring their new skills to their home communities and these leaders would continue to get mentored by the permaculture institute. The institute has build a strong local foundation for over 10 years and it's estimated that over 600 families lives were improved.  One of the trainers once told me that an older gentleman was sobbing at the end of their training.  She asked why and he said "If only I would have known this when I was younger.  It would have prevented many tragedies".  I can't think of a better project to support.  I still have family living in the mountains near Suchitoto and were it not for a few twists of fate I would like still be there.  You could help save a great project that has taken over 10 years to develop and is having lasting effects in Suchitoto.


Here are some presentations they put together about their work if you are interested :

Study about land use
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8wRURojFqZTWlhKVUd6OGVsRk0

Powerpoint presentation of achievements:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8wRURojFqZTMGZ4RjZHcUxjQ00

Pura Vida,
roberto

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