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A Taste of India in the Amaranth Fields of Guatemala
In May 2024, I visited Guatemala for the very first time. As part of my work with Groundswell International, I always relish the chance to visit our partners and communities in the field. We spent the week with our long-term partner in Rabinal, Qachuu Aloom, and our new partner in Jalapa, ACESH. They both were wonderful hosts who packed the week with a lot of learning, brainstorming, and bonding. Gaining insight into agroecological techniques and their implementation is always eye-opening, but what I cherish most on these trips is connecting with the farmers themselves, who work ti …
A Poem in Honor of Environmental Health Day, Written by Youth in Rural Honduras 🌿
“No more fires… Would you incinerate your own lungs?” This moving poem, written by youth from smallholder farming families in rural Honduras, reminds us that nature speaks—her groans echo the destruction we cause, but also the hope that we can protect her, and ourselves, by choosing a different path. “Care for the air we breathe as you would for yourself, every drop of water, every crop, every fruit, every medicinal plant.” Our well-being is tied to the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the earth that sustains us. Rural youth urge: don’t do to nature what you wouldn’t do to yourself—be …
La Semana Mundial del Agua 2024 Vista a Través de los Jóvenes de América Latina
Cada agosto, la Semana Mundial del Agua reúne voces de todo el mundo para reflexionar y actuar en torno a la gestión del recurso más vital para la vida: el agua. En un planeta donde más de dos mil millones de personas carecen de acceso a agua potable segura y se proyecta que, para 2050, más de la mitad de la población mundial enfrentará escasez de agua, América Latina y el Caribe se encuentran en una posición crítica. A pesar de concentrar un tercio de los recursos hídricos del mundo, esta es una región marcada por contrastes. Aunque en muchos lugares el agua es abundante, su distribución es p …
World Water Week 2024 as Seen by Youth from Latin America
You can read the Spanish version of this article here. Every August, World Water Week brings together voices from around the globe to reflect on and act upon how we manage life’s most vital resource: water. Two billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and it’s projected that by 2050, more than half of the world’s population will face water scarcity. Latin America and the Caribbean in particular, find themselves in a critical position. Despite hosting a third of the world’s water resources, stark contrasts mark this region. While water is abundant in many places, its distribution is d …
Groundswell International and Partners Secure $3.5 Million Grant from W.K. Kellogg Foundation to Strengthen Haitian Food Systems
Groundswell International has been awarded a $3,519,710 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in close collaboration with Partenariat Pour le Développement Local (PDL), our local NGO partner in Haiti, and Acceso, a nonprofit social enterprise known for its effectiveness in connecting smallholder farmers to local markets in five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This three-year grant will allow these program partners to strengthen key program pillars of the Haiti Food Systems Alliance (HFSA), a locally-led coalition of 15 organizations that believes in and supports the powe …
Transforming Food Systems From the Ground Up: Our Theory of Change
For over 13,000 years, farming has been about people constantly innovating and working with nature to create reliable ways to grow food and enhance well-being. But the past 200 years have seen a dramatic shift towards industrial agriculture. Heavy reliance on fossil fuels and mechanization became the norm, prioritizing quick growth over protecting natural resources. Today, a few large corporations dominate the supply of farming inputs such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides and patented seeds, shaping markets and policies to serve their interests. This shift has led to short …