Proposal for Workshop at the United States Social Forum

Tools for Change: The Women’s Self-Reliance Program

In January of 2005, upon invitation from Anne Lossing of Project Ix-canaan, Global Coalition for Peace began the implementation of the Women's Self Reliance Program in El Remate, Guatemala. This program offers a three-prong approach to resolving the problems of poor health among women and children, as well as lack of earning opportunities for the women. Intensive gardening, i.e. taking a very small piece of land and gardening it intensively, is the core of the program. Nutrition education and micro-enterprise training round out the self-reliance initiative. In our eight visits to El Remate over the past two years we have been working predominantly with a core group of thirty women. However, the program has taken on a life of its own, with the gardening initiative spreading to neighboring villages.

This program is providing an opportunity for practical application of the principles of Global Coalition for Peace's New Economic Paradigm for a Culture of Peace (Aparigraha). GCFP will also be proposing a presentation/workshop on this exciting concept for an economic system based on the principles of Abundance, Cooperation and Motivation, as opposed to those which drive the prevailing economic systems - scarcity, competition and incentives.

When we chose the name, Global Coalition for Peace, for our non-profit organization, our goal was to bring peace organizations together to form a united front in our mutual goal of building a better, more equitable world, in the belief that “A Better World is Possible.” We believe we have had some success in this goal through our work in El Remate, where the Women’s Self Reliance Program has worked together with Trees for Life; Propeten, a division of Heifer International; and Project Ix- canaan , the local organization that hosts the volunteers and coordinates all our efforts. It is our belief that this work can be greatly enhanced by cooperation with additional organizations doing similar or related work and we anticipate meeting with representatives from such organizations at the US Social Forum.

The Women’s Self Reliance Program endeavors to address the inter-related problems of malnutrition, lack of information and lack of resources that keeps women from realizing their potential and providing the essentials for a better life for themselves and their children. While we recognize that there are other ways of providing pure and wholesome food, such as the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) system, we feel that intensive gardening is the most practical way for people with very limited resources to attain the nutrients needed to sustain themselves.

The workshop I am proposing would be made up of three parts:

Informational
This part would consist of a brief but eye-opening review of the challenges that lack of information, poverty and hunger/malnutrition present to women throughout the world. It would also address the question of “What would it take to alleviate this devastating and widespread problem?

Experiential
The second part of the presentation would consist of a short video we have made about the intensive gardening process and the work in El Remate. The video will give the participants the opportunity to witness the work that is being done there and see how the concepts of Abundance, Cooperation and Motivation have affected change in a very short period of time.

Interactive
The interactive segment will have two parts.
After a review of the essential components of a balanced diet, the participants/attendees at the workshop will design an intensive garden, one that could be planted anywhere in the world and provide the basic ingredients for a well-balanced diet.
Secondly, we will brainstorm to design a plan for taking our model garden to the areas of the world where it is the most needed, including rural areas and inner cities in the United States.