This is an eight part article contributed by Heifer Sacramento volunteer, Cheryl McKinney on her experience visiting Heifer Ecuador projects in 2013.
Letter 1 - First Contact
Letter 1 - First Contact
It’s August 2013 and 11 volunteers from the U.S. (7 from the
Sacramento area) are visiting Heifer International projects in Ecuador!
Heifer local staff, María Fernanda, educates us, outlining the
work. Ecuador is geographically diverse with five ecozones: the Amazon basin of
the Oriente, the páramo or high steppes of the Andes, the dry forests of the
Andean foothills, the coastal lowlands, and the Galápagos islands. We will
learn that rainfall is caught and stored in the páramo: “The Andes water the
Amazon and all the other zones.” These
ecosystems all coexist within a small area, so that any human activity has
impact.
Ecuador is culturally diverse: population of 15 million
people, with 25 to 40 per cent of them indigenous, depending on who counts.
It is economically diverse: 70% of the people can be
considered poor, while the top 5% receives 177 times the income as the bottom
5%. Rural poverty can be explained by the fact that the rich own the land. A
middle class exists, but without a productive base; oil is the one main product
of the country. The majority of middle class jobs are in the service sector.
So. Heifer Ecuador operates in this small country, diverse
in geography, ecosystem, social and ethnic groupings, and economic levels.
María Fernanda notes that due to human activity, the destruction of the
ecosystem is accelerating. The national policies are unfavorable to smallholder
farmers — even though the only reason Ecuador has sufficient food are due to
the existence of those very farmers, who fill the Ecuadorean food basket with basics
such as potatoes, meat, oil, milk, rice and hominy corn.
Given all this, what is Heifer Ecuador’s response? We hope
to find out during our tour.
Our interpreter, Beto, doesn’t miss a beat, explaining it
all in his unique Ecuadorean-Australian accent.
This will be a grand week of
discovery.
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