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NEWS from
Sino Daily
China a
top consumer
China's
boom
China's boom
bad for air
Protecting
the Mekong
peace |
CHINA
Not currently recruiting for China ambassadorships
Rural Development, Biodiversity
Conservation, Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainability, Sustainable
Agriculture, & Agroforestry
Where:
Yunnan Province, Southern
China - Part of the
Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot.
What: GEM Student Ambassadors will work at the
Kunming Institute of Botany or the
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden and in cooperation with
the
Pesticide Eco-Alternative Centre
(PEAC), a sustainable agriculture NGO,
on
community-based rural development, biodiversity
conservation,
indigenous knowledge for sustainability, or sustainable agriculture
and agroforestry. Yunnan is one of China's
most
biologically
and
culturally diverse regions with elevation variations from near
sea level to about 20,000 feet (6,000
meters) with spectacular karst
landforms (picture)
as seen in the
Stone Forest of Yunnan. GEM and its KIB, XTBG, and PEAC partners in
Yunnan Province are helping local indigenous communities find ways
to preserve their cultural traditions and local biodiversity while
supporting sustainable development. Yunnan Province
in southern China, home of Shangri-La and Marco Polo's silk road, is
a global biodiversity "hot spot" with lowland subtropical forests to
alpine ecosystems including the world's center of diversity for tea
and bamboo species, among others. With over half of all of China's
ethnic minorities, Yunnan Province also features China's greatest
cultural diversity. GEM Student Ambassador opportunities in Yunnan
feature working with villagers in maintaining or strengthening
sustainable management, livelihoods, culture, and natural resources.
Language: GEM ambassadors will
work directly with English speaking hosts from KIB, XTBG, and PEAC. China has
more English-speaking people than any other country in the world!
Ambassadorships
to date: Rachel Koehler, Craig Tormoen, Wang Yu - Summer 2006.
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AllAfrica.com
news
& info
Wangari Maathai of Kenya wins
2004 Nobel Peace Prize
-more-
HERE &
HERE
2004 UN
HIV/AIDS Report
HIV/AIDS
Crisis Worsening
Kenya crisis
possible
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KENYA
GEM plans to place two students in Kenya during summer 2009.
Nyumbani Village Organic Farming and Agroforestry Microenterprise
Activities
Where: Nyumbani Village, near
Kitui, is located in the less densely populated semi-arid region of Kenya
east of Nairobi. The village is a unique initiative designed to unite HIV/AIDS
orphans with unrelated, widowed grandparents into family units in a
typical rural Kenyan community. The village has been constructed on 1000
acres by members of ten community based organizations from the surrounding
villages. The construction includes houses and
shambas (household farms), a
primary school, community center, health clinic, and polytechnic for small
business training. The facilities are for public use by the residents and
surrounding communities alike, making the village a community center
point. Now that the construction phase is coming to an end, the
construction groups will continue to participate in Nyumbani income
generating activities, utilizing the training and production facilities,
irrigated land, and collectively marketing goods in value-added markets
with a Nyumbani label. In this way Nyumbani will support its population
of new residents as well as the livelihoods of the surrounding villages
through this community-based microenterprise strategy. <
What: GEM Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry Program is working with Nyumbani to implement various types of organic agriculture and agroforestry including:
- household garden systems
- organic farming and marketing
- fuel wood and bio-fuel production
- reforestation
For example, student ambassadors may be planting, harvesting, sorting and marketing vegetables with Kenyan families, or working with Kenyan interns in planting trees for fuel wood or nitrogen fixing. These are part of microenterprise activities based on organic agroforestry products. Student Ambassadors will assist in community mobilization workshops and training. (See this report on GEM assistance and partnership on organic farming initiatives in Kenya.)
Additional Information: In 1992, Father
Angelo D'Agostino founded
Nyumbani Village
outside of Nairobi, which
has become a model for combating Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis. He
opened Nyumbani ("home" in Swahili) with three HIV-positive
children, a nurse and a social worker. Today 93 children live there,
ranging in age from six months to 22 years, and more than 800
children are helped in the community. Building on this success, a
new Nyumbani International Village near Kitui, Kenya has been
established where unrelated grandparents who have lost their
children to HIV/AIDS and unrelated orphans who have lost their
parents to HIV/AIDS are living together to re-create family
structure; receive education, health care, and job training; and
earn income.
Project collaborator
Father
Angelo D’Agostino, founder of
Nyumbani Village based in Nairobi, Kenya,
gave an inspiring lecture entitled
"Nyumbani:
A Model for Combating the African HIV/AIDS Crisis"
(download:
RealPlayer),
at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, as part of the GEM
Critical Issues on Global Security Series. The transcripts of Father D'Agostino's speech
is available in
PDF
or
MS Word
formats. Click
HERE for the United Nations UNAIDS 2004 Report on the HIV/Aids
Pandemic (in PDF format).
Language: Students will be able to communicate easily with Kenyan students and most
community group members in English. They will be able to study Kiswahili
as well as the local language, Kikamba.
Ambassadorships
to date: Amanda Krueger & Azra Velagic - summer 2006; DeNae Dandridge and Seth Lenaerts - summer 2007.
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Environmental News from TierraAmérica
Third
Mexican wins Goldman environmental award!
Mexico's
water issues
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OAXACA, MEXICO
Currently recruiting for one Student Ambassador to be placed in Oaxaca summer 2009.
Top of page
Sustainable Agriculture in Mexico's Southern Mountains
Where:
Río Grande
Watershed in Oaxaca's
(map)
Sierra Norte region, and
part of the
Mesoamerican and
Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Biodiversity Hotspots in southern Mexico.
What:
Throught GEM's Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry Program,
students have the opportunity to work
on a number of projects in several indigenous communities within the
watershed focused on:
-
sustainable agriculture
-
agroforestry
-
home gardens
Language:
Spanish language proficiency is necessary for most project. Intensive
Spanish short courses are available in
Oaxaca
City
and may be taken as part
of the overall project. Zapotec
and
Chinantec
are 2 of the widely spoken indigenous languages of the region.
Ambassadorships
to date: Veronique
Van Gheem - Fall 2005; Max Brown & John Ciatti Summer 2006.
Oaxaca's Climate and
Weather
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Central American
news
from the
Tico
Times
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GUATEMALA
Not currently recruiting for Guatemala ambassadorships
Top of page
Community-Based Sustainable Development
Where: Todos Santos
Cuchumatán, a Mayan village of Mam (a Mayan language) speakers in the Cuchumatán Mountains in the department of Huehuetenango in northwestern Guatemala not far from Chiapas, Mexico
- Part of the
Mesoamerican Biodiversity Hotspot.
What: Working
with the
Institución Mam de
Desarrollo Integral (Mam Institute for Integrated
Development), GEM Student Ambassadors have the opportunity to
work on a wide range of sustainable development projects including
those related to:
Preference will be given to resident times at least 8 weeks. If an intensive
Spanish short course will be taken in Guatemala (see below), then ambassadors
will need 10 months or more in the country.
Language: Mam,
the dominant
Mayan language
of the region, is the
first language of most Todosanteros (residents of Todos Santos), though
most also speak Spanish. Prospective student ambassadors
should have a basic command of Spanish to succeed in this
location. Students with sufficient background in
Spanish can enroll in an intensive Spanish language program through
the
Academía Hispanomaya (Hispanomaya Language School) for the
first part of the overall experience.
Robert Sitler, a Spanish language professor and scholar of Mayan language and culture at Stetson University, has
written an
Introduction to Mam (MS-Word format)
for people wanting to learn some Mam basics, which is highly recommended
as a way to demonstrate interest.
Facts:
Todos Santos
Cuchumatán is located in the department of Huehuetenango in
western Guatemala. The town and other surrounding municipalities contain about 14,000 people. At a latitude of 15.5o north
latitude, Todos Santos is well within the tropics, yet its elevation
of 7,847' above sea level moderates its climate, making it an
agreeable place to be year round. The rainy season coincides with
the northern hemisphere's summer, or high-sun season.
Additional information:
All Saints Day celebration with
pictures of Todos Santos,
general tourism information,
Todos Santos culture,
Women of Todos Santos, an
article (in PDF) on the development status of Todos Santos from
Cause Canada.
Ambassadorships
to date: Tiffany
Short - fall 2005; Veronica Alba and Jesse Majerus fall 2006; Carly Smith, summer 2007.
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Land reform
& sustainability in the Eastern Cape
Desertification
accelerating
AIDS #1 killer in South Africa |
SOUTH
AFRICA
One Student Ambassadorship to South Africa is expected to be available for summer 2009.
Top of page
Liesbeek
River, Cape Town, South Africa: The Integration of Planning &
Management
Where:
The Liesbeek River is the oldest
urbanized river valley in South Africa and is situated in one of the
most beautiful cities in the world. The headwaters of the Liesbeek
flow from the southern slopes of the famous Table Mountain while a
number of tributaries join the river at various intervals almost
along its entire length. Urban settlements straddle the river
reflecting the history of Dutch and British colonization. Many
private property owners along the river, many of whom are in middle
to high income group, have rights to water abstraction which extend
to the middle of the river. The water quality is generally good,
but the canalization of 70% of the river has created an ecological
poor system.
What:
There are numerous challenges to
managing an urban river. The Friends of the Liesbeek, a concerned
community-based organization, have been involved in educating,
lobbying and deliberating with public, developers and local
authority officials for over 14 years. The Friends are frequently
involved in decisions dealing with building development plans
submitted to the local authority. Many of these submissions are
submitted at various time but are viewed in isolation while the
cumulative impacts are largely ignored. The Friends require more
sophisticated tools to deal with the slow, creeping impacts that
result from these impacts on the watershed. As a first approach to
dealing with the problem, the project will involve the application
of the ‘GEM Healthy Watershed 2004 model’ to the Liesbeek River and
its watershed. The project will be supervised by researchers from
the Environmental Science Department at the University of Cape Town
and in collaboration with the Friends of the Liesbeek.
Preference: This will be given to students with a CNR background
specializing in watershed management including biophysical sciences,
geography and with planning interests. Ideally this project will
lend itself to those wishing to compare the South African situation
to a similar watershed in the US.
Language:
English
Ambassadorships to S. Africa to date: Sam Werner—summer 2007,
Mark
Breunig—Spring 2005,
Chad
Heimerl—Spring 2005,
Ed Moye—Summer
2005, and Paul
Vanderford—2005.
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INDIA
Top of page
GEM is recruiting to place two students in India during summer 2009.
Sustainable
Communities
Where: Opportunities
exist in several Indian
states – Andhra Pradesh,
Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, and Uttaranchal – on 60,000 hectares of land in
several of India’s 10 biogeographic zones
including the Coast, the Deccan Plateau in
Peninsular India, the Semi-arid regions, and the Trans-Himalaya in
the North.
What: Working with the
Foundation for Ecological Security in
marginalized villages. Opportunities focus broadly on sustainable
development and ecosystem management on communal lands. The
following specific areas are possible assignments in 2009:
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Check often for updates. Contact
Ron Tschida
for more information
Top of page
Click HERE for
application information.
The GEM Student Ambassador Program is funded by the
United
States Department of Agriculture,
Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS)
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