Medford Rogue Rotary’s World Community Service committee is heading to Tena, Ecuador March 26-April 1. We have room for a few more people; maximum 12 people. We will be serving in the gardens and food forests for several days, and the trip will include some tours of the area and community presentations about the area, people, and project. The on-the-ground cost to and from and in Tena is $895. Airfare to Quito and hotel in Quito are up to the volunteer travelers. Some of the group are researching an entirely optional side trip after the project to the Galapagos Islands. If you are interested, please contact Linda Brown at [email protected] or 541-499-2597. We can send a packet of information.

Food Forest Project:
The project is nothing short of amazing, on many levels. Many of you may have heard about the Food or Nutritional Forest Project started as a Global Grant from our district. Later, Medford Rogue Rotary saw value in applying for a District Grant in 2024 to add 2,000 cacao (chocolate) trees to the project. Cacao trees add to the variety of trees and bring great economic value to the region as wel.

About the project in general……the project is focused on responding to mal-nutrition in five Kichwa communities in the Napo Province of Amazonian Ecuador. Here the Amazon headwaters meets the Andean foothills, providing for the most species rich tropical forests in the world. Due to outside pressures from government, markets, and the church, the Kichwas were pushed to abandon their home garden “chakra tradition”, cutting vast areas of tropical forests in order to cattle ranch in the area. Traditional home gardens provided robust nutrition, while today, Kichwa are eating unhealthy processed foods, resulting in record levels of diabetes.

This project is due to the efforts of the Kichwa organizing to reforest their areas, and refurbish their ancestral culture. The overall Global Grant project is providing for good ecological, nutrition, and cultural impacts for people who do not have enough to eat. At this point we have already planted over 5000 fruit, nut and palm fruit trees, from 80 species, in four of the five communities, and the 12,500 programmed fruit, nut and palm trees were all planted by the end of July 2024. The Yakum Foundation has recommended adding to the eighty species already planted, a well-known native species (cacao), which can provide significant income for people who can benefit from the financial support as well.

This project is also ripe for additional District Grant applicatons. Managed by the Yakum Foundation in Tena, Ecuador, more funding is needed to maintain the food forests for several more years until the trees become established enough to thrive on their own.

Of note, the project was brought forward as a Global Grant by a Rotaract Club in Quito, Ecuador.

We are very excited about this project and travel opportunity.

News Source : https://rotarydistrict5110.com/nutrition-forest-service-travel-project-in-ecuador-march-26-april-1/