WINTER 2014

HUNGER TO HARVEST
HOW PLANT WITH PURPOSE IS HELPING TO FEED FAMILIES

FEATURES
Gifts of Hope Hunger to Harvest

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DEPARTMENTS
Directors Corner Breaking News Spotlight: Pang Tuay, TH

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A MOTHER AND HER HEALTHY BABY IN BURUNDI

ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS TO HUMANITARIAN PROBLEMS

DIRECTORS CORNER
ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS TO HUMANITARIAN PROBLEMS

THE SOWER ISSUE #102

VSLA LEADERS COUNT THEIR GROUPS SAVINGS IN OAXACA Plant With Purpose, a Christian nonprot organization, reverses deforestation and poverty around the world by transforming the lives of the rural poor.

Plant With Purpose has been tracing a curve of exponential growth for some time. This has been easiest to see in our budget, but even steeper curves are emerging in the reach and impact of our programs and in our ability to measure that impact. In the past year, we expanded our work in Mexico beyond Oaxaca into the state of Chiapas, where we have now established an ofce. From Burundi, we have also begun plans to start working across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, even more important is the process of bringing to scale what we are already doing in the communities where we work. In Tanzania, 37 new Village Savings and Loan Associations were formed in the last quarter, bringing the total to 170 groups serving over 4,400 families, while in Burundi the number of groups grew from 51 to 89, despite some budget setbacks. This growth has required a dramatic increase in efciency. We have been able to drop our cost per family to less than half of what it was just a couple of years ago, as we have continued working to steward the precious nancial resources with which we are entrusted. Worldwide we are now serving nearly 100,000 individuals in 331 villages. Because of the empowerment model that is fundamental to our work, this means we now have 100,000 allies working alongside us in the ght against poverty, environmental degradation, and spiritual blindness. For example, VSLA members in Tanzania planted 1.4 million trees last year, greatly multiplying anything we would have 2

been able to do on our own. Similarly, partnering churches are reaching out into their communities, offering Bible studies and practical service, and seeing impressive growth as a result. To measure the impact of all this work we have a number of annual indicators and conduct extensive impact evaluations every three years. In our last evaluation we learned, for example, that waterborne illness had been dramatically reduced in watersheds where we had been workingup to 50 percent in some cases. We also saw huge improvements in crop yields and savings rates. However, we have been diligently working to develop better and more frequent objective measurements of impact. One of those involves using satellite imagery to measure vegetation change over time. A recent analysis of that data has showed a dramatic correlation between the locations of the Plant With Purpose communities and increase in tree cover and vegetation. This study is still being compiled as The Sower goes to press, but it is exciting to get a glimpse of what partnering communities around the world are accomplishing. As we work to increase the impact of our program, we know that it is all possible because of your support. Your gifts and your prayers are changing lives in real and lasting ways. This season as we celebrate the gift of Jesus, who came to earth to transform lives, we are also thankful that together we are involved in Gods ongoing, life-changing work through Plant With Purpose.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Scott Sabin scott@plantwithpurpose.org DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR: Doug Satre doug@plantwithpurpose.org MARKETING AND EVENTS: Becky Rosaler becky@plantwithpurpose.org

STAY CONNECTED: 4903 Morena Blvd. Suite 1215 San Diego, CA 92117 Ph: 800.633.5319 Email: info@plantwithpurpose.org Web: plantwithpurpose.org Tw: @PlantWPurpose Fb: facebook.com/PlantWithPurpose

EMAIL MEDIA@PLANTWITHPURPOSE.ORG TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN: Share your Plant With Purpose story Host an event Become a Plant With Purpose advocate

Leave a Legacy.Please consider including Plant With Purpose in your wills and bequests. Contact Doug Satre: doug@plantwithpurpose.org.

Scott Sabin Executive Director

copyright 2013 Plant With Purpose

GIFTS OF HOPE
Uncommon giftsa cheeping chick, breeding bunnies, a family gardenprovide extraordinary benets to families living in poor, rural communities around the world. Take Mrs. Eleazar Pacheco Hernandez, a wife and mother living in Monte Flor, Mexico, for example. Eleazar tends to the familys vegetable garden and their chickens. Vegetables from the garden provide a stable diet with the eggs, increasing the consumption of protein for her children. The sale of surplus produce and eggs has allowed Eleazar to increase her income. She even purchased a garden hose, which allows her to water her garden with greater ease while also expanding its size. Eleazar credits Plant With Purpose for improving her ability to provide for her children. This Christmas, you can help families like the Hernandezes change their circumstances. Plant With Purposes online Gift Catalog provides the opportunity to give the Gift of Hope to families in need on behalf of someone you love!

VISIT

PLANTWITHPURPOSE.ORG/GIFTS
for the complete online catalog and to print a special card to tell loved ones about the gift given on their behalf. You can also mail your donation to Plant With Purpose in the envelope provided.

CLUTCH OF 5 CHICKS
$10

PAIR OF RABBITS
$20

FUEL-EFFICIENT STOVE
$30

GIVE NUTRITION TO A FAMILY Chickens give families a sustainable supply of nutrition and income. Eggs provide muchneeded protein for hungry children and can be sold at market. Your donation will purchase 5 chicks and training for a family in need.

GIVE NUTRITION TO A FAMILY Rabbits are ideal for families because of their ability to reproduce quickly, providing protein-rich food, fertilizer for crops, and a source of income. Your gift will provide a family with two breeding rabbits and training in how to best care for them.

GIVE THE GIFT OF HEALTH Half the worlds families cook meals on open-ame stoves that cause premature death and rampant deforestation. The gift of an improved wood-saving stove can help restore health to families and forests.

A FAMILY GARDEN
$50

SAVINGS-LED MICROFINANCE
$50

CHURCH-LED DISCIPLESHIP
$50

GIVE SEEDS OF HOPE A family garden represents sustainable hope to a poor family. Vegetables add nutrition to family diets and provide income. Your donation of $50 will help a family establish a garden and provide training in sustainable gardening methods.

GIVE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY Poor, rural families are not looking for handouts. Theyre looking to change their circumstances. Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) provide nancial safety nets and create opportunity. Your gift of $50 provides economic training and materials.

GIVE SPIRITUAL RENEWAL We believe the church is a key instrument of change in a community. Plant With Purpose programs are equipping local congregations to teach and to live out Christs gospel among their neighbors. Your gift of $50 will provide Bible study curriculum for a church and training for a pastor and church leaders. WWW.PLANTWITHPURPOSE.ORG 3

HUNGER TO HARVEST

HOW PLANT WITH PURPOSE IS HELPING TO FEED FAMILIES

WOMEN IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PREPARE FOOD GROWN ON THEIR FARM PHOTO CREDIT: AARONCHANG.COM

Imagine entering the holiday season with little to celebrate. As a tough year comes to a close for impoverished families around the world, too many parents are forced to make life-or-death decisions. Do they spend the little money they have to send their child to school or to put food on the table? Do they sell their livestock for a short-term solution, causing further suffering down the road? Needless to say, Christmas presents are not an option as parents nd alternative ways to celebrate the gift of Jesus.

land unproductive with crops growing inconsistently. This has left few options for food as mothers and fathers returned to elds that fail to produce enough to eat. A Plant With Purpose farmer association member from the Rutana province shares, The stomach that goes to bed hungry wakes up jealous. The physical effects of a hungry stomach convolutes the ability to think, further trapping the poor in despair.

THE STOMACH THAT GOES TO BED HUNGRY WAKES UP JEALOUS.

ple struggled with poverty in their community of Gonjanza, Tanzania. Growing what they could to put food on the table proved unsuccessful after ve years of inconsistent rains left little to harvest. Marko and Paulinas main source of food became maize and beans. Coffee trees grew old and tired. A small quantity of beans meant little left to sell for income. In the prime of his life, Marko felt utterly defeated. In 2009, Plant With Purpose began to work with farming families in Gonjanza. We were trained on the importance of conserving our soil through contours, producing organic vegetables through the use of double dug garden beds, tree planting, and the management of livestock and chickens, as well as importance of savings-and-loan groups, Marko shares. When he put to use the

THE HUNGER ISSUE

Around the world, 870 million people go hungry each and every daythats one out of eight people. Poverty and hunger are deeply interconnected issues. Burundi is the hungriest country in the world (2013 Global Hunger Index). More than 73 percent of the population is undernourished (World Food Programme, 2012). During the recent civil conict, disease harmed seeds and existing crops. Drought has left the

FOOD MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE

But a little food can change everything. Proper nutrition equips the human body to fully function and children to grow and learn. Food fuels our ability to focus, energizes us to work, and brings people together. Plant With Purpose is working to help parents put food on their tables. However, rather than offering handouts for short-term solutions, Plant With Purpose provides training, seeds, and opportunity to bring a long-term solution to hunger. Marko Philip was desperate for a solution to hunger. At 35 years old, Marko is married to Paulina, and they are blessed with three children ages 4, 8, and 11. The cou-

BURUNDI IS THE HUNGRIEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

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EMPTY MARKET STALLS IN HAITI. PHOTO CREDIT: AARON.CHANG.COM

DEFINING HUNGER
Undernourishment is the status of people whose food intake regularly provides less than their minimum energy requirements. For the average person, that means consuming fewer than 1,800 kilocalories a day, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The Global Hunger Index (GHI) takes into account undernourishment, underweight children, and child mortality.

A COUPLE IN GONJANZA STAND PROUDLY IN THE GARDEN NEXT TO THEIR HOUSE.

training he received, he saw an increase in his annual income. Much of this increase is the result of raising livestock and chickens, and better management of his land.

With Purpose Haiti, now I have more crops and more income too. Joseph is also involved in a Village Savings and Loan Association, where he puts his newfound income to work. I used the loans to buy animals and seeds and to pay school fees for my children. These small improvements represent huge steps toward a brighter tomorrow for Josephs family. Working with resilient mothers and fathers to grow food to feed their families is at the heart of Plant With Purpose. Parents are putting food on the table. Better nutrition helps their children succeed. Together, healthier communities are establishedcommunities free from hunger and on the path out of poverty. So as we celebrate this season of Jesus, the Bread of Life, coming to live among us as Savior and King, let us remember that He also called us to feed the hungry. Plant With Purpose is doing just that for people like Marko and Paulina, Joseph and his family, and thousands of farming families around the world.

73.4 44.5 38.8 70 16,000 25:35

Percentage of people without enough to eat in Burundi Percentage of people without enough to eat in Haiti Percentage of people without enough to eat inTanzania Percentage of families around the world who depend on what they can grow to feed their children The number of children who die every day due to hungerrelated causes The verse in the Bibles book of Matthew where Jesus says, For I was hungry and you gave me food.

MOTHERS AND FATHERS FEEDING THE WORLD

Like Marko, Joseph Saint Jean Claudius wants to increase his familys resources so he can better respond to their needs. Joseph and his family of four live in Bary, Haiti. Hunger is an issue in Haiti where more than 44 percent of Haitis population is undernourished (World Food Programme, 2012). Reports share that 85-90 percent of Haitians depend on what they can grow to feed their families and earn an income. These families are left to farm steep hillsides where there is a loss of topsoil due to deforestation, which makes things tough for fathers like Joseph to provide for his family. Since Plant With Purpose got involved in Bary, Joseph has been learning how to make his farm produce more effectively. Because my farm is no longer eroding, I have more crop yields. Thanks to Plant

*Information from World Food Program (2012), IFAD (2011), Bread for the World
WWW.PLANTWITHPURPOSE.ORG 5

PLANTING HOPE GALA A HUGE SUCCESS

The 2013 Planting Hope Gala was a phenomenal success with over $337,000 raised to invest in the lives of the rural poor! We are grateful to those who attended, and we are deeply humbled by your generosity, passion, and commitment to the work of Plant With Purpose. Thank you to everyone who made the night possible! through a donation of time. Be watching for an email from Plant With Purpose offering ideas on how you can participate in Giving Tuesday this year.

CHRISTMAS TREES, PLEASE

Christmas gives us a unique way to appreciate trees: by bringing them into our homes to adorn. This Christmas, in addition to purchasing a Christmas tree, donate a dollar to plant a tree in a rural community. Visit plantwithpurpose.org/trees for more details.

conscious buyers, called Amazon Smile. Shopping on Amazon Smile is essentially the same as shopping on Amazon.com, except that 0.5% of all purchases through Amazon Smile will be donated to a nonprot of your choiceincluding Plant With Purpose. Bookmark smile.amazon.com, sign in with your current amazon.com account, and give back to Plant With Purpose while shopping on Amazon.

SCOTT SABIN AT IDEACAMP

This fall, a group gathered in Austin, Texas, to talk about the concept of Human Care. Scott Sabin spoke into the idea that Creation Care is Human Care. To learn about other events and conference where Plant With Purpose will be, check out plantwithpurpose.org/events.

THE JUSTICE CONFERENCE

The Justice Conference is returning to the West Coast. Join us in Los Angeles on February 21-22, 2014 for a two-day conference that engages conversations on the compex issues surrounding justice. Leave inspired by those combating injustice and with tools to join the effort.

UPCOMING VISION TRIPS

If you havent visited one of Plant With Purposes programs, wed love for you to consider joining us. Contact Doug Satre for more information: doug@ plantwithpurpose.org. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: MARCH 23-29, 2014 HAITI: MAY 5-11, 2014 BURUNDI: MAY 4-14, 2014

BLACK FRIDAY, CYBER MONDAY, GIVING TUESDAY

The day following the purchasing frenzy associated with Thanksgiving weekend comes Giving Tuesdaya day to focus on giving back either nancially or

YOU SHOP, AMAZON GIVES

Amazon has rolled out a new service for

VILLAGE SPOTLIGHT:
PANG TUAY, THAILAND

CHILDREN PLAYING GAMES IN THEIR HOMETOWN OF PANG TUAY

Like all supportive parents, when asked what they hope to see in the years ahead, the parents in Pang Tuay describe better opportunities for their children. These parents understand that education will provide a better future for their sons and daughters. But the distance to schools is not the only challenge that families in Pang Tuay face. Imagine establishing your home and settling in an area only to be told you have to uproot and move. Forced relocations have uprooted the entire community of Pang Tuay three times in the past 40 years.

This group of ethnic Lahuone of the six major hill tribes in Thailandoriginally put down their roots in Pang Tuay while seeking a peaceful place to build their lives. Unfortunately, Thai citizenship is not granted at birth, and land ownership is directly connected to citizenship. For the past 15 years, the community of Pang Tuay has been living on land where at any time they face the threat of once again having to move. Despite this threat, the people of Pang Tuay are making a home for themselves on the hillsides. Plant With Purpose Thailand has been working with this community to develop a program of caring for the local forest, which is the primary

source of livelihood. A recent study by Plant With Purpose shows that this program, known as Community Managed Forests, encourages better protection of the forest because people depend on it for their survival. Plant With Purpose is working with the Pang Tuay community to increase their knowledge of environmental issues, community forestry, land rights, agroforestry, and replenishing streams with sh. These resources are creating greater stability and are helping families build toward a hopeful future.

Dario Baez Enemencios partnership with Plant With Purpose Dominican Republic has changed his life. He celebrates with the community of Piedra Blanca as they graduate from Plant With Purposes programevidence that they have been equipped and empowered to improve their quality of life using their own God-given talents and resources. Before, Dario says, My nancial situation was bad. I lived in a cottage and had a small income. I just planted yucca. In most cases

Today, his familys situation is different. Dario learned to diversify his farm by planting lemon, mandarin, and eucalyptus trees alongside vegetables. As a result, his income increased. I used to live in a thatch house, he says, but now I have my own concrete block house with a concrete roof. My family is more financially stable. Beyond his familys improved economic well-being, Dario has experienced spiritual transformation. I had never visited a church before, he says. I went for the first time and I really liked it. I attend more frequently now.

PIEDRA BLANCA GRADUATES!

it wasnt protable because I could not nd buyers. My land had little value, and I didnt have enough knowledge in cultivation techniques to develop a protable farm. I didnt know God, nor did I attend church.

WWW.PLANTWITHPURPOSE.ORG

Plant With Purpose 4903 Morena Blvd. Suite 1215 San Diego, CA 92117 Ph: 800.633.5319 Email: info@plantwithpurpose.org www.plantwithpurpose.org This Christmas: Give gifts that change lives. Information inside or at plantwithpurpose.org/gifts.
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TWO GIRLS IN HAITI SMILE FOR THE CAMERA

YOU CAN GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT

CHANGE THE FUTURE FOR CHILDREN THIS CHRISTMAS

PHOTO CREDIT: AARON.CHANG.COM

THANKS FOR YOUR PARTNERSHIP IN 2013