Today, I realised the true meaning of the term, ‘thought-provoking’.

Spending the day with the Awajun tribe, deep in the forest of the San Martin valley in Northern Peru, challenged me, on two levels:

1. Fitness – no amount of gym classes could have prepared me for the trek from the closest dirt track to the community. An hour’s scramble down the hillside in the baking heat and heavy humidity was the best way for me to experience the reality of living in an isolated location.

2. Perceptions – as an independent, ambitious, young(ish) woman I found the Awajun’s male dominated culture difficult to comprehend. Here, women come third, after men and animals. Knowing that the shy young girls serving us ‘Masato’ (the local drink, made from fermented Yucca plant and saliva) would be married by the age of 12 required me to suspend my judgement. 

The Shama clan, of 22 families, live without any services; water, sanitation, electricity, transport – you name it, they don’t have it. Unless you decided to name ‘dignity’, ‘pride’ or ‘freedom’. 

But, on the service side, things are changing. With support from Practical Action, families now have reliable access to clean piped water – for the very first time.

No longer will women and girls have to collect their water from a dank, septic pond – they can now drink fresh water, wash their clothes and have a high-powered shower in their village.

They are so pleased that they are having a celebration to thank Practical Action for working with them – it’s on 11th April – I’m sure they would welcome you along!

Helen Marsh

P.s The families of Shama made close to 1,000 journeys up and down the hillside to carry the materials to make their water system – hows that for doing what it takes to change your life?

After visiting the coffee farmers it was a trip to the Laboratory to see if their beans got the seal of approval …

Mikel the Coffee taster gives us the thumbs up:

Sara-Jane Brown from our communications team is travelling across Peru and Bolivia to see examples of how Practical Action’s work is making a difference to poor communities. Follow my trip live on Twitter: #sarainperu

Coffee grown in the forest is ‘probably’ the best that you can buy. The farmers I met today have been working with Practical Action to make sure their coffee is just that …

Did you know that coffee comes from a tree and the beans are actually red berries?

Normales, one of our successful farmers even has a machine to peel away the berry skins:

Normales has fought his way out of poverty by improving his coffee:

Sara-Jane Brown from our communications team is travelling across Peru and Bolivia to see examples of how Practical Action’s work is making a difference to poor communities. Follow my trip live on Twitter: #sarainperu

Far from it, says a recent report from the DEA on the impact of global learning on public attitudes and behaviours towards international development and sustainability. The report concludes that an education which embraces global issues throughout the curriculum is essential if we want to get the next generation engaged in the fight against poverty worldwide.

I’m going to Nepal to see for myself the work being carried out by Practical Action which uses science and technology to improve the lives of some poor people.  I will record my experience and incorporate the resulting visual and written material into innovative teaching resources which support the  Uk’s new national curriculum.

Projects such as those involving renewable energy are particularly welcomed by science teachers because they show real-life applications of science to solve a problem with the additional advantage of being set within a global context.

Teachers know that incorporating material with a global dimension throughout the curriculum will help pupils see themselves as part of a global community and in so doing will encourage them to become responsible citizens who feel they can make a difference.

To see the full DEA report go to http://www.dea.org.uk/resources/item.asp?d=2076

For those of you who understand the significance of the title (!) and fancy watching/listening to Pink Floyd’s The Wall got to  http://tinyurl.com/yhwfpmr

Please do follow me on Twitter  juliepollard1 or whilst I’m in Nepal #julieinnepal

There is a school behind me. Some men and women separating plastic and paper from the waste. They are putting it aside and another group is pressing and making bales of it. They are all very well dressed – in smart and expensive dresses. There is a large sign behind them saying ‘sustainable development (we also empty pit latrines)’. It is a bit foggy out there. Then these men loaded the waste in very expensive cars – large BMWs, Mercedes, 4 X 4 Jeeps etc. I am now totally confused – who they are, what they are doing, who owns these cars? Suddenly the school bell rings. In fact it is my alarm clock. I looked at the clock, it is already 6:45 am. I need to change and leave soon for my work. While driving to the office, I am trying to recall the dream. Details are still very patchy – can’t remember all of it.

24/7 involvement in pro-poor development was the very first and perhaps the most important lesson in my life. I remember the words of my teacher, in 1983 – “development work for the poor is a 24/7 work”. You feel it, think about it constantly, reflect upon it and even dream about it. It is like a never ending hangover – said Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan the founder of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), who smiled and looked at me. I was not sure about the depth and breadth of this teaching at that time.

Later when I saw John Pickford at WEDC in 1992-93, he was a living example of 24/7. Completely enjoying and absorbed in his work, even in the second year of his retirement. Between 2004-06, I read, re-read and reflected a lot Schumacher’s writings. 24/7 I was fully engrossed in his writings, especially his books – Good Work and A Guide for the Perplexed .

The Observer wrote on these books, “Dr Schumacher demonstrates that small is not only beautiful but essential if our working lives are to have any meanings, any satisfaction, any creative justification”. And New Society said “These books are – A Conclusive Personal Philosophy’.

Practical Action, and its staff, is an important organisational example of 24/7, where staff enjoy and love their work for the larger goals in their lives.

Sometimes in pursuit of more efficiencies and modern management, we forget about the joy of 24/7. Apologies – I need to finish this blog, fill my timesheet for today and change location for my next phase of my 24/7.

Mansoor Ali, March, 2010

I’m no coffee connoisseur (shameful to admit - I’m actually more partial to a warm Ribena!), but over the last few days I’ve developed a new found appreciation for coffee, and the women and men who produce it.

So, fast facts, what have I learnt?

1. Farmers harvest seven crops of coffee each year. It’s only the third harvest onwards which is good enough for the international market (you can tell by the beans - by this point they are all bright red)

2. By growing organic coffee farmers can be sure of a fairer and more reliable price – earning at least a third more than farming regular coffee

3.  Climate change is a reality for families here and it’s hitting them hard – right now it’s so dry in the region that the coffee isn’t growing well – the beans are too small to export. That means a 40% drop in income for poor farmers

I doubt I will ever look at a cup of ‘Cafe’ without seeing the faces of Flora, Normel and Leonora or the lush, green landscape of the Amazon.

Helen Marsh

PS. I did learn one other thing – think I could make it as Practical Action’s resident coffee taster?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Normel Mendoza. I want you to meet him too.

So, here’s Normel. He and his wife Flora are coffee farmers, living in the village of Bajos Progreso, Peru (‘remote’ cannot begin to describe their community and neither can ‘breathtaking beauty’).

They have been growing coffee for over a decade but struggling to earn a real living from it – their coffee was only high enough quality to sell to neighbouring families and at the local market.

Since working with Practical Action, Normel is growing more and better quality coffee. So much so, that he is now a certified ‘organic’ farmer (and that means that he can get an extra 100 Soles – roughly £25) per bag of coffee he produces. His coffee, and that from other farmers in the area is now being sold internationally – at a fair and reliable price.

What does that mean for Normel and his family?

• They are now earning over a third more income
• They now employ up to 15 local people to farm their land
• They have built a bigger better home with storage for their coffee

How’s that for a success story?

Helen Marsh

Sara-Jane Brown from our communications team is travelling across Peru to visit Practical Action’s projects helping poor communities escape from poverty. Today she is on her way to see coffee farmers:

Sara-Jane Brown from our communication team in the UK is visiting Practical Action’s projects with poor communities in Peru. Follow the third installment of her blog as she arrives in Tarapoto:

Take a sip.

Ever thought where, when and how your coffee is produced? Well, perhaps it was grown by farmers in Peru – one of the world’s largest exporters of organic coffee.

Today, we are travelling up to Northern Peru, to an area called Tarapoto which sits on the edge of the Amazon basin.

Here, Practical Action is working with local people to help them preserve their forests and profit from them.

Where, in recent years, families have supported themselves through the mass logging of trees (in effect, sacrificing their future to survive in the short-term), now we are enabling local women and men to make a living growing high-quality coffee within the fertile land of the rainforest.

Crucially, they can also make more profit from their hard work  – by coming together to sell it for good, fair and high prices.

Now, that tastes much better doesn’t it?

Helen Marsh