PLEASE GIVE TO SUPPORT MAYAN SUSTAINABLE FARMERS IN GUATEMALA
New Projects 2015
Asociacion Mujeres Oxlajuj E is a women´s group raising amaranth for local sustainability. More than 100 women in 10 communities grow amaranth in their homes, harvest and clean it, and bring it to their communal kitchen, where they prepare foods for their bakery.
For around $3000 we can build an inexpensive and much needed thresher saving the women 225 hours of labor they now spend hand cleaning the grain.
Please donate above by clicking the paypal link
Action Guatemala is a registered 501(c)3 in the USA.. The on line receipt is good for a tax deduction
Projects 2014 Proyectos
Rescue the planet.. Start in your garden
Community Participatory Social Media Project
Collaborating with local Maya Traditional Permaculturists at Lake Atitlan we are Saving the Waters, Lands and Original Seeds of our region
STRATEGY:
networking with local farmers and community leaders
1. we help create participatory videos and photo essays, to share vital information and support with communities, local, and online.
2. we preserve and share original seeds with local farmers, organizations and schools.
Please Help Us
We need Cameras and Laptops for local volunteers to teach communications skills .. contact us directly by email to get a current address.
Please click on the Paypal Donate icon at the top of our page for cash donations.
Profile Project Kajol
read our pdf presentation
SEED LIBRARY
We lend seeds to people committed to propagate and return seeds before planting season the following year.
Our efforts include networking with schools who are starting organic gardens. As seen in the video, we donate veggie starters and give workshops in how to produce food in small spaces using recycled materials.
Pixabaj, Sololá, Guatemala. a women´s group teaching several middle schools about agricultural cycles and the project in Amaranth production.
The local language is Kaqchikel.
The Mayan Ceremony requires each of the 4 colors of Sacred Corn.
Recently it has become dfiicult to find anyone cultivating Red Corn.
The Black corn is also getting crosspollinated with commercial Yellow Corn, sold by corporate distributers, along with chemical fertilizers that contaminate the land. Some of the seed sold is genetically modified, does not produce viable seed for planting, which forces the farmer to buy more seeds and chemicals each year. We collaborate with farmers who make their own organic fertilizer and save their seed.
Take into account the advantages we still have..
1. traditional Maya farmers whose culture successfully survived thousands of years without contaminating the planet, practicing the Permaculture of their ancestors.
2. the continuing sustainability of the food economy in our region.
The majority of the population in the Lake Atitlan Basin are FARMERS ... they produce corn, vegetables, meat and chcken, milk and cheese, herbs and natural medicines... all the basic necessities for the survival of the internal economy that they themselves depend on.
Traditional families in the Maya highlands recycle and compost, preserve original seeds for continuing crop survival, plant varieties of food in the same plot to renourish the land and keep the family diet balanced.These traditions are recently being discarded for new ideas for commercial development. The main threat to the local economy is monoculture for export, creating dependency on the use of chemicals and patented GMO seed.the Guatemalan government bribes votes with gifts of chemical fertilizers that destroy the land. We want to stand beside them ensuring that the farmers remember that Saving Seed is still essential to their survival ...and to ours as a planet of consumers.