Please Read and Please Help

Dear Family, Friends, and Regular Blog readers,

Today’s blog I present to all of you back in the states a tremendous opportunity to help families in need. Over the past month my good friend Gabriel and I have been planning a project in the aldeas (Spanish word for Villages where the poorest people live) to prevent future catastrophes from happening. Perhaps the most devastating problems the people in the aldeas face with relation to poverty are malnutrition and deforestation. Unfortunately, many of the people here rely solely on the production of coffee in order to provide an income for their family. In recent history when the price of coffee declined the families were left with incredible economic hardships while not being able to provide food to their children leading to harsh cases of malnutrition. Also, because of the increased competition for land communities have conceded to the method of slash and burn which has detrimental effects on the environment (contribution to global warming and making their villages susceptible to landslides and erosion just to name a few). I can’t begin to tell you how sad it has been for me to see children suffering while watching people burn down beautiful forests that take years to grow.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THIS???

Gabriel and I have been working with the Valhalla Finca. This is an agency out of Antigua that provides Macadamia trees to communities in need for a below average price. The Macadamia tree provides amazing benefits to the communities.

It helps the environment. With broad leaves the macadamia tree absorbs a tremendous amount of Carbon which helps fight global warming and also prevents erosion of the soil.
It helps fight poverty. The Valhalla Finca not only sells the trees for growing but offers to buy the produced nuts for an above average price to provide income to families in need.
It helps fight malnutrition. The macadamia nut is very nutritious and can also be used in several domestic products.
It will also improve the soil quality so that the families can produce more coffee amongst the macadamia trees.

In the past I have utilized this blog in order to communicate on a regular basis with all of you back home while sharing humorous stories and experiences along the way. Now I would like to use this blog along with your help back home to change lives.

One of the biggest challenges we as Peace Corps volunteers face are developing sustainable projects. It is never worth your time, effort, and money to become involved with a project that will fall apart the moment you leave your Peace Corps site. I can honestly say that this is a completely sustainable project. First of all it is a known fact that macadamia trees can produce up to 150 pounds of nuts a year for over 100 years. The first macadamia trees were planted in 1890 and today still produce nuts. Second of all we have been working directly with community leaders to provide information and technical support so that they fully understand how to maintain the trees. With the help of the Mayor we are hoping to provide transportation for several community leaders to the actually Valhalla Macadamia Finca so that they can learn first hand and then teach people in their community.

HOW CAN YOU HELP IN THE STATES?


We desperately need your money to fund this project and the more money we raise the more families we can help. If you would like to help fund my project please send cash or a check made out to the Drew Anderson Foundation (due to tax purposes and to facilitate the process we had to call it that) and mail it to

THE DREW ANDERSON FOUNDATION

40451 SD HWY 34

Forestburg SD, 57314


Or you may mail it directly to the bank at


First National Bank of SD

Attention: THE DREW ANDERSON FOUNDATION

P.O. Box 916

Huron, SD 57350

Due to tax purposes this can not be considered a donation and has to be a true gift. Thank you for reading and please give anything you can to make a difference. If we are lucky enough I would like to fund the Macadamia project and then donate any money left over to schools in the region.

Take care and Gob Bless,

Drewski