Help SHI win up to $1 million for with just a few clicks on FaceBook!

Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) are one of our three planting partners that does an important work in Central America, providing farming families there with the training and tools to overcome poverty while restoring our planet''s tropical forests.

And now you can help them to win up to $1 million in a Facebook-based contest of Chase Community Giving. It's really simple - just a couple of clicks and it can really help this great organization, so I hope you'll find the time and vote for them. And don't forget tomorrow is the last day you can vote!

How do you do it and how important is it to SHI? you can read about it in the message below sent from Florence Reed, the founder and president of SHI:

A minute or two of your time might just make the difference for Sustainable Harvest International in winning up to $1 million in the Facebook-based Chase Community Giving Contest. And we could really use this miracle right now as several of our biggest donors find that they cannot donate what we expected from them this month.

Facebook users can cast a vote - no later than December 11^th - for Sustainable Harvest International as we compete for the Chase prize.

If you’re not already on Facebook, this might be a good time to join or you can forward this email to your friends who might be on FaceBook. If you are already a member, please take a few seconds to cast your vote for Sustainable Harvest International in the Chase Community Giving Contest on Facebook!

Quick and easy steps to casting your vote for Sustainable Harvest International:
1. Visit the <<Chase Community Giving>> site ( http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/707760)

2. Search for “Sustainable Harvest International.”

3. Sign-in to your Facebook account.

4. Click “Allow.”

5. Click the “Vote for Charity” button.

6. Become a fan.

7. Post to your profile

Once you’ve cast your vote, be sure to tell your friends to do the same! The only way for us to win is if all of you vote for us and get a number of your friends to vote for us and tell their friends

In the Chase Contest, the nonprofit with the most votes by December 11th wins $1 million, the top five runners-up win $100,000, and the top 100 thereafter win $25,000! Together we have a real chance to add needed support to our environmental and humanitarian projects abroad in Central America. Thank you for your time and caring!

Thanks,
Flo

Florence Reed, Sustainable Harvest International , www.sustainableharvest.org
Planting Hope, Restoring Forests, Nourishing Communities

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting sustainable reading!

Kudos to SHI for earning Charity Navigator's highest 4-star rating for the fourth consecutive year!

We are very proud in our three planting partners that we work with to plant trees in developing countries.

Not only that they do a great job in planting trees and benefiting the life of local communities in Africa and Central America, but they also do it very efficiently and responsibly, making sure that funding is being used in the best way possible.

The latest example is coming from Sustainable Harvest International (SHI), which has earned Charity Navigator's highest 4-star rating for the fourth consecutive year! With an exceptional score in organizational efficiency and low overhead, SHI spends just 8% of its budget on administration.

This is a very impressive achievement! Here's what Trent Stamp, President of Charity Navigator, has to say about SHI:

"Only 7% of the charities rated have received at least 4 consecutive 4-star evaluations, indicating that Sustainable Harvest International consistently executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way, and outperforms most other charities in America. This "exceptional" designation from Charity Navigator differentiates Sustainable Harvest International from its peers and demonstrates to the public it is worthy of their trust."

You're welcome to check out further details on SHI's performance on their Charity Navigator's profile and also visit their website at http://www.sustainableharvest.org/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Visit with Sustainable Harvest International's Panama Office

Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting, for the second time since moving to Panama, the folks of Sustainable Harvest International (SHI, or CSI, as the Spanish abbreviation of Cosecha Sostenible Internacional goes) and travel with them around the field in the Coclé province of Panama, to see how sustainable reforestation really happens.

When I first explained to some friends in Panama City that I am about to visit an organization working on reforestation with local communities in “El Interior” (Panamanian for “Boondocks”), to say they were skeptics would be an understatement. There is a reason for that of course. Slash & burn agriculture is widely practiced here and the humble day to day subsistence standard of living of many agricultural communities is regarded as a hindrance to seemingly lofty consideration of environmental impact and global warming. The work of Sustainable Harvest in Panama proved to me that change is possible, and is happening. All it takes is resolve and a lot of hard work. Sustainable Harvest has the dubious pleasure of never preaching to the choir, and making change happen where its most needed.

We first met with country director, Rodrigo Rodriguez, and field trainer Diomedes Arrocha at SHI's office in Penonomé, the regional capital. Since this time of the year the rains come down hard and heavy in the afternoon, we decided to head right out to the field and reserve the presentation about the recent activities to later. We started south on the Inter-American highway from Penonome and after about 5 minutes turned left towards the inland communities of Juan Diaz, San Juan de Dios and El Entradero.

Our first stop on the road was at the farm of Sebastian Arauz at the small community of El Chumical. Arauz planted with SHI's help 500 coffee plants and 500 guayacan trees in June. He was initially skeptic when SHI began working in the area two years ago, but the benefits demonstrated by his neighbors convinced him to give it a try. So what's the lure of reforestation? In a nutshell, by understanding the needs of the community and families, SHI is able to provide solutions, and while at it encourage sustainability, reforestation and organic farming. In this case for example, SHI is working with Sebastian Arauz on several levels. First of all they offer him free organic seeds of the shade loving coffee plant to create a commercially viable crop. They also provide him with the seeds of the beautiful native Guayacan that will provide the shade for the coffee plantation.

(Farmer Sebastian Arrauz (left) and Diomedes Arrocha of SHI (right)

However, it does not end here. In tropical Panama there are basically only two seasons. The rainy season and the dry season. In the area of El Chumical, where Arauz's farm is located, generations of unsustainable farming, burnings and tree cuttings along the rivers dwindled the natural water resources. Watering the plants during the dry season is not a trivial task, and SHI is helping with innovative manual pump designs, and know-how. The reforestation work being done upstream in other communities will eventually help Arauz and his farm as well.

For us at Eco-Libris it will be interesting to keep on following these coffee and Guayacan trees over the years and see them grow and transform the quite dreary landscape around them.

In the next blog installation I will tell more about SHI's organic farming and reforestation work in the communities of El Entradero, where they also introduced a more sustainable woodstove design that helped reduce the community's usage of firewood for cooking significantly.

To be continued...

Did you see our planting partner SHI on Oprah Magazine?

Getting a mention on Oprah Magazine is the desire of many (including Eco-Libris!).

We haven't got there yet, but we're proud to have a planting partner who did - Sustainable Harvest International (SHI).

On the June Issue of Oprah Magazine you can a profile of 4 Hotels With an Edge On "Voluntourism", or in other words hotels that "are helping guests plug into charitable projects during their stays."

One of the hotels profiled on the magazine is Cotton Tree Lodge in Belize and you can read there also about their unique partnership with SHI. The magazine describes how you can volunteer:

"If you don't mind a little mud on your boots, join SHI for daylong projects in the surrounding villages, helping families plant vegetable gardens, build chicken coops, or construct eco-friendly wood-burning stoves."

You can read more about it here - http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/omagazine/200906-omag-volunteer-vacations/2

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing

Help SHI win important funding!

We just received an important message from our planting partner Sustainable Harvest International (SHI). The message is from Florence Reed, founder and President of SHI. As you can see, it asks for help with a contest that can generate SHI important funding.

So here is the message:

Last week, Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) announced the exciting opportunity to turn your $10 donation into $10,000. More than 125 generous supporters responded to the challenge and put SHI in second place on Razoo.com's March Goodness Contest! If you are one of those 125 people who have gotten us this far, I am very grateful to you. Now as the end of the contest draws near and SHI has fallen into third place, I am once again asking for your help!

Thanks to an anonymous donor, any gifts received on Razoo.com, beginning today through March 31st, will be matched dollar for dollar up to $1,000! SHI currently has 125 donations, and we need the help of you and your friends to pull ahead of the first place organization that currently has 170 donations!

The organization with the most donor supporters this March will win grants of $500, $1,500, $3,000, and $10,000! A gift of $10,000 would be enough for SHI to fund any of the following projects:

• Support SHI’s work with more than two communities for an entire year!
• Support SHI’s work with over 22 families for an entire year!
• Sustain 100 school village programs for an entire year!
• Plant more than 28,750 trees!

SHI is currently in a tight 3rd place! If you have not yet donated to SHI through Razoo this month, please help SHI win $10,000 by simply logging onto Razoo.com and making a donation. Most important to our success will be for all of you who have already donated or are about to donate or can’t donate now to tell your family, friends and co-workers to make their donation to SHI today. Follow this link to SHI’s profile on Razoo.com and please contribute by March 31st! Please forward this email far and wide with a personal note from you. You can also share information about this effort from SHI’s FaceBook page.

Remember, we can only fund one of the above projects with your dedication and support!

In hope,

Florence Reed
Founder and President

P.S. We would like to once again thank those of you who have already donated through Razoo.com. Due to the currently troubled economy, your continued support is urgently needed. Together we are planting hope, restoring forests, and nourishing communities!

The story of Don Cheyo

We bring you from time to time stories and updates from our great planting partners, and today we have a mini-documentary about Honduran farmer Don Cheyo, who grows organic crops and lives sustainably thanks to help from our planting partner, Sustainable Harvest International (SHI).

SHI works in developing countries in Central America - Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize, Panama. Central America has lost more than half of its rainforests in the last 50 years, contributing to mass extinctions and global warming. Rainforest destruction also wreaks havoc on local populations who depend on the rainforest for their survival.

SHI helps many farmers like Don Cheyo in nearly 100 struggling communities across Central America to reverse rainforest destruction with sustainable land-use practices that allow them to take control of their environmental and economic destinies. SHI is involved in many activities - from trees planting and restoration and preservation of degraded land to educational programs and community loan funds.

Here are some of SHI's achievements within 11 years of operations:

-Planted more than 2,000,000 trees.
- Converted 6,000 acres to sustainable uses, thereby saving 30,000 acres from slash-and-burn destruction.
- Improved nutrition through the establishment of more than 200 organic vegetable gardens.
- Increased farm income up to 800%.
- Built 165 wood-conserving stoves (saving 1,650 trees per year)

SHI is proud in the fact that it works only in communities where we have been invited by local people. One of their main strengths is that their projects are locally initiated and supported by in-country organizations, which helps to ensure that the work will continue long after they left an area.

So, now that you know them a little better, you can lay back and enjoy this video clip. The story of Don Cheyon demonstrates the important work SHI do in few areas - promotion of sustainable agriculture, planting trees, provision of wood-conserving stoves, etc. It was filmed and edited by a media company that is currently producing a documentary on SHI's work (we'll update you as soon as this documentary will be released):



If you like to know more about SHI, please check their website - http://www.sustainableharvest.org/.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!