Pine Ridge
The technicians and trainees who worked on the solar power installations in the Mayan village of Graham Creek.
With funding provided by the Global Environmental Facility’s Small Grants Program, Plenty Belize has
managed installations in two small isolated Mayan villages in southern Belize: Machakilha and Graham Creek. Florentina Choco of the village of Santa Teresa and sisters Miriam Choc and Cristina Choc from Santa Elena, all trained at Barefoot College in India and came home to install solar in their villages. They now train other women while helping them to install solar power in their villages. Village residents pay a small monthly fee to cover the cost of replacement parts and repairs that might be needed in the future.
(See Belize p. 2)
The timber frame renovation crew, from left Milo Yellow Hair, Ross Segura, Michael Lee, Kenny Breckenridge,
Robert Reifel, Cameron Segura, Bo Davis (photo by Jan Garrett) Last year Plenty committed to completely renovating the
headquarters of the Slim Buttes Agriculture and
Development Program. It would also become the home of
Milo Yellow Hair, Program Field Director and his wife,
Moniek, who is a Program Administrator. The timber frame
house, built in 2002, needed a lot of work, beginning with
repairing rotting exterior siding. The first floor needed
to be replaced and a kitchen and bathroom installed
along with an overhaul of the electrical system. We thank
Onaway Trust, Suzanne Jonsson and Robert and Patricia
Reifel and all of our donors for contributing to the funding
and the stellar crew who got the job done.
(See Pine Ridge p. 3)
Tiny DeCory (left) and Eileen Janis, who manage the B.E.A.R. (Be Excited About Reading) Program on Pine Ridge admire the new Little Free Library donated by Books To Kids. B.E.A.R. works with Reservation young people. Pine Ridge suffers from high rates of youth suicide. Plenty has also been supplying B.E.A.R. with sewing machines and
This solar panel is being installed on the roof of the school in
Graham Creek.
(Graham Creek photos by Mark Miller)
fabric so they can make facemasks.
(photo by Jan Garrett)
Plenty International is a nongovernmental relief and development organization. Donations to Plenty are tax-deductible.
Plenty, P.O. Box 394, Summertown, TN 38483
Phone: 931-964-4323 Email: info@plenty.org Website: www.plenty.org
(Belize cont. from p. 1)
Tribes Hammered By Hurricane Ida
Clockwise from left, Miriam, Florentina and Cristina assemble parts at the Plenty Belize Solar Hub in Jacintoville.
Due to rugged and muddy terrain, solar projects equipment and materials were carried in on foot, horseback and boat.
Books To Kids has contributed hundreds of books to villages with newly installed solar lighting in homes.
Plenty Belize held three workshops on container gardening led by Abib Palma and Mrs. Emily Ramirez.
What’s left of a house on Isle de Jean Charles after Hurricane Ida.
Plenty is helping three tribal communities on the Louisiana Gulf Coast who were devastated by category 4 Hurricane Ida that came ashore on August 29, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Ida did much more damage to their neighborhoods than Katrina. Hundreds of homes were demolished by the storm, leaving thousands of the Isle de Jean Charles Band and Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, and the Pointe-au- Chien Indian Tribe homeless. Plenty is seeking donations to help them rebuild.
Flooding In Tennessee
The elementary school in Waverly, TN on August 21, 2021. Twenty-two people died and 500 homes were lost
in the flooding.
Plenty’s Books To Kids program is being asked to help replenish the public and elementary school libraries in Waverly with books, which we have been doing.
Kids To The Country
Sizwe Herring with kids at a Kwanzaa celebration.
KTC would love to get programs going again, starting with the annual Kwanzaa and gift making in Nashville in December. We’ll let everyone know if it’s on.
2
(photo by Eleanor Requena)
(photo by Mark Miller)
(photo by Mark Miller)
(photo by Mark Miller)
(Pine Ridge cont. from p. 1)
Bisi Ideraabdullah
The timber frame, pictured above, sits on lot #1144
on the Reservation, land that was allotted to Long Visitor Holy Dance, who had been in the band of Crazy Horse before surrendering in 1887. The connection to Crazy Horse and Oglala Lakota history is present there, just as it is in the Black Hills. Tom Cook, who is related to the Long Visitors and the Afraid of Bear Tiospaye (extended family) around Slim Buttes through his wife Loretta Afraid of Bear, says “there is a cultural imperative in following the landmarks and indications of the ancestors, to do rites and ceremonies in these places.” Slim Buttes Agriculture and Development Program headquarters is the site of workshops, sweat lodges, and Native American Church ceremonies.
Kenny Breckenridge and Ross Segura plot their next move in the renovation.
Inside the building showing the new kitchen and first floor. Note the timber frame ceiling.
Artist Bernice Davidson has begun what she has named a “Heroes of Plenty” series. This is her painting honoring of longtime Plenty friend and partner, Bisi Ideraabdullah.
In 1991, Plenty received an appeal from Imani House International (IHI) founder Bisi Ideraabdullah, a naturalized Liberian citizen. At the time, Liberia was embroiled in a brutal civil war, where starvation and health issues were major problems that she and her husband, Mahmoud, wanted to help mitigate. Plenty
has partnered with IHI, providing periodic financial and technical support. For over 30 years we have followed Bisi and IHI’s efforts in relief and recovery work through the 14 years of civil war and, more recently, the Ebola crisis to the present. IHI continues to focus on women and
family development through women’s literacy classes and a Maternal and Childcare Clinic, which opened in 1993. As a full-service clinic it offers healthcare to more than 14,000 indigent Liberians each year, with almost all of those served being women and children.
IHI also has an office in Brooklyn, NY. New York City programs include an Elementary After-School Performing Arts Program, Adult Education, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Pre-GED and GED, Referral Services, and the Women of Color Writers Workshop. NYC Services are provided to over 4,000 people each year.
For more about Bisi and IHI please visit imanihouse.org
Bisi, holding baby, with new mom at the IHI Clinic in Liberia.
3
(photo by Robert Reifel)
(photo by Robert Reifel)
(photo by Robert Reifel)
Water Catchment in South Africa
Food Security in Guatemala
Some of the Malamule family with Plenty volunteer, Betsy Keller (rt).
Plenty has funded a rain catchment project for the Malamule family of ten in Lephong Village in South Africa. Project Director, Mwana Bermudes, writes, “Previously they had to get water from a public tap stand approximately over a mile round trip, transported by a wheelbarrow, which carries only 2 five gallon containers.” The catchment, with two tanks and a total capacity of 1500 gallons, means the family has potable water for household uses and irrigation of their garden.
Brighton Malamule collects water from a catchment tank.
Engineer Rony Palacios conducts a workshop about organic agricultural inputs for the control of diseases in plants.
In Guatemala’s Central Highlands, Plenty is supporting a new project by Tecnologia Para La Salud (Technology For Health, TPS) to improve family nutrition and boost ecological wellness and cultural practices with expanded home gardens. Gardens include fruit trees, vegetables, medicinal plants, rainwater catchment and “grey water” for irrigation in the dry season. TPS staff hold workshops on organic compost, pest control, herbal remedies, and gardening. Many of the participants belong to local women’s groups and share their experiences with their villages for future garden projects. These programs enhance food security, which is particularly critical for this region that has suffered long term drought exacerbated by climate change.
Mayan woman holds five varieties of native corn.
This new project flows from an earlier Plenty funded program “Essential Seeds and Trees” that involved 120 families from 6 villages focused on erosion control, propagation of native seeds, organic pest control and tree planting. In interviews with migrants preparing to leave Guatemala, the majority mentioned food insecurity as their reason to leave. In a new report, the World Food Program predicts that 428,000 Guatemalans will have reached a “Phase 4” level of food-insecurity emergency this year — the highest before famine. Last year, the pandemic thrust an additional 1 million Guatemalans into poverty, according to the World Bank.
4
(photos by Project Director, Mwana Bermudes)