Shantilal P. Bhagat

Shantilal Bhagat is an author and writer who has published five books and many study packets on a variety of topics including "God's Earth Our Home," world hunger, and homelessness in the US.  He is the Director and Secretary/Treasurer of the Ecumenical Eco-Justice Network based in La Verne, CA, and writes and edits “Between the Flood & the Rainbow,” the newsletter of Ecumenical Eco-Justice Network.  Shantilal is a member of the Naitonal Council of Churches-Eco-Justice Working Group and the La Verne Church of the Brethren, and he also serves on the REAP management team.

Learn more about the Ecumenical Eco-Justice Network at www.ecojusticenetwork.org.

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Nanga Mady Kaye

In his own words:
“My name is Nanga Kaye. I come from the country of Chad (Central Africa). Currently, I am a MS graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 1996, through the international volunteer program of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), I was brought to USA for one year. During my stay, I spent time learning about sustainable agriculture. Upon my return to my Chad, political unrest led to my departure for the West African country of Mali. In Mali I met a young missionary through whom I was offered an amazing opportunity to return to the US for higher education.

“Throughout my study I have spent countless hours planning and researching ways to help alleviate the suffering of many I left behind. I want to help people understand and appreciate the challenges of turning struggles into opportunities. I want to help them accept the responsibility to invent, create, and weave ideas and resources for the betterment of all. Most importantly, I want to help them through diverse activity come together and create one day at a time a culture of peace, justice, and security in a country torn by war and ravaged by poverty.

“About a year ago I initiated a project called “Oasis of Grace” in my hometown of Lai, Chad. Oasis of Grace is an agricultural project that focuses on small-scale gardening, farming, fruit production and animal production. Our goal is to empower people by example, to create their own sustenance systems.  Demonstration plots are being used on 30-acres of land to show people how to build a healthy soil in order to raise healthy crops; how to favor biodiversity by planting trees, shrubs, herbs, and encouraging wildlife; how to preserve water, and plant and animal products so as to effectively fight hunger.” 

I will make a spring in the desert, so that my chosen people can be refreshed.” Isaiah 43:20b

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Elisabeth Reinkordt

Elisabeth Reinkordt, a student at Brown University, directed and produced “Living with the Land: A documentary about Sustainable Agriculture in Nebraska,” a digital video documentary.  The film was shown at the Ross Media Arts Center in Lincoln Nebraska on January 6, 2005. A DVD of this documentary is available through the REAP library at the Antelope Park Church of the Brethren in Lincoln, NE.

From the press release:
”Young artist and Lincoln native Elisabeth Reinkordt pairs with Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society (NSAS), with support from Renewing Earth and Its People Fund (REAP) to introduce the subject of sustainable, organic, and family farming and its connection to the Lincoln market. The film showcases area producers and consumers and highlights ways in which farmers and city dwellers can work together to eat well and sustain Nebraska’s agricultural resources for future generations.”

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Conrado Tognetti

In the face of insufficient governmental initiatives to face the causes and consequences of poverty, the garbage ‘dumps’ of Latin-American cities have become a net breaking the fall into absolute despair of marginalized urban poor. These “dump sites” not only provide a place to live but have allowed generation of income and provided a substantial contribution for alleviating malnutrition. In Argentina, the grave economic crisis of the past years has resulted in an increased number of people who dedicate their lives to the excavation of dump sites in search of material to sell, and also food to eat.

In association with REAP, Conrado Tognetti is developing a project for using “Biointensive agricultural techniques” using greenhouses and low level inputs to safely feed the poor and generate income in Argentina.  A group of 30 children and adolescents, former child laborers in San Carlos de Bariloche’s waste site (Baraloche is a city of 100,000), will participate in this initiative for sustainable self-reliance with the goal of providing basic food needs for their family groups, generating income, and combine with other groups to further their own productive and earnings-generating capacities.

Conrado is a former University of Nebraska student who has worked with lower income groups, most recently with the community garden at 23 & P streets in Lincoln, NE.  Conrado will also be interacting with a larger project in Argentina directed by John Doran as part of an international network of “Sustainable Soil Fertility” Test centers in 10 countries around the world.  For more information see www.thesustainabilityfund.org and look at Initiative 2 (SSFI).

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Southeast Asia Disaster Relief

Church of the Brethren Emergency Relief Fund

Church World Service (CWS) is focusing initial support in at least three of the hardest-hit areas in Indonesia, India, and Sri Lanka; and is sending initial emergency material assistance shipments with a value of more than $900,000.

Church of the Brethren General Secretary Stan Noffsinger urged Brethren to remember that “all who perished and all who survive are created in the mind of God, as we all have been."  The Emergency Response/Service Ministries program of the denomination’s General Board has requested an initial grant of $30,000 from the board’s Emergency Disaster Fund to support the CWS effort, and expects to send more funds in the near future.

Trees for Life

Concerning Trees for Life's potential involvement in the tsunami relief project, founder Balbir Mathur stated the following:

"In the next few months, after the cameras have left the scene and focus has shifted to someplace else, we will go and visit the place and see what people want.

"We will be going to areas that are liable to be neglected by politicians and media, such as small islands and backwater. There we shall visit with the people and ask them what they need. So we shall not be going to them with an agenda.

"It is likely that the governments and private donations will provide for the immediate needs of food, shelter and clothing to people. Our job will be to help renew the spirits of the people. We firmly believe that no land can be renewed if the spirit of the people living there is broken. Thus our focus will be in self-help and development rather than giveaways and relief. We would like to do it right and in proper order rather than rush into things.”

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