Our first government grant (and the problems that go with it)!

The Dock/Pier Grant

We have received our first government grant from the Colombian department (state-level government) of Amazonas.   Amazonas is one of 32 Colombian departments.  The grant is being used to repair and improve the village's raft and to build a small cement pier with six steps.  While this may not seem like much, it is a start!

The dock is currently in great need of repair

The Grant

We first applied for the grant (only in the name of the village of La Libertad) in April of 2015.  The application then seemed to be lost in the system.

I resubmitted the paperwork in May, but this time in the name of our newly-registered Colombian Fundacion Amazon Pueblo.  This was much more effective.  Within two weeks I had a meeting with the office of International Relations, who have been very friendly and helpful with the grant.

Unfortunately due to paperwork, my five month return to the USA to earn money, and government elections, we received the supplies eight months later, on December 26.  By this time the dock had suffered significant structural rot and damage.

Properly constructed and painted walls help to provide much strength and to protect the dock's structure.  When the repairs and improvements are finished we hope to have a dock that, with minimal adequate ongoing maintenance, will last for at least the next three years before needing major reconstruction.

Loading the project's boat in Leticia

Transport

Problems Finding a Third Boat

In all we had a little under four metric tons of materials to transport upriver.  To do this we needed three boats.  Unfortunately we could only find two boats; one belonging to the project and the other belonging to the community of La Libertad.  Other people said that we could borrow their boat, but on a different day.

We were also faced with problems of finding other people to pilot the boat.  One woman, who refused to help when asked, said "Who wants to work for free?"  I briefly went into the explanation that this was to support the community, it was volunteer work, and that we would pay for the gasoline, oil, and for lunch for the volunteers.  I continued to explain that all the other volunteers who previously built the raft also worked for free.  She responded with silence.

Two days after our first trip we returned to Leticia with the community's boat for another load of materials.

Trip Number 2
During the second trip we carried mostly gravel, which is unavailable around the village of La Libertad.  The gravel is needed to make the concrete for the steps and a small pier/platform.  Currently the steps up the hill are cut from mud and clay, with wooden boards set at some locations.  These are difficult to use when the weather is dry.  After rain the steps are almost impossible to use without falling.

 

We are pulling out of the port of Leticia in route to La Libertad

Hector did not have his rain coat, but he did have a plastic bag!

The trip from Leticia to La Libertad normally takes a little over two hours in the project's boat.  However, the village's boat is larger, heavier, and has a 9 hp motor compared to the project's 13 hp motor.  Both boats were heavily loaded.  Because of this the trip upriver took a little over four hours.

The best time to travel on the river is during overcast days.  It is also enjoyable on a sunny day, but the heat can become exhausting, helps to cause dehydration, and sunburn is common.  We usually try to leave the village slightly before sunup.  And when traveling upriver from Leticia it is best to leave before noon. 

During the afternoon there is a greater chance of rain and thunder storms.

Many floating branches and trees make river travel hazardous

We entered the rainy season two month ago.  Since then the river has risen about 12 feet.  After major rain the branches and trees that have fallen by the river side are swept downstream.  Sometimes we had to avoid a 75 foot tree that is slowly making its way to the Atlantic.  If we hit one of the larger obstructions we risk breaking the propeller, or even worse, capsizing the boat.  When a boat capsizes the boat motor is frequently lost on the bottom of the slit-laden waters.

A former cocaine lab 10 kilometers downriver from La Libertad

Site-Seeing on the River 

While traveling on the river many interesting sites are passed.  Huge hotel resorts, new and old rafts, speed boats, and large oil tankers and barges or small one-person dugout canoes may be viewed.  One of my favorite landmarks is the ruins of a cocaine processing laboratory.  Some members of the village worked there when the drug trade was at its strongest, about 20 years ago.  Since then the Colombian side of the river has maintained greater lawfulness and has greatly reduce the presence of the illegal drug industry.

 

Paddling away!

We picked up travelers upriver.  They helped to pilot the boat.

20 gallons of gasoline.

Workers and watchers

The Arrival

We arrived at the village of La Libertad a little after 4:30 pm.  We were greeted by the representatives of the governor's office of International Relations.  They had arrived earlier on the speed boat with additional supplies and food for a cookout to celebrate the start of the raft and steps construction.  After briefly talking with the representatives, their speed boat arrived and they returned to Leticia.

At the top of the river back a small crowd of children and men were onlooking.  The children quickly arrived and volunteered to help carry supplies to the project's storage house.  The men continued to look on.

Our First Major Problem in the Village

We are now in the phase of the raft and pier building were the village must do their part for the project.  It is Amazon Pueblo's responsibility to help the village chief and member to apply for and manage the grant and project.  It is the government's responsibility to supply the promised materials, and it is the villager's responsibility to supply the labor needed to use the materials to complete the project.

Rumors

There have been rumors in the village that the chief and the Amazon Pueblo project are stealing money from the government and splitting it.  It has been gossiped that we are receiving a large amount of money to complete the dock, pier, and stairs.  These rumors are being spread by people who are not helping with the work of the project.  If I may be so bold to say, they are actually working against the goals of the project.

I have addressed these rumors in the past, but they continue to be spoken.  I am now going to address the people who are spreading the rumors personally and bring them the copies of the grant request, along with the receipts from the government, and the project's accounting records of 2015 and the beginning of 2016.  As these people are accusing me of corruption (a crime) without proof, they are in violation of the Colombian slander laws.

These same types of problems relating to government grants, corruption, and mismanagement of funds has plagued previous leaders of the village.  This is one of the reasons the village has no water system, bathroom or sanitation system, and almost no improved walkways other than dirt path that turn to thick, stinking mud with the rain and hot, humid climate.

Solution

However, the difference between the chiefs of the past and the Amazon Pueblo project is that we have the accounting records and receipts to give proof that we are not embezzling the funds.  The current and past chiefs have not had adequate accounting systems to be able to dispel the rumors.

One of the changes that we hope to implement is to teach the chief and the leaders of the village to follow good accounting practice.  They must be able to keep accurate records, implement financial controls to reduce the temptation of embezzlement, and to be able to answer to the charges of stealing money with proof that is indisputable.

We also plan to help the village to determine when and how to report possible instances of theft, corruption, and other crimes, as well as how to avoid the charges of slander.  We basically need to help the village to develop civility, civil society, and social justice.

The Concrete Steps

These steps are being built in the port of Leticia.  Our plans are very similar, but with much fewer steps.

Example

The picture of the steps above is an example of what we want to build on the riverbank of La Libertad.  The wood is used as forms to pour the concrete.  After the concrete has had time to dry and cure (at least 28 days), the wood is removed.

The Work

These steps are going to take a lot of work, some of which may be difficult to complete, considering very few people in the village have experience with concrete.

1. Find and bring 2 cubic meters of sand to the pier area
2. Find and cut the wood to build the forms
3. Build the forms
4. Prepare and set the rebar
5. Mix and pour the cement
6. Remove the molds

Unloading the building materials at sunset.  Luckily we arrived before dark.

What We Have Learned from Our First Colombian Grant

1. Plan for the grant to take many months to be realized.
2. Determine exactly who, in a written document, will be doing the village's contribution of manual labor.  If no one is identified as village volunteer workers, the grant will not go forward.
3. Have a better plan for communication with the office of the Colombian government.  Write out the expectations for both sides, the government's and Amazon Pueblo's, clearly in an official document.  Goals and strategies should be established.
4. Have a meeting with all involved sides to work out the logistics of the grant at least two weeks before receiving money or materials.
5. Have a clear system of signed receipts for goods or money received.
6. Establish an evaluation program for the grant.  The evaluation should directly relate to the goals and strategies agreed upon previously.

This winter is the time to visit the Amazon!

If you can come down to visit this winter, the time to plan is here! There are some good reasons to come now:

1. For people in the northeast US, the price of a plane ticket from Boston to Bogota is the lowest I have seen it in years.  Today JetBlue sent me an email advertising the sale.  During the first week of February the price was $350 round trip.  There may be similar deals in other parts of the country.
2. The US dollar vs the Colombian peso is the strongest it has been in the past 10 years.

 Your trip could also directly help the project:

1. Visitors can bring down child-sized life vests that are unavailable in Leticia.  (We could have them shipped, or possibly made for us, but the cost would be high.)
2. Visitor can also bring down donations of used baby and toddler clothing, which is in short supply in the village.
3. We are running out of peanut butter.

Please contact me through this blog if you need help with planning.  Here is a link to Planning a Trip to the Amazon.





Former Volunteers

Here are some picture of our last two volunteers, Beatriz and Paloma, from Brazil.  They taught circus skills to the village children.  They also evaluated the village for bio-construction projects like:

• mud ovens
• sod roofing
• composting toilets

Beatirz teaching juggling

Paloma climbing the Aerial Silk

Getting ready to teach the kids

A demonstration

Stephanie on the silk

Junior!

Please Remember Amazon Pueblo on Giving Tuesday!‏

AMAZON  PUEBLO

We help indigenous people of the Colombian Amazon to improve their lives through the development of sustainable business.

 

By your donation you are joining us to do this.

Thank You!

Amazon Pueblo is an IRS registered 501c3 organization.

EIN 46-0893738

We Have New Life Vests for the Village!

The adults of La Libertad now have life vests.  Our next step, vests for the children.

During times of storms, high winds, or fast current river travel can be dangerous.  The boats belonging to the community members are sometimes not very seaworthy.  At other times the boats are overloaded with people, items to transport, or both.

But how to help? Can we just buy and give out life vests? We don’t believe that will work. As the vests are free, they may not be valued. They may be sold by the villagers so that they may use the money for something that is a more immediate need. The life vests also need to be regularly dried, cleaned, and repaired. The proper use and care of the vests must be taught. All of these factor make the large scale “buying and giving away” wasteful.

Instead, we have created a loaning program, a LIFE VEST LIBRARY, to insure the proper distribution and use of the life vests:

• We have bought 20 adult vests. This will almost cover the maximum number of people on the river during any given day.  We now need at least 10 child-sized life vests.
• We will store the vests in a locked room on the village's dock.
• We will loan the vests out to people who will be on the river for the length of their trip.
• We will require a small deposit (cash or the equivalent of goods) in order to borrow the vest.
• We will keep records of the borrowers.
• We will maintain the vests.

We bought the vests in Leticia.

Hector cutting out the letters

 We printed and cut out stencils with which to mark the vests.

The vests are drying after the painting

We spray painted 'Amazon Pueblo" and "Property of La Libertad" on each vest.

Bringing the vest to the project's cabin in La Libertad

We delivered the vests to La Libetad.  Now comes the difficult part.  We must educate the villagers to use them when needed.  They must also treat the vests with care and return them after use.

We currently have a community project underway to build walls on and to reinforce the village's dock.  The work is scheduled for the first week of December, 2015.  Once this is done we will be able to house the life vest library.

They REALLY need life vests!

Now we need child-sized life vests!  We have part of the funding.  However, the vests are not available to buy in Leticia.  We may have to buy them in the US, then bring them down (little by little) when volunteers visit the village.  (Or have them shipped, which would be very costly.)  If anyone reading this is able to visit and bring some vests with them, PLEASE send me a message from this blog.

We are continuing to accept donations:

Thanks!

Director's Report November 2015

Dear Friends and Project Supporters,

We now have Internet in the Leticia office!

Blue-gray Tanager outside of our office

I have had a case of “welcome back to the Amazon” intestinal parasites (caused by cryptosporidium cysts) for the past three weeks. If I have diagnosed it properly, then I am now taking the right medication to clear it up. I probably got this from contaminated food/drink in a local restaurant. Unfortunately this has slowed me down a bit.

Washington Trip in October

SHI
I met with Sustainable Harvest International. They have a good 5-phase model that helps villages to develop sustainable agriculture. Their model would teach the villagers to grow, harvest, use, and sell their agricultural products. The model is designed to allow the villagers to develop self-sufficiency in their businesses.

I believe it would be good for us to form an information-sharing partnership with SHI. They are very open to this. We could use their model and techniques to help develop La Libertad’s agricultural businesses.

If at some time in the future we can locate funding sources, they may be able to send someone down to work with us. However, this would be some time in the future, and the money and commitment required would be significant.

Meetings with congressional representatives, foundations, and the Colombian ambassador to the USA

What I learned

• Money is available for our work in the Colombian Amazon –provided by the US and other governments at a national level, as well as by the Colombian government and other foundations. It will then go to our village mostly through government programs. However, just because it is available DOES NOT mean that it is easy to get. Many boxes need to be “checked off” on a grant request before receiving the support.
• It is most effective to develop connections between the many parts of the government, NGOs, and business, which will strongly support our efforts.
• One of the main problem faced by development efforts, as stated on the US Embassy on Colombia’s USAID webpage, “is not lack of national funding, but the inability of local governments to put forward effective infrastructure proposals and transparently and efficiently administer funds.”

Steve at the Disabled American Veteran's Memorial

As a result of what we learned, Amazon Pueblo will:

• Work closely with the community to help them to understand how to voice their needs
• Teach the villagers to organize into indigenous-led associations to advocate for themselves
• Teach the associations to connect to other foundations and agencies to apply for and effectively manage development funding
• Assist the villagers to develop sustainable, socially-conscious indigenous-led businesses
• Develop a model that may be used throughout the indigenous populations of the Amazon

Basically, we are making connections in Washington with the people who supply much of the money from US programs to Colombia. The money then goes through other agencies and eventually to Colombian entities. If these people in Washington, and the agencies which they support, and the Colombian government know who we are, and what we are doing, it should make the securing of funds more attainable.

Thank you very much to Steve Chisholm and Dan Martinez for helping me to set up appointments and taking me to meet people.

Ben and Miles Frechette (former US ambassador to Colombia)

Ben and Steve Chisholm

Project Updates

Office in Leticia
We have settled into our Leticia office. We will be there until at least May, 2016.

Internet
We now have a good internet connection in the office. It is through SkyNet. If you remember the Terminator series of movies, SkyNet was the computer that tried to extinguish all human life on Earth. This is a different SkyNet.
We really need this connection. The internet with other systems in Leticia is unusable. The technology that they use is quite remarkable. It relies a network of O3b mid-Earth orbit satellites.

Boat and Motor
Gustavo repainted the project’s boat and sealed the leaks. We have maintained his motor. We replace the piston, carburetor, coil, spark plug harness, and pull-starter. We need Gustavo’s motor for transportation while we have volunteers in the Amazon.

Motor repairs in Santa Rosa

Life Vests Project
We bought 20 good adult life vests from a vegetarian store in Leticia. This number should be sufficient for the adults. The store was selling them for On Vacation, the largest tour operator in the Colombian Amazon. However, I could not find any adequate child-sized life vests. What they sell here in Leticia is more like a child’s pool toy. We may have to ask volunteers to bring them down to us, little by little. (Anyone reading this who is thinking about visiting us, please contact me.) It would be good to have at least 10 child-sized vests.

Life vests from Leticia

Community Vegetable Gardens
There is a lack of variety and vegetables in the diet of the village. This contributes to poor nutrition. There is strong interest in growing vegetables in small community gardens (raised beds) in different areas around the village. All of these need to be fenced. We also need to create good growing soil.  The phosphorous content of the soil in the village is very low.

I have spoken with Sinchi, an agricultural technical support agency in Leticia. They are helping us with the technical know-how to start these gardens.

Kathy Cartwright, a friend and former co-worker, has encouraged us to apply for a grant from a non-profit she helps to manage called The Flannel Shirt Fund.

Dock Project
It seems like the supplies to repair and enhance the dock and build the pier will arrive in the village next week. I have been meeting weekly with the governor’s office for international relations.

They have also planned for a local artist to work with the children to paint a mural on the side of the dock, for refreshments to be served, and pictures with the community members taken.

Rosana, Suly, Ben, and Liliana in our Leticia office

Christmas Dinner for Village Children
Continuing our tradition, we are supplying the food needed for a Christmas dinner for 150 children of the village. It will be chicken soup and chicken with rice (like fried rice, but less greasy). It was a big hit last year.

Christmas Dinner 2014

Well Project
The well project is more complicated than I initially thought. The first thing I have done is to divide the formally combined well and sanitation (bathroom) project into separate projects. This simplifies the grant process for the Amazonian government and for the foundations to which we are expecting to apply.

While I have a spreadsheet worked out for the Coca Cola grant, this needs to be revised. I also have done a bit more research into grant writing which leads me to do some things to increase our chances of approval.

1. Get estimates for all the materials that will be used, including a line-by-line cost for the charges by the well drilling company.
2. Estimate the value of the “goods in kind” offered by the village for the project.
3. Have the village formally vote on the grant request and their contribution to the project. This is done by a “radicacion” process which generates the required paperwork from La Libertad.
4. Compile data which supports the need for the project. In this case I must contact the health department and try to get information on the numbers of people sick, and how this affects the village, due to the problems we are trying to address. In our grant request we will tell how the well will reduce the number of illnesses and improve the villagers’ quality of life.
5. Revise the Excel spreadsheet.
6. Translate and write the grant request on the Amazonian government’s forms.
7. Fill out and submit the online Coca Cola grant request.

Bathroom/Sanitation Project
I must basically do the same thing for the bathroom project that I will do for the well project.

Aquaculture Project
I am recommending to the village chief that we do not go forward with the aquaculture project. I believe this is prudent for the following reasons:

1. The level of reading and experience in following complex directions is very low in the village.
2. The village did not accept ownership of the dock to the level that they felt responsible for its upkeep. Granted, it is partly our responsibility to imprint the importance of the dock maintenance. We must make sure that they have a good system in place to designate who is responsible for repairs and from where the money will come to make these repairs.
3. The fish will die quickly if they are not properly cared for.

Cacao Pilot Project
Chocolate production and exportation is the future of the Colombian Amazon! If we don’t do it (sustainably and with social consciousness) someone else eventually will. If we help this production to happen we can guide it in an environmentally friendly direction, for the benefit of the indigenous people who work the land.

1. The cacao project requires the same data-driven proposal as the well and sanitation projects.
2. We need $55,000 for a pilot project of 10,000 trees. It would be best to have everything approved and start to plant these in 2016.

The future of the Colombian Amazon

Volunteers in the Village
I am now receiving 1 to 2 weekly requests for information about volunteering. I have put together a volunteer package that I email to our prospective volunteers. The package is pretty realistic, and so far we have only had two people out of the last 10 want to come to the village. I will forward a messages that I sent to a prospective volunteer to all of the directors.

The two volunteers from Brazil, Paloma and Beatriz, are pictured below. They arrived today. They will stay in the village for five days. They will help with the dock project if the materials arrive this week, planning for the community gardens, English teaching, evaluations for bio-construction projects, and circus skills teaching and performance.

Paloma and Beatriz

More Fundraising
Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday following Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It is being developed as a movement for people to give to charity after the spending sprees of the preceding days. I would send out emails, and do blog and Facebook posts. People in turn, hopefully, will share the email and the posts.

So far, we have not had much luck with crowdfunding sites like Razzo and Go Fund Me to bring in pledges. The vast majority of our donations come from people we know.

We will use the following link in our giving Tuesday message:

Amazon Pueblo is a registered 501c3 organization.  All donations are tax-deductible.

(If anyone tries this button and it dose not work, please tell me.)

Money from Grants
All of the grants I am writing include at least a 10% administration allowance. That means that if we receive $15,000 from a grant, at least $1,500 of that may be used for our administration of the grant money to complete the project for which the funding was given. This would give us a lot of help.

That’s it. As always, questions, comments, and advice are needed and appreciated.
Ben

Life Vests And Boat To Save Amazonian Children's Lives

This is our second social media campaign.  Please SHARE our story on Facebook, Twitter, or on any other media.  Thanks!

In June 2015 Fermil Arebelo, a 9 year old boy, drowned in the river when his boat capsized. Help us to save the next person in danger.

Fermil with our volunteer Sarah.

The Story

I returned to the village after a three hour boat trip from the city of Leticia. I had two volunteers with me to help in the village. The first, Beki, was a videographer from the United Kingdom. The second, Sabrina, was a dentist from Canada. We had left Leticia a little after 11 am. All of us were volunteering for the Amazon Pueblo project, based in La Libertad, Amazonas, Colombia. We were helping the indigenous people of La Libertad to develop sustainable, socially-conscious business. The village numbers 400 people.

The ride upriver had been a little choppy. The wind had been blowing, which caused waves and made the river navigation a bit more difficult. However, the sun was shining brightly and many billowy clouds passed overhead.

After walking from the river bank to our cabin we noticed a large crowd around the hut of our neighbor, Patricia. When I approached them my friend Wagner came over to greet us. After the introduction of our new volunteers, Wagner told me that the village had lost little Fermil, our 9 year old neighbor. My first though was that he was lost in the jungle, and that he could be found. But from the somberness of the crowd I realized that he had died.

Fermil with his aunt and cousins.

Fermil always loved to help other people in the village, and especially his parents. He was always one of the first kids to greet me after my return to the village. He would carry what seemed to be his own weight in supplies from our boat to our hut.

Earlier this morning he had gone with his father in their small, wooden boat to transport farina (made from dried cassava root) and handcrafts to the village of Puerta Alegria on the other side of the river in Peru. The boat was overloaded, a common but dangerous practice. By the time his father was in the center of the river the large waves caused the boat to capsize. Fermil went overboard and was caught by the current. He was a good swimmer, but he was pulled underwater before his father could reach him.

Fermil with his mother and brother

Back in the village many of the people blamed his father for the boy’s death. When we saw his father he was sitting to one side of their house in a dazed, shell-shocked look. Other people took it for granted as one of the things that just happens in this poor jungle community. They do not have sufficient money for adequate food, shelter, and clothing. Who could afford the luxury of a life preserver? And a big, well-powered, safer boat was entirely out of the reach of all the villagers.

We, the project’s volunteers, want to help to end the needless, avoidable loss of life due to drowning. This was the second child to drown this year. But how to help? Can we just buy and give out life vests? We don’t believe that will work. As the vests are free, they may not be valued. They may be sold by the villagers so that they may use the money for something that is a more immediate need. The life vests also need to be regularly dried, cleaned, and repaired. The proper use and care of the vests must be taught. All of these factor make the large scale “buying and giving away” wasteful.

Bathing at the riverbank

Instead, we will create a loaning program to insure the proper distribution and use of the life vests:

• Buy 5 baby life vests, 20 child vests. And 25 adult vests. This will cover the maximum number of people on the river during any given day.
• Build a storage, drying and maintenance cabin that may be used to keep the vests.
• Loan the vests out to people who will be on the river for the length of their trip.
• We will require a small deposit (cash or the equivalent of goods) in order to borrow the vest.
• Keep a record of the borrowers.
• Periodically maintain the vests.

This whole program is expected to cost $2000.  Any money that we raise above the $2000 needed for the vests will go into a fund to buy a village boat.

This craft is NOT seaworthy

The boat:

• Will be operated by the village chief.
• Will make regular bi-weekly trips to the city and other river villages.
• Will be fueled and maintained by funds collected by the chief during its use.

Riverfront

What will the village provide to this project?

The village will:

• Be involved in all stages of the development and running of the vest loan program.
• Supply the wood and labor needed to build the cabin.
• Clean and maintain the vests.
• Loan out and keep records of the vests.
• Give a small deposit of money or equal goods before being able to borrow a vest.

Thank you for helping the people of La Libertad.

Please share our story with you friends on Facebook and on other social media.