The 2009-2010 Global Seed Fund Grants were awarded at Lisle fall meeting. The grant committee reviewed five applications for Global Seed Fund support this year and, as always, we find ourselves encouraged to see the wonderful work that is going on in so many places in the world to improve lives and increase cultural awareness.
In our sixth year of the grant program, Lisle chose to support four of the projects. All of the projects are new to us. In some cases the project will take place in a region we have not been involved with before, and in one case the project will piggy back on a project which ws previously funded. Below are descriptions of the organizations and their projects.Next summer’s Tompotika "Pantai Bersih" Beach Clean–Up and Trash Jamboree is an effort to address a thorny and unpleasant environmental problem in a substantive but lighthearted way. Sponsored by the Alliance for Tompotika Conservation / Aliansi Konservasi Tompotika, or "AlTo" for short, mentored by long–time Lisler Judy Brown, and based in AlTo’s project area in the Tompotika peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia, the project will combine a hands–on effort to clean up trash along Tompotika’s badly–littered beaches and inland areas with a high–spirited, cooperative outreach effort to encourage a new and better way of managing waste in the region.
In this project, 8–10 AlTo Eco–Service travelers from abroad will spend two weeks traveling on a "Trash Bus" from village to village within Tompotika. The group will begin the Jamboree in Luwuk, the gateway city to Tompotika, where a kick–off event will be held and there will certainly be lots of media attention, given the novelty of international travelers coming to pick up trash! Then the group will board the Trash Bus, making a tour of Tompotika coastal villages. At selected villages, the group will stop and join with a locally–organized team from that village to spend the day picking up all visible trash, focusing first on the beaches but also inland in dwelling areas, in a cooperative "Pantai Bersih" (Clean Beach) effort. The trash collected will be bagged, inventoried according to international Marine Plastics Debris protocols, and properly disposed of. To end the day, there will be an open gathering for all villagers and visitors with food, skits–featuring animal costumes and lighthearted dramas illustrating the effect of trash on wildlife—and more community–building and awareness activities, underscoring the sense of celebration for the event. Trash receptacles will also be provided to remain in each village.These efforts are aimed at raising awareness of the tremendous problem of improper trash disposal and marine plastic pollution, and at encouraging new habits of proper waste disposal to benefit people, wildlife, and the environment. After the Trash Jamboree, when the visitors have left, AlTo"s local staff will follow up with these villages on an ongoing basis, checking back with schools and village leaders on how the new waste disposal regime is going, trouble–shooting, and supporting positive change so that the effort is not simply a one–time clean–up.
This project is part of AlTo"s other efforts to promote nature conservation and sustainable living, Which includes projects for endangered maleo birds and sea turtles, a new rainforest preserve, and an ongoing Conservation Awareness Campaign. In these projects, international supporters partner with local Tompotikans to find ways to celebrate and conserve the natural heritage of this area, which is one of the Earth’s most critical for conservation and biodiversity. In addition to the Trash Jamboree, the eco–service travelers will have the opportunity to view unique and endangered wildlife, snorkel the world"s richest coral reefs, and visit informally with local villagers. Lislers interested in joining the group should contact AlTo Director Marcy Summers for more information: The Alliance for Tompotika Conservation, 21416 – 86th Ave SW, Vashon, WA 98070 USA; tel/fax: +1-206-463-7720; e-mail: tompotika@tompotika.org; www.tompotika.org.This project is co–funded by Lisle and Friends of African Village Libraries. In this project, students in 4th grade (CM1) class in five villages in southwestern Burkina Faso will be invited to attend one-week reading camps during the summer of 2010. Each camp will have approximately 20 students, 2 student assistants now in CM2 who attended camp the previous year, 4 local adult camp counselors, and one or more international camp counselors (typically American college students). Students will be provided with breakfast and lunch. Camp will be located in village library, and run from 8am–2pm, Monday–Friday (with Saturday as rain day if needed).
Students will have individual reading assistance in camps and have access to art, music and physical education. This is quite beneficial for students in rural Burkina Faso where class size ranges are 65-90 students per class and reading is quite poor. Librarians have learned many interaction skills during camps that have since been adopted as regular activities in the libraries. Camp counselors, both local and international, acquired experience and developed leadership skills, and are more able to run future camps. Communities are more engaged in library activities and through these camps are developing a reading culture in a country with one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. This is the only summer camp that these rural children will ever have the opportunity to attend. Friends of African Village Libraries' goal is to assist the rural poor of Africa with the creation of village libraries. This is accomplished by working closely with the communities in which the libraries are established. FAVL refurbishes community-donated buildings, transforming them into a space to read and study. Libraries are stocked with books by local authors and in local languages to the greatest extent possible. In addition, FAVL sponsors librarian training and provides for librarian salaries, thereby empowering locals with skilled employment. FAVL also offers library programming, geared toward children in an effort to promote literacy and a reading culture. Recent FAVL efforts have focused on creating children's books in local languages and French. FAVL is the only organization in Burkina Faso producing these sorts of books.The experience of summer reading camps in 2008 and 2009 has enabled FAVL to draw up a camp manual and camp schedule with detailed instructions for activities during the course of the week, and timelines for implementing camps. The bulk of camp time is devoted to a variety of reading activities: individual reading; group reading aloud (by taking turns, or having one person read a story); listening to counselors and peers read stories from books; creating short plays; creating short books; discussion of books read together. For commentary and images from summer 2008 camps, see friendsofafricanvillagelibraries.blogspot.com/search?q=summer+camp
Mentor info: Smita Patel is the co-founder of Mountain Children's Forum and a Lisle board member. She splits her time between the project in India and the non–profit organization EdSource, which conducts research about California K-14 education policy.Project proposal applications should be submitted to the Lisle office by September 18th, 2009. Key required elements contained in the application include:
Lisle Board members will provide consultation in the developing of proposals to fulfill this funding opportunity. Please feel free to call, write, or email for further details or help.
