Update from Latin America
By Juan Manuel Martinez, Director of ECOPOL

2016 was a good year regarding our search for partners with the capacity to use, teach and spread the Biointensive method in Latin America.

Amigos De La Tierra España: www.foeeurope.org/spain. This NGO works with several countries in the world. Guillermo Barreiro is the person in charge of its affiliate in Nicaragua. He's now a certified teacher for the Biointensive method and helps to teach others about GROW BIOINTENSIVE. He recently—together with me and other teachers—taught workshops in El Salvador and Honduras. He negotiated and received $4000 USD equivalent to print copies of HTGMV once the Spanish translation is ready. He is also working with John Wyss, an American, to get better prices on the printing of 10,000 copies for the Universidad Nacional Agraria (Agricultural National University). We prepared a project that will be approved in July 2017, to work in conjunction with Cataluña, Spain, and other countries.

SWISSAID: www.swissaid.ch/en/home. Last August I was invited by the agroecology movement in Ecuador to give lectures in Imbabura, Ibarra, Guayaquil, Riobamba, Quevedo and Portoviejo. I also taught workshops in four of those cities. Some technicians asked Fernando, director of the organization, to be trained, and I was invited to return in October. We also traveled through Latacunga, Guangaje, Cotopaxi and San Lorenzo, and a workshop was taught in each. The certified teachers of Vibrant Villages coordinated with Eduar Pinzon who helped me with the practical side of the workshops.

ECHO: www.nih.gov/echo. Due to a suggestion made by Michael Richardson, I was invited by Environmental Influences on Child Health Concerns, a project of the US National Institutes of Health, to be the main speaker last October. I gave a conference about climate change in Nicaragua during this year's international meeting. I always take advantage of these opportunities to introduce the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method and make new friends and partners. Ricardo and Haya Romero, along with Marisol and Agustín, also participated. I negotiated with the person in charge of the Haitian venue—the country where the next congress will be held—to participate and teach three workshops for different audiences: university students, NGOs and farmers. A conference will be held before the congress, another during and one when the congress is over

During 2016 we created four GROW BIOINTENSIVE centers, in Mexico, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Peru, for the diffusion of GB in Latin America. There are certified teachers working really hard in each of these centers. We expect to create a new center in Chile for the Southern Cone next year. It is hoped that this center will reach out to Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay as well as Chile.

Related topic:
Read about ECOPOLs online presence in the article Comunidad Biointensiva: A Growing Friendship in this issue.

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