Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000
From: (Eric Sableman)
To: (Sara Corbett)
Subject: possible internships in Unity with Nature

I have been working (slowly) on the idea brought up at Yearly Meeting of creating internship opportunities for college-age Quakers to work on projects having an ecological focus.

Each intern would work on some practical aspect of caring for the Earth, but at the same time would be aware of and witness to the role of spirit as a motivation underlying social and environmental action. I would expect PYM Committee on Unity with Nature to raise 1/2 the intern's travel and support costs, plus materials, and the intern to raise the other half. Hopefully, everything would come together by next summer so that one to four young Friends could spend a month or two in the field, then come report to us at next PYM.

I have identified 3 Quaker-oriented projects, of varying degrees of difficulty:

1. Greenfire sustainable forestry project - "Greenfire" is the "living systems design" endeavor of Dick and Mary Hogan, located on 600+ acres of forest and former farmland in New Marshfield, Ohio (phone 740-664-4028). I met the Hogans at the Friends Committee on Unity with Nature meeting Oct 7 -8 in Toronto. This is the easiest "official" internship to set up, since they are already accepting volunteers to help with the project.

2. Center for Development in Central America - This is an intentional community of 4 adults, one of whom is a Quaker (she visited Palo Alto Meeting), located in Cuidad Sandino, Nicaragua. In the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, they have been rebuilding water supplies and teaching sustainable agriculture and appropriate technology for cooking (forests that provide firewood having been either cut or leveled by the storm). The community is prepared to accept volunteers.

3. Greenhouse for Uganda Yearly Meeting reforestation project - This comes from the visit of Christopher Wabuula-Kakala, clerk of Uganda YM, to FWCC and PYM. Among the many needs in Uganda is a greenhouse for raising tree seedlings to replant forests and orchards; the seedlings are grown by a women's collective, and given to settlers in deforested regions. This is the most difficult project: we would have to buy or arrange for donation of a pre-fabricated greenhouse, ship it to Nairobi, then by truck inland. The intern(s) - two might be less daunted than one - would shepherd the shipment and assemble it on site, then determine what else is needed. There is no precedent for support of volunteers for this project, but hospitality in Quaker homes will be arranged.

I have asked AFSC about getting help with fund-raising for internships. AFSC already has student service projects among native Americans in the US and Mexico. These are typically a week or two long; the contact is Mike Gray (520-212-4696, email: [email protected]).

There are possible internships available at EarthLight Magazine and the FCUN office, but these are not field-work, but rather learning how to produce publications (contact information provided if requested). While looking for Quaker-oriented opportunities, I came across a number of non-religious environmental projects, which might benefit by a Quaker presence; for example, "GreenCorps", which trains and places environmental campaign worker/organizers with groups engaged in social actions (www.greencorps.org).

There is an interesting community-initiative biodiversity preservation project underway in a national park near Mexico City (www.parquesannicolas.com.mx/index.html). I found out about it from a poster by Laura Calandrella, an Arizona State student (http://lsvl.la.asu.edu/ubep2000/abstracts/abst63/index.htm). It looks like they could use more help, but we would have to find out what they need that our intern could provide.

Sara, I hope you will circulate this among Young Friends, and get some feedback as to whether any of this is what they are looking for. I have not added you to the "quakernature" email list as yet; there hasn't been much discussion circulated since PYM. Most of what there has been, I have started posting to a web site for PYM-Unity with Nature (members.aol.com/quakern ature); I encourage you and others to read the postings and offer your comments.