Went to the DIACONIA office today. The office is in one of the poorest areas. Carmella said it was nice that the office in this area because these are the people that are most helped by DIACONIA.
It was interesting to find out how DIACONIA works. It was first developed in Yancast in 1974. DIACONIA is part of Lutheran World Federation and is involved in national development. DIACONIA is also a part of ACT Alliance.
DIACONIA has many diverse projects. Currently, there are 9 areas that they work on:
1. Micro finance
2. Children's health
3. Nutrition
4. Environment protection
5. Domestic violence
6. Creating local markets in the Andy's
7. Reforestation
8. Farming
9. Political climate change (working with ACT Alliance on this
DIACONIA is also working with United Nations Climate change inc.
Financial support comes from:
- Lutheran church of Sweden
- Belgium government
- CLWR
- Local donations
- and a few more
DIACONIA needs to find other funding, as there currently isn't enough money to go around.
To support a project, it's approx. $100,000 (American). The CLWR funded project in Casma empowers 300 farmers and costs approx. $50,000/year.
Projects take approx. 1-1/2years to develop, therefore, they are currently developing projects for 2015.
2013-2014 projects include:
-climate change
-reforestation
-seed protection
-preventing water contamination
As new projects start and new ones are developed, current projects continue. CLWR is involved in the projects in Casma only.
In Casma, promotors help at the farms with education. Recruiting for promotors happens thru Robert going to small towns and having meetings to explain the education offered. He works with farmers who have the least (poverty); 1/2-2 hectares of land. Farmers also have agree to certain "rules":
1. Teared land
2. Soil preservation
3. Avoid soil erosion by diversification
4. The use of NO chemicals
DIACONIA is interested in working with mining companies directly, to develop regulations. Today, there are 82 different mining companies in Peru, that have multiple mines each. They are large corporations that have more "power" and $$$, therefore they are able to bypass the Governments and don't have to pay taxes on signed contracts or follow Canadian regulation.
These mining companies do not employ locals because you need to be educated to work there; the workers are from the big cities and only make $2000/month. These companies also have outlandish requests; example: one mine wants to move an entire lake to another location in Peru because there is Gold under the water.
Due to this interest, Carmella will be contacting Canadian churches to talk about Social Reform and relations with small businesses.
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