and Maseru, Lesotho, Southern Africa
A 501 c 3, public charity
Our Mission: To increase the food security of the world's poorest people using gravity- fed drip irrigation and re-cycled water, enabling them to grow vegetables when there is no rain.
What's New!: 11 Oaks personnel were busy in Lesotho during November. We installed gravity fed irrigation at community gardens, four hospitals, and four high schools across the country. Country Director Nthethe Mafisa also lined up training sessions at these locations and more. 11 Oaks Board members Tessa Bell and Chris Skellenger, along with N'tate Mafisa, were "training the trainers" to ensure the sustainability of gravity fed drip irrigation projects initiated by 11 Oaks and their partners.
We'd like to thank the following groups for their incredible support for the November 2009 projects and indeed thank everyone whose generous support helps empower subsistence farmers in drought plagued areas to feed themselves:
Newpark Resources
The Rotary Club of Belleville, Ontario, Canada
Heron Oaks Foundation
Rainbird Irrigation
======================================
"Our country is facing a period of great drought, and to rely on rain for agriculture is a thing of the past for us..."
-- letter to 11 Oaks from Lesotho's Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security
In drought-ravaged Lesotho, 30% of the children are orphans, the life expectancy is 38 yrs and falling, the country has the 3rd highest rate of HIV, their cultural legacy of self sufficient food production is rapidly disappearing due to the Pandemic and emigration to South Africa to find work (usually in the mines). There are many wonderful things about Lesotho as well.... but now you know why 11 Oaks has chosen to focus it's efforts there.
WHY GROW VEGETABLES? When the fickle African rains cease, meals consist of the more store-able grains because there is not enough rainfall to grow vegetables. Balanced diets cease and people get sick... hey, imagine if you and I ate just oatmeal (or some other tasteless goo) every day for ten months......you get the idea? Health...Education...Hope...Current Maseru weather
The sites we established in November are busy being replanted with winter vegetables, primarily cabbage provided by 11 Oaks and our country coordinator, Mr. Mafisa
Our work in Lesotho is ongoing, but, staff members from N. America are returning to work hands -on in November, 2009. We have projects lined up in 7 different areas of the country, from the capital city to the far, high mountains. We will be working with Sentebale, World Vision, and the Lesotho Intereligious Aids Consortium.
The 11 Oaks Research Farm in Empire, Michigan has developed a bucket kit that appears to be longer lasting, easier to clean, more universally available, and cheaper than the kits commonly used in Africa. Please contact us for a description and you can build your own out of materials and fittings that can be found in any decent sized city on the planet.
Our 4th annual fundraiser on October 11 at the Village Inn in Empire, Michigan was great fun with great music as usual.
Here is "air guitar" Lesotho-style:
The research farm provided vegetables that we sold at Farm Markets in Leelanau County this summer. All proceeds went to the purchase of pipe and materials for Lesotho.
below: July 10
At home in Leelanau County, 11 Oaks co-founder Susan Skellenger tends some tomatoes in the polyhouse that houses an 11 Oaks bucket kit garden.
The plants receive no natural rain. The only water they get is through the kit, just as in drought stricken areas of the 3rd World. Corn, cabbage, onions, melons, and peppers are
all doing great on just 10 gallons of water per day!
The average daytime temp in the house is about 100 F.
below: august 1...
a bucket kit garden begins... with the bucket visible at top of photo
General Philosophy
We are dedicated to encouraging the implementation of simple subsistence agricultural technologies in accordance with the time honored principles and methods suggested in the text Two Ears of Corn by Roland Bunch and World Neighbors.
Any changes we make in the lives of traditional peoples must be readily accepted and self-sustaining. Situations for involvement are carefully chosen so that the odds of success are as high as possible; for in these types of activities it is often better to not try than it is to try.... and fail. We seek to send our goods and services directly to the areas of need--- to distribute technologies, interact with the local extentionists, and to network with other 'on the ground' relief organizations.
Please contact us for information on how to lend your expertise, moral support, or financial support!
11 Oaks
P.O. Box 251
Empire, Mi, USA 49630
phone: 231-325-0092
contributions are tax deductible under section 501 c 3 of the internal revenue code!
id # 20-5939192
Quotable....
"It's better to teach 100 people one thing- than 100 things to one person" 'Two Ears of Corn" by roland bunch
"World hunger can be eliminated by simply growing 2 ears of corn where once there grew only one....." roland bunch
"The need for irrigation here is beyond what you could have imagined, but not insurmountable...." tessa bell, returning from witnessing firsthand the need for food security in Lesotho
"It's hard to embrace technology if there's no place to plug it in" anon.
"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have a hell of a good time.... Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult" E.B. White... speaking, I think, for all of us!
"...will work for food!!!".....all of us at 11 Oaks
