Tololamos had another good year in 2019. Our family of scholarship recipients grew and we awarded over $6k in scholarships to secondary school, university & English language students. We brought a digital piano & music books down to the León School of Music, gave cases of medical supplies to the Tololar health post, and awarded more laptops to high-performing students. We started five new tree nurseries with poor families in El Tololar, and the wood & fruit trees they grow will soon start to provide them with another source of income.
2019 by the numbers
As one of the only NGOs that works in the Tololar region, we’re active in a lot of areas. But we can effective in all of them because we know the community intimately. Our projects are conceived, planned and executed by residents of El Tololar, and we’ve touched a lot of lives through our efforts.
(Or, pledge a one-time donation here!)
In 2020, we’re going to continue these projects, and we also think it’s time to get a little more hands-on with reforestation.
Most of El Tololar looks like this: just groups of houses scattered amongst large fields, which are mostly planted with peanuts. These enormous fields lie totally empty during the 7-month dry season, and whip up these awful dust storms that make life dirty, choking and generally unpleasant for most of the community. The lack of trees also makes Tololar even hotter in an already hot climate. And as climate change advances, these things are going to get worse.
So, here’s the plan: we’re going to aggressively promote the use of expanded windbreaks between fields, using trees to tamp down wind speeds and control the dust. In ten years, we aim to have 75% of all north-south field dividers to be three rows of trees wide. In areas where a family can care for them, we’ll use fruit trees, which will economically more than offset the slight loss of productive field area.
Secondly, we’re going to plant a forest.
Land in El Tololar is cheap by US standards. One manzana of land (about 1.7 acres) costs around USD $2000. We’re going to buy plots of land, plant native tree species and hire poor families to look after them. Once the forests are established, selective and sustainable wood-harvesting can make them economically productive, while still providing habitat, shade and dust control for the community.
Trees grow slowly, and ecosystems recover slowly. This is a long-term project that’s going to require thought, planning and continued care. If you’re able to become a monthly donor to Tololamos, you’ll help us grow these forests at the same time that we provide students with scholarships, award laptops to talented kids, help small business projects and continually be there for the residents of El Tololar.
(Or, pledge a one-time donation here!)