Dear all! 😀
As I walked into my living room 3 weeks ago, my eyes were drawn to the window by a noise I couldn't place. Outside the window, Earth Prayers flyers were fluttering through the air in the sun's rays!
They were being sucked outside by the breeze of the refreshing spring wind through the open crack just off the desk and distributed from the 4th floor to the surrounding area....
I wonder if a flyer fell at someone's feet down in the park?
It was an enchanting symbol for me of how important and beautiful it is to carry our valuable project further into the world.
Just one evening before, an ambitious team had organized a benefit event for us at the enchanting Schloss-Schule St. Georgen. It was a wonderful evening full of open hearts, dancing, singing, sharing and networking.
390 Euro donations were handed over to us ~ we divided them to our 4 April projects ❤️
Thank you Gabi, Elvira, Su, Anja, Lenka and Manuel for your work and to all who were there, thank you for this beautiful celebration!
And with this I would like to call ~ if any of you also have a great idea, e.g. to organize a charity event ~ we are happy from the bottom of our hearts! Let's celebrate Earth Prayers together and show the world ❤️
... And ~ you can also have flyers from us, they don't all have to be blown away by the wind ;-)
Now we're flying on to our May projects ~ this time, our journey starts in India:
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☀️ 2. - 8.5. * Free Seeds * Navdanya ~ Indien ❤️
Vandana Shiva is a hero of our time ~ with unspeakable dedication and courage, she launched the NGO Navdanya and has been a pioneer for free seeds, organic farming and especially for the rights and empowerment of Indian smallholder women farmers. To date, Navdanya has established more than 100 community seed banks ~ in 22 states, over a period of 26 years!
For the 2nd time this year, we would like to support Vandana Shiva's project ~ simply because we think it's great. And have deep respect for what this woman has created valuable and contributes to our world through her courage and vision. Let's nourish this great doing together!
For those who are new to our mailing list ~ you can read more about it here on our website:
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☀️ 9 - 15.5 * Sustainable Agriculture * Sumak Kawsay, Reforestation & Beekeeping ~ Peru ❤️ "Sumak Kawsay" is the Quechua term for "The Good Life" or "Being in Harmony with Nature". It is also the name of Ysa Calderón's environmental company. She founded it in 2017 with the goal of giving native bees and other important pollinators back their homes. To achieve this, she conducts reforestation and research in the Salas district of northern Peru.
Together with Peruvian biologist Stefany Liau-Kang, she is planting palo santo trees, as these are particularly popular with native bees, but at the same time the population of these trees has been considerably decimated by the high international demand for the smoked wood. Stefany is conducting research in a laboratory in Brazil to find out which other native tree species the pollinators like best.
After we were able to successfully support Sumak Kawsay at an earlier time, the two women have now approached us again.
They ask us for support to build a tree nursery to raise their seedlings in the mountains. Furthermore, the two women would like to have a chainsaw and a drill for the construction of more bee houses.
Ysa wants to live her dream and at the same time earn a decent income and create a sustainable job for herself. Therefore, she sells honey and regional seeds. Currently, she still needs support from people and organizations to build her environmental business in a sustainable way.
We are very grateful for her work and would like to continue to support her in her tireless work to restore the native ecosystems and food sovereignty of her region!
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☀️ 16 - 22.5 * Nature & Culture * Samburu, Agriculture ~ Kenya ❤️
We have already been able to make a lot of things happen for the Samburu tribe :-) The establishment of an online store for the wonderful handicrafts of the Samburu women ~ the financing of seeds for a first, rich vegetable harvest ~ the procurement of water containers for the water grant ~ the planting of about 300 trees!
Now another 300 trees are to be planted and we want to make it happen together with you!
You can read more about the fulfilling cooperation with the Samburu here:
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☀️ 5/23 - 5/29 * The Empowered Woman ~ House of Births ~ Peru ❤️
In the "Sacred Valley of the Incas," in the Andes Mountains of Peru, an inspiring woman is doing deeply valuable, transformative work.
Her project, "Ruruchay - Casa de Nacimientos," supports women who give birth naturally in the company of their families and traditional laboring birth attendants.
"When we accompany births naturally, we do nothing except trust nature and the woman's body."
It has been particularly difficult for indigenous women to adapt to the conditions of giving birth in hospitals. Many would prefer to give birth in a natural environment, but there is a lack of opportunities to do so in many places. On top of that, it is not allowed to give birth outside of hospitals in Peru!
Ruro, a traditional doula and also a midwife trained in Western medicine, is not intimidated by this - step by step she is realizing her dream:
To build a small village where Peruvian women and women from all over the world can give birth in a loving atmosphere and experience their birth as sacred, natural, safe and anestral! A place where midwives and doulas are present for support. Also, Ruruchay is to become a training center where the millennia-old knowledge of the traditional birth attendants of the Andes of Peru is passed on and thus preserved.
Already much has moved ~ At the end of April the construction of the birth village was started! 7 birth houses are to be built. We have great respect for Ruro's work and her courage. Only through such courage and determination old strict structures can slowly be broken through and the breeding ground for projects of the New Era be prepared and strengthened. A New Time, in which primordial wisdom can again take more space. The more people follow the call to visit such places and to carry on what they have experienced there, the more it will find its way into all our lives and everyday life.
Let us continue to contribute together so that the vision of Ruro becomes a reality and can change and deeply enrich the lives of many families! We all know how important the birth process is for the future of our children and thus the earth!
A big and touched THANK YOU for this great project ❤️
Ruro thanks Earth Prayers for the support already received and shows where the construction work will soon start for shelters for women who want to give birth naturally, with dignity and well cared for! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts dear Ruro for your so important work! Nurturing visions together. www.earth-prayers.com
Ruro from Peru presents her wonderful vision! A place for natural births in the Sacred Valley of Peru!
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☀️ 5/30 - 6/5 * Unfolding for Children * Dental Hygiene and School Project ~ Guatemala ❤️#
Andreas Degenhardt has started a project for indigenous children and their families. He has been living on a cacao farm for 9 months and became aware of important circumstances. I'll let him tell it himself...
"Over time, I have gained the trust of our workers' children and also their mothers. Whenever I was in front of the hut in the morning, the kids would come to curiously observe what the gringo was up to. And when I looked into the mouths of even the smallest ones, I was really frightened. Almost all the children already have the worst tooth decay. As a first measure, I bought toothbrushes, toothpaste and cups and gave them to the children in the neighborhood - in the hope that all the children would now brush their teeth diligently. They all did that for about 2 - 3 days. Then no more....
This led me to the decision to ask a neighbor if she could teach the children how to take care of their teeth. Thus, the dental hygiene project was born. We were able to hire a trained teacher (Erika) who teaches the children 4 days a week. In the course of this, even the youngest children are trained in dental hygiene and general hygiene. In practical terms, this means that the teeth are always brushed together before the lessons.
In addition, we were able to convince three dentists to examine the children pro bono. The nearest dentist is about 80 km away and treatment is unaffordable for the vast majority of people here.
Other valuable points of Erika's teaching are environmental awareness and nutritional awareness. These involve questions such as: Why shouldn't we just throw away plastic? (This is a big problem not only in this area). Why shouldn't we drink water when there is washing in the river above? What is "good" food? - In the beginning, tortillas, super cola, sweets and beans were eaten. This leads to lack and malnutrition, although this country is so rich in natural things!
In this context, we have started two other projects that are maintained by the children under the supervision of the teacher:
A school garden to grow vegetables and a chicken coop with 12 chickens for eggs and meat.
Since the school here in the area is not given much importance by the government, we have further expanded the teaching to include the three basic subjects of reading - arithmetic - writing in the languages Qeqchi and Spanish. It is important to understand that 98% of the people here do not speak Spanish and therefore access to public assistance is almost non-existent.
What we want to realize with your help:
1. We would like to build tables and benches so that the children do not have to sit on plastic chairs that are much too big.
We continue to invest in toothbrush things (no family can afford that here)
Buying books, painting utensils and other teaching materials
Paying for materials that the dentists will have to buy during their next visit in May. Their activity, as I said, is pro bono (so it is work done voluntarily for the common good, with little or no pay).
I have financed a large part of these activities with my own money. But we would like to expand this project after a phase of gaining experience. First we learn what helps, what does not help and where European thinking is not compatible with Guatemalan / Qeqchi thinking.
We are very grateful for your willingness to support us!"
And we are grateful that there are people like Andreas who pay close attention instead of looking away and take action to bring change and ease! THANK YOU! ❤️
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We look forward to your contributions and are excited to see how much we can raise together in May!
In this regard, an important info for those of you who send us the contributions via PayPal ~ per transfer 50 cents will be deducted and go to PayPal. We think this is a pity! By transferring via bank account, this can be prevented and we can forward 100% of your contributions to our projects.
Last month we had great contributions ~ also because many new supporters joined! Yay!!! ❤️
We have already received news from Grimberg José from Venezuela that he has already started building his roof 🙂
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Now another beautiful, colourful journey ends and I wish you a blissful May! Let us enjoy what we have! Feel what is THERE and be grateful for the abundance from which we may draw ❤️🌿
All the love,
Sandra Shalamun & Katrin Andrä
for Earth Prayers
