If yes, provide organization name.
Sustainable Harvest International
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) maintains partnerships with businesses, schools, congregations, clubs and more. Without these partnerships, SHI would not be able to operate with the same efficiency and effectiveness that we currently achieve.
SHI always partners with a local organization when beginning work in an area. SHI’s reforestation efforts go hand in hand in working with local community groups on watershed restoration; and SHI also collaborates with other international organizations on special projects. For instance, SHI recently joined forces with the Red Cross to install solar composting latrines in Belize.
SHI does not have any form of partnership with the U.S. government, but in some cases our affiliates work with local municipal governments. For example, in Santa Barbara, Honduras, the local government has collaborated with SHI on tree planting. SHI also coordinates Smaller World Tours for volunteers to gain first-hand knowledge of the issues the organization is working to address.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
1. Amplify organizational outreach and public awareness of our work.
2. Increase the number of non-monetary and monetary partnerships with businesses, community groups and organizations.
3. Secure new and ongoing funding sources.
By increasing the number and variety of partnerships, SHI will be able to take on more innovative ventures such as the successful school program with Rutilia Del Carmen Pena grade school, situated in a remote and mountainous area of Honduras. The school director, Maynor Arita, said, "This is the first time that an organization has come to our school to help us because we are so far from Azacualpa (the nearest large town) and because of the terrible path no one has ever tried to come where we are.”
First, SHI provided the tools and training to establish a school garden. The students spent three months caring for their garden with a field trainer, and things went so well that they harvested sweet peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, cabbages, corn and beans. According to Maynor Arita, "the children ate until they could burst and they brought the vegetables to their homes and ate with their parents and little brothers and sisters.” The students produced enough vegetables to sell and raise funds that were used to improve the school. SHI also created a tree nursery with 1,000 plants of mahogany, cedar and yellow cassia. The students were then able to reforest the watershed of the community and the school grounds. After seeing such motivation on the part of the students, SHI established a fund for the creation of a social entrepreneurship project maintained by the students with support from their teachers.