Finding Balance Between People, Food and Forests
OUR MISSION:
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Maya Nut Institute is a nonprofit 501(c)3 public charity founded in 2001. While our mission remains the same, we changed our name from The Equilibrium Fund to The Maya Nut Institute in 2010. Our mission is to "find balance between people, food and forests" by teaching rural communities about the value of Maya Nut for food, fodder, ecosystem services and income. We maintain an "open access" policy with our documents, materials, photos, manuals and other information. This is in keeping with our goal of sharing any and all knowledge about Maya Nut with as many people as possible as quickly as possible. If you are visiting this website and use information from it, please be considerate and cite MayaNutInstitute.org as the source. This will help inform more people about us and our work with the end result being increased conservation and reforestation of Maya Nut for the future. Our organization works as a horizontal hierarchy, with individual country programs having as much autonomy as possible regarding program planning, partners, administration, spending and staff. Our goal is for each country staff, participants and/or partners to eventually spin-off and form an organization that can continue the work we started together. We believe that this is the best way to ensure program continuity and empowers them with a powerful tool to solve their own problems. So far we feel successful: - Guatemalans have formed two national organizations, one NGO, (National Maya Nut Association), and one Association, CODEMUR (Commitee for Rural Women's Development)
- El Salvador is in the process of forming a national Cooperative. These are major milestones for Maya Nut Institute and serve as a legacy for our program hopefully for many years to come
- Nicaraguan partner organization, Masangni, has adopted the Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests Maya Nut school lunch program as a part of their program strategy to meet their conservation and rural development goals in Miskito indigenous communities.
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HOW WE WORK
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Maya Nut (Brosimum alicastrum) is in the fig family (Moraceae). It was the staple food for prehispanic cultures throughout the neotropics, who probably ate it boiled and protected it as a source of food which attracted their favorite game species (deer, wild pigs, large forest rodents). In recent history thousands of villages survived drought, war and famine by eating Maya Nut when no other food was available. It is truly a "lifesaving" tree. Today, however, the food value of the Maya Nut is largely forgotten and rural people cut it for fuel and to plant corn and other annual crops. The Maya Nut Institute works to rescue the lost indigenous knowledge about the Maya Nut for food, fodder and ecosystem services in rural communities throughout the historic range of the Maya Nut tree.
"My grandparents ate Maya Nut, they told me about it, but they never cooked it for me. I never had it until you came and taught us recipes. Im really glad to know about it, its really good food, really nutritious.." - Lucia Rodriguez de Flores, Guatemala
"We had a drought here that lasted 7 years. The corn just withered and died. Even the platanos (bananas) dried up and did not produce. We went to the forests and gathered Maya Nut and we ate that, some weeks it was all we had, just boiled Maya Nut and maybe some corn. Without Maya Nut we all would have died." Jose Lira, Cosiguina Nicaragua
"During the war my father couldnt plant the corn or anything. He couldnt even go outside, none of us could, it was too dangerous. My grandmother went out at night and collected Maya Nut seed from beneath the big trees by the river. We had to eat them raw because a fire was not possible. We survived almost a month on the Maya Nut and other things my grandmother scavenged at night. She saved our lives, Maya Nut saved our lives." Elvia Sanchez, Morazan, El Salvador
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WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
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Since we started work in 2001, more than 400 rural and indigenous women have formed 20 different autonomous businesses to produce and market Maya Nut products and to teach workshops to other women.
Women are the primary beneficiaries of our programs. We work with women because they are a critical link between the family and the environment, and because they are responsible for the health of the family. We have found that healthy famiies are better able to care for the environment because they can make sound decisions based on logic, rather than desperate decisions based on immediate need for food, medicine or school materials.
Children benefit directly from our programs as well. We work in some of the most acutely malnourished communities in the world, where developmental delays in children are distressingly common. We work to educate parents about the nutritional value of Maya Nut so they can include it in the family diet. We also work in schools and are implementing the Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests, Maya Nut School Lunch program in several schools in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico.
These women enjoy improved incomes and an opportunity to contribute to the family economy. More important, however, is the impact on their self-esteem and status in the family and the community. These are the changes that we seek at the Maya Nut Institute. The empowerment of women means that lasting change is happening and that these women can now take charge of their lives and work productively and effectively to improve the wellbeing, health and incomes of their families.
Women business owners and their families are much more concerned with rainforest conservation and reforestation of available land with Maya Nut.
Starting in late 2010, we will be working to form an Alternative Trade Organization (ATO) to protect the rights of Maya Nut producers and the forests which sustain them. Thanks to a generous donation from the SG Foundation, we will begin the long road toward a Maya Nut ATO in July, 2010
The Maya Nut Institute provides a new paradigm of community based conservation which focuses on women as the caretakers of the family and the environment. By providing women with the skills they need to earn income and feed their children, we improve women's lives and the lives of their families.
Our program is unique because it addresses key factors for sustainable livelihoods in one program: Sociocultural, Environmental and Economic
Our methodology is based on the principles of active learning and suitable technology. Through one-day workshops in rural communities, we train women about the recipes, nutrition, processing, and marketing of the Maya Nut. In these workshops, women gather to cook together, exchange stories and experiences with the Maya Nut, and listen to short presentations on the health content of the Maya Nut, including how it compares to common food sources such as beans and corn. Some of the delicious foods they learn to prepare with the Maya Nut in these workshops include tamales, tortillas, salad, cakes, cookies, tortas, ice cream, and beverages. This knowledge of the Maya Nut as a free and nutritious food source motivates them to conserve rainforests, plant Maya Nut trees, and get organized to produce and market Maya Nut products so that they can earn income.
The Maya Nut program has demonstrated positive and lasting impacts on:
Rainforest conservation Reforestation Health and nutrition Food security Women’s incomes, self-esteem and status Maternal health and infant birth weights
Since 2002 we have trained over 15000 women from 900 communities about Maya Nut for food and income
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STAFF AND REPRESENTATIVES
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Erika Vohman, Founder and Executive Director, USA
Erika Barrera, Coordinator, Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests, Guatemala
Anaite Lopez, Coordinator, Guatemala Program
Alejandra Osorto, Coordinator, Honduras Program Southern region
Christine Woda, Coordinator, Honduras Program Northeastern region
Nidia Lara, Coordinator, El Salvador Program
Xiomara Bello, Coordinator, Nicaragua Program
Henry Gonzales, Coordinator, Peru Program
Hebert Pierre, Coordinator, Haiti Program
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Our Partners:
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Article 29 Organization, Haiti
Municipalities of Chinandega, Cinco Pinos and San Pedro del Norte, Nicaragua
United Nations Development Programme, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala
Ministry of Forestry and Natural Resources, Nicaragua
LIDER, Nicaragua
University of Central America, Nicaragua
Asociacion de Productoras "Flor de Ojoche", Nicaragua
Asociacion de Productoras PROJOCHE Cinco Pinos y San Pedro Nicaragua
Defensores de la Naturaleza, Guatemala
Empresa Comunitaria Alimentos Nutri-Naturales, Flores, Peten, Guatemala
Municipality of Flores, Peten, Guatemala
Ministry of Education, Guatemala
Ministry of Agriculture, Guatemala
BANRURAL, Guatemala
FONAGRO, Guatemala
Alimentos Nutri-Naturales, S.A. Guatemela
Instituto Nacional de Bosques (INAB), Guatemala
National Park Service (CONAP)
Embassy of the Republic of Germany
Embassy of the Republic of Luxemburgh
Rotary Club, Flores, Peten
Arrocera los Corrales, Guatemala
Programa Reverdecer, Guatemala
Fundacion Rigoberta Menchu, Guatemala
Ministry of Natural Resources, El Salvador
Fundacion AGAPE, El Salvador
CALMA, El Salvador
Parque Nacional Plan de Amayo, El Salvador
CATIE, El Salvador
Fundacion Gaia, El Salvador
Rainforest Alliance, Guatemala
FIAES, El Salvador
World Neighbors, Honduras
Heifer Project International, Honduras
Proyecto Reserva Biosfera Rio Platano, Honduras
Lancetilla Botanic Garden, Honduras
Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products
Agenda Forestal, Honduras
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