ALAF Program

In Oct 2010 Seres hosted Youth Leading the World (YLTW) in El Salvador – an environmental education program started in Australia by our partner organisation OzGREEN. The congress was a great success – inspiring and empowering over 70 young participants to become active change-makers within their communities.

In July 2011, Seres and OzGREEN won an Australian Leadership Awards Fellowship under the Australian Government AusAID Program. The award will support five Fellows selected from amongst the YLTW 2010 participants to travel to Australia. During their one month visit the Fellows will participate in intensive facilitation and leadership training; learn hands-on water quality assessment skills and visit a number of sustainable ventures including community scale grey water treatment plant, recycling plant and permaculture gardens.

On their return to Guatemala the fellows will put their training into action. This year with the support of these Fellows, YLTW in Central America will be run in three countries: Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica.

You can meet our Fellows below, and if you want to stay up to date with their journey to Australia, have a look at the latest blog….

Meet Pedro

Pedro demonstrates the wind belt to kids at the Children's Fair

I am Pedro José Rodríguez a 32 year old Guatemalan who is currently living in the town of Tecpán, a place rich in culture and traditions that have barely survived. During my lifetime I have witnessed how poverty and the global economic crisis have damaged the valuable ecosystems of our planet and the traditions of respect for Mother Nature.

One of my reasons for deciding to work with Project Seres is the important role of the rural indigenous population in this process, as they could represent a threat or a solution. I believe it is vital to remember that our ancestors proclaimed Mother Nature as a true wealth for all peoples – past, present and future, I feel it is my duty to defend that which this ancient civilization showed so much respect for.

This opportunity to learn about environmental leadership is crucial for me, thinking about it as a tool to use in my everyday work in the field, inspiring partners, the youth and all of the members of all the communities I have contact with to make a change, believing that another way of life is possible.

Meet José

Meet Jose from Guatemala

 
I am José Ordoñez from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. I am an Environmental student living in Antigua Guatemala. I am working with an NGO that helps to develop social and Green businesses with projects in energy, water and sanitation.

My passion is to improve the conditions of people living in villages in Guatemala through appropriate technologies and to help our Mother Earth overcome the problem of pollution. I enjoy running education programs with different people and particularly sharing and learning together. 

I am very excited to visit Australia and I hope to gain a lot of knowledge and see what Australians are doing to protect their environment. I am particularly interested in Energy projects. When I return to Guatemala I hope to share this experience and knowledge with people around my country.

Meet Fernando

Meet Fernando from Guatemala

Hola! My name is Fernando Maldonado. My mom hails from Puerto Rico and my dad from Guatemala. I guess that makes me a Guate-rican…. Growing up in Guatemala I learned to admire the plentiful nature that sorrounds this beautiful country. Also, it made me aware of the social problems like hunger and poverty that Guatemala faces. Through my Puerto Rican family, I had the oprtunity to spend long summers in my grandparents house in Vega Baja Beach, Puerto Rico. Here my grandparents, aunts and uncles taught me to fish, surf and most importantly to respect the ocean.

When the time for college came, I choose to study aquaculture. In my eyes it was a way that I could decrease the pressure on fisheries, producing food for the world and make a living. While attending college in Florida, I conducted research in stock enhancement for native fishes and also worked on one of the leading saltwater fish aquaculture farms. At the moment my focus is on aquaponics. I currently oversee a medium size aquaponics pilot project on the pacific coast of Guatemala. This coming year through Project Seres, I will help to establish a demonstration aquaponics system for the Seres Centre in Tecpan, Guatemala.

Meet José “Canche”

José "Canche" - aquaponics partner with Fernando

Hello, I am José Toriello. I was born and raised in Guatemala City. I studied Sustainable Tourism during my college years, at Universidad del Valle, graduated in 2009. I am currently studying an MBA degree in Universidad Francisco Marroquín.

I am acutely aware of the huge changes that are needed in order for our economic processes to interact positively (instead of negatively) with the ecological processes that ultimately govern the earth. I strongly believe that it is through entrepreneurial ventures, of the so called green kind, that these changes will begin to take place.

In particular, I am interested in merging the ideas proposed by the permaculture movement (aquaponics, edible forests, eco-construction, low resourse consumption, renewables, etc.) with the knowledge of business logic that I am gaining at UFM. I have been exposed to various people and projects involved in the ‘transition to green’ and have seen that many failures are often derived from a lack of understanding basic business principles, or even an irrational fear or spite towards them. I want to demonstrate that Natural Capitalism is the way to go.

Currently, I am working, together with Fernando Maldonado, who is also coming on the trip. We are developing sustainable aquaponics systems that use worms, fish, and other organisms in a closed loop cycle. We like to call these systems, GuatePonix. The Basic idea is to be able to grow vegetables and fish faster than in traditional horticulture, and cheaper than traditional hidroponics, creating a mini-ecosystem that self sustains once running, that is fed by organic waste, water and sunlight. We have a model system already set up working in the community of El Ahumado in the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. We are designing the second one and hope to be inspired by what we get to see in Australia to make the best possible design.

Meet Antonio

Antonio takes a break in his favourite place during the tree-planting activity

Hello I am Antonio Sánchez, I am 23 years old and I live in El Salvador. I am the founder of a volunteer environmental group in my community in Suchitoto. This group has 30 members, both male and female, between the ages of 14 and 23. As a group we are working in our community in two main areas: the environment and recreation.

In the area of the environment we are responsible for a recycling program, planting trees in public recreation areas, providing environmental education messages, building centres for rubbish storage, locating rubbish bins in the streets and recreational areas, growing organic produce and protecting the rivers in the community from contamination.

In the area of recreation we run excursions to rivers, mountains, forests and tourist places and hold cultural events and meetings with young people from other communities. We do this so that young people learn about the environment and the importance of the climate change crisis and also so that they can occupy their minds in a healthy pastime.

As a member of the Environment Group I have been chosen to participate in a program called the Climate Change Resilience Leadership training which will take place in Australia in October this year. For me, this is a unique opportunity and I want to make the most of it to improve my understanding, have a new experience and to be able to have better strategies to develop the Environmental Group which I represent.

When I return from the workshop I would like to replicate what I have learnt with my group, perhaps work with other young people in other parts of the country so that we can create a national network of youth leaders for climate change and in this way, work to extend this network to other neighboring countries. Together, we can create projects and proposals for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change since our region (due to its geography) is one of the most vulnerable to disasters caused by the effects of climate change.

I want to thank Seres for the support that they have given me, for this opportunity and so much more. I also want to emphasize that my passion is nature and I am ready and available to work all of my life if necessary to defend her.