Winter ASB

Join Green Empowerment and its local partners in building on the successful implementation of renewable energy technologies in the Esmeraldas province of northern Ecuador.

Students will serve the rural cacao-growing communities of Felfa and Las Amazonas. Participants will work side by side with rural farming families, building and installing biogas digesters, passive solar dryers for cacao and/or potable water systems.

Much of the work can be physically demanding in the tropical climate, but the opportunity to help improve quality of life and conserve the fragile ecosystems of Esmeraldas is worth the effort. The group will stay in the community meeting halls in Felfa and Las Amazonas with the very basic accommodations typical in these communities. Typical Esmeraldan meals will be prepared for the group by families in each community, and students have the chance to learn how to prepare several local delicacies themselves.

Travel to Uruguay in the South American summer with Rizoma Field School! A small country wedged between Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay offers a unique mix of European, Latin and African-influenced cultures, beautiful rolling countryside, and some of the world’s most progressive policies supporting both human happiness and preserving the natural environment. The group will ring in the new year with a traditional Uruguayan asado celebration, which centers around grilling food outdoors, drinking yerba mate (an Uruguayan tea), music, and sobremesa: the concept of chatting around a table during meals. Next, participants will work closely on projects with small-scale agricultural producers who do a mix of subsistence production and some agricultural production for sale.

These small producers strive to use only organic principles, but they are being challenged in their ability to subsist on the land by the introduction of industrial agriculture to Uruguay in recent decades. We will support these farmers through various projects including: road repair, planting, harvesting, or preparing soil organically. These projects will help to support the continued resilience of these farmers in their challenge to live with minimal impact on the environment. The work will be physically challenging, but in doing this work you will be making a significant impact on the small-scale farming community in Uruguay, and in doing so you will learn about a resilient way of life that has been flourishing in this region for centuries.