Perspective – An Email

From: [name withheld]

Date: July 5, 2012 10:25:36 PM CDT
To: “Jason@theselfsufficientgardener.com“

Subject: Greetings from the South Pacific

Hello Jason:

My name is [name withheld]. I manage a new humanitarian program in the South Pacific called the Pacific Food Initiative. Our focus is on food production, nutrition and sanitation. The people we work with are typically very poor and living in very difficult conditions. I am an attorney by training and have worked in humanitarian programs in developing countries for almost all of my career (about 15 years). I do not have extensive background in agriculture although I now find myself directing subsistence level food-production projects in Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Kiribati.

We have recently found your podcast and are using it to better understand basic principles and practices. We are also using it to help train staff members who are exceptionally good people and skilled teachers but who have not had the opportunity for much formal education. Much of our work is making basic agricultural principles understandable to people in a wide range of cultural, socio-economic, environmental and linguistic settings (Papua New Guinea itself has nearly 8 million people speaking about 800 different languages).

We wanted to write and say how helpful your podcasts and blog are. We return to them often and may have additional questions for you.

Thank you for the exceptional work you are doing. You probably couldn’t have anticipated your work reaching people experiencing hunger and very adverse ecological conditions like those found on the small island of Daru in Papua New Guinea, but we recently returned from there where your information from your podcast about seeds was taught to 33 men and women struggling to feed their families.

 Well done. Keep it up.

 Your new friends,

[names withheld]