Ecuador Forest Farm Project update
On March 31st, five Medford Rogue Rotary Rotarians, plus two family members, completed our World Community Service (WCS) trip to Ecuador. Our WCS committee drove a project this year working with an NGO, YAKUM*, where we provided 2000 cacao trees for planting in five different communities.This grant builds on a Global Grant project led by the Medford Rotary Club completed last year where nurseries were built in each of the same five communities and 12,500 total trees planted from a variety of local fruit and vegetables.
During our club’s visit we planted 360 of the 2000 trees in a couple of the communities.
The communities were extremely grateful for the help. Each community welcomed us and gathered many of their members to celebrate with us, sharing their local foods, and their culture through dances and folklore stories.
* YAKUM supports indigenous communities in regenerating their rainforests, forest foods and cultural sovereignty.