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Category Archives: environment
A September Summer Evening
Women’s Empowerment Exhibition Media
Recent press of my Women’s Empowerment: A Global Perspective exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County, in honor of Women’s History Month. Prints from the exhibit are available here. Thank you Soundcliffwritingspa, New York Newsday, PortableExhibit UK & CUNY
International Women’s Day: Mache Lakay
The focus of International Women’s Day 2012 is rural women. In honor of this day, I’ve posted one of my favorite photo essays on a women’s cooperative in rural Haiti.
The Mouvman Peyizan Papay or the Peasant Movement of Papay is the oldest and largest peasant movement in Haiti. The cooperative is nearly 40 years-old with over 60,000 plus members and an education facility located in the heart of Haiti, the Central Plateau. No individual may join MPP only collectives.The goal of MPP is to educate and empower.
The collective offers their members instruction in women’s health and advocacy and gender equality while providing sound economic and work alternatives to the people of Haiti. The cooperatives are trained by licensed Agronomists in environmental and sustainable farming methods.
Pictured here is KOPA Mache Lakay or home market cooperative. The cooperative owned and operated by three women is a roaring success. Their cooperative provides the employment alternative to the bateys in the Dominican Republic. Their secret double roasted butter is sold throughout Haiti. Their cooperative and MPP at-large provides the humanitarian means to financial independence in Haiti while contributing to a healthy and stable family environment.
The images above were recorded using a Canon 10-d camera while on assignment with Direct Relief International and the American Jewish World Service.
A selection from this set of photographs will be featured in my exhibit “Women’s Empowerment: A Global Perspective” at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
This exhibit with support from the Holocaust Center, I am dedicating to my mother Eduvigen Fuentes, my friend, compañera and source of strength. She never let me give up.
Thank you for reading.
PRIO
Some of my images from the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize events, published in the Peace Research Institute of Oslo publication.
If you are interested in the purchase or license of these or any images on my blog please go here or leave me message. Thank you.
Why the Buzz Around Kate Frey?
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| Kate Frey pictured among blooming peas at the sustainable Fetzer Valley Oaks garden in Hopland, California. |
Kate Frey, has for 18 years designed and managed the gardens at the Fetzer Valley Oaks vineyard with her award-winning bio-diverse, organic and sustainable gardening methods in Hopland, California. Her merits include gold medals at the Royal Horticulture Society Chelsea Flower show in 2005 and 2007; and a Silver Gilt in 2003. Her colorful and sustainable gardens were not only favored by the judges but met with literal approval from Her Majesty Elizabeth ll, Queen of England, who met with her privately in 2003 and 2007.
Unassuming yet vibrant, Frey was eager to roam the gardens that gave birth to her career. There are numerous accolades attesting to her achievements but there is no mistake, that her work is all about the love for sustainable gardening and the beneficial insects, pollinators, and birds who are the punctuation of a colorful garden palette. She likes to create what are called “bird and insect hospitable gardens.”
Since Chelsea, Frey and her husband Ben Frey have accepted invitations from the Shizouka prefecture in Japan and a consultation with the Royal House of Saud to tailor their organic farms.
Apart from her international accolades and achievements, Frey continues to focus her commitments on the California landscape. Her gardening successes, awards, and prizes have brought her to her current position as teacher and director of Sonoma State University’s Sustainable Landscape Program with Extended Education. The program started in 2007 and issued their first Landscape program certificate in 2008. Her additional projects include presentations at the social and scientific Bioneers conference, and biodiversity specific projects such as The Melissa Garden, a honeybee sanctuary located in Healdsburg, California. Frey was commissioned to the sanctuary project because of the “pollen generator” plants and flowers that are at the heart of her garden landscape design. Pollinators are a given throughout the year, floral nourishment and an environment free from pesticides. The 40-acre ranch owned by Barbara and Jacques Schlumberger consider themselves “bee-stewards.” “It is no secret, Frey said, that bees are a dwindling population in the US.”
We named the sanctuary “Melissa,” after Melissa officinalis or Lemon Balm a herbaceous planet and a favorite of bees in horticulture and mythology. Melissa, in Greek mythology who fed Zeus honey as an infant and who later transformed into a queen bee. Melissa is a Greek word meaning honeybee.
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| A bumblebee during buzz pollination: the rapid movement of their wings dislodges pollen from its source. |
Words and Pictures Copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes
AnaElisa 