The Three Dimensional Community Development Outreach Program
The 3-D Community Development Outreach program is a three part
program aimed at enhancing sustainable development in local communities.
Each dimension focuses on a particular sector of the local village population.
La Semilla Auténtica focuses on the men of the village. The Women's Cacao
Cooperative is aimed at the women of the village. The Living Art program is
designed to benefit the children of the villages. The 3-D Model will first be
applied in the village of Arizona. It is our hope to extend this program to
many other local villages in time. Below you will find more information on
each of the programs.

La Semilla Auténtica
 ‘La Semilla Auténtica’ (The Authentic Seed) includes the on site building
and distribution of ‘Terra Preta,’ an indigenous method of soil building, and
the planting of a community orchard. The families will then be given
information on how to care for, harvest, and organically fertilize their trees
as well as on all the benefits they and the earth will derive from growing
them. St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of Boone, NC has contributed $250 US to
piloting the project, which will begin in Arizona in October 2007.
We see the creation and use of Terra Preta as a keystone to sustainable
agriculture in Central America, and other tropical areas. Without protection
tropical soils are quickly and often irreversibly damaged when cleared by the
intense natural elements of tropical environments. The addition of Terra
Preta to the soil allows greater protection of the soil as the charcoal acts as a
sponge absorbing and locking in valuable nutrients. Only the roots of plants
can access these nutrients, preventing leaching and erosion. This method of
soil building relies firstly on the addition of charcoal and secondarily on
inputs of organic fertilizers. It is our hope that by teaching local people how
to create this ancient soil amendment they will do so for their village lots,
milpa plots, and farms. This could greatly reduce their work burden by
allowing them to maintain a single Milpa for many years rather than
constantly moving further and further from the village, degrading the land
in the process.
The project will demonstrate how to make and apply ‘Terra Preta’ and then
distribute a small batch of the mix to each household. After the Terra Preta
demonstration, we will initiate a discussion on the benefits of silvaculture for
tropical environments. We will then work with the community, and
volunteers to plant a small community orchard to serve as a lasting
reminder of the program. The community will be informed as to how to
care for the orchard and it is our hope that they will possess the initiative to
maintain the orchard after the planting. We will make a return trip in three
months to check the progress of the orchard.

The Women's Cacao Cooperative
The Women’s Cacao Cooperative will invite women from neighbouring
Arizona and Teakettle villages to participate in a money making cooperative,
as well as supporting the Mayan village of San Pedro Columbia, which will
provide the raw cacao. The cacao bean is an ancient tradition in this part of
the world, and in fact it was once the main form of ‘currency.’ Currently
large amounts of cacao, the raw ingredient that creates chocolate, are grown
in Belize each year, mostly in the Toledo district. Most of this is exported to
Green and Black’s, a European chocolate company. They transform the raw
beans into chocolate candy and sell it for a high price in foreign markets as
organic chocolate.
Through creating the cooperative we are attempting to create a ‘value-
added’ product market that will allow more of the money generated from
cacao as a product to be generated within the country. By processing the
raw cacao into delicious authentic chocolate candies as well as roasting and
grinding it to be used as a coffee like beverage these women will be able to
generate income from sales to resorts, local businesses and individual
tourists. These women will be able to work in their own homes roasting and
shelling the beans then they will be ground and made into chocolate and
beverage grounds and packaged for sale. All women will share the profit
equally according to the amount they roast and shell. We believe that any
community development model must address all community members.
Often the women and children are overlooked in development initiatives and
this is unfortunate. We hope that the women’s cacao cooperative will
provide an avenue for local women to contribute to the family income
without leaving the comfort and security of their homes.

Living Art Program
The Living Art program combines artistic expression with environmental
education to reach out to the younger generations of our local communities.
By using natural materials such as seeds and leaves to create artwork that is
themed around environmental issues like global warming and pollution, we
hope to instil valuable lessons about the importance of conservation and
protection of the environment. Local children will be given materials to work
with and directed as to the theme of the project. After learning about the
theme issue, and participating in a group discussion about it, children will
be encouraged to use natural materials as well as more conventional
materials like crayons and glue to create works of art that reflect their
understanding of the concepts being dealt with. The various seeds and other
materials are also identified and their other uses highlighted. The program
will be open to all ages and because it is a small group we will be able to
express the lesson in age appropriate formats for all children. Each Saturday
we will invite local children to attend the free program. We will raise funds
for materials through hosting community Barbeques and eventually we hope
that sale of crafts will fund further programs as well as provide the children
with a small income, helping them to feel that they are contributing
something valuable to their families and the environment. The program will
begin this September as a part of the Kids Learning Program.