Earth Systems Science, Inc.

ESSI Summer 2005 Volunteers Ready for Thailand

May 27, 2005

The Earth Systems Science Inc. (ESSI) Thai Summer 2005 Volunteer team is poised to go! The 8-person team is being co-led by Gregory and Saifon Lee (ESSI co-founder and Director of Programs, respectively), with Erika Rodriguez (ESSI Sr. Team Leader) and Andy Arboleda (Erika?’s son and ESSI mascot) and volunteers (in alphabetical order) Connie Beck Crusha, Elaine Davis, Tuyen La, and Dominic Varona. The advanced party leaves about 14-15 June. The main group departs 6 July.

The trip provides the volunteers with an orientation to Thailand and northern Thai culture before arriving in Ban Na Fa, Thawangpha, Nan Province in northern Thailand. Ban Na Fa is a small rural agricultural village of about 1000 residents. The ESSI project consists of the REEEPP (sounds like ?“reap?” and stands for the Rural Environmental Education Enhancement Pilot Project) and Sustainable Agriculture training for local farmers. All this directly links to the ESSI Y.E.S. doctrine (Youth, Environment, Sustainability).

REEEPP was launched in summer 2004 and consists of three components: Green School (for environmental awareness and the Trash Bank where K-1 students gather recyclables); Habitat (a modification of National Wildlife Federation --- NWF ---Backyard & Schoolyard Habitat programs adapted by ESSI to the Thawangpha area for Grades 2-4); and the NASA CERES Student Cloud Observation On-Line project (a NASA global climate change study) for Grades 4-6. (See the original story in the 6 Sep 2004 ESSI website newsletter.) Part of the intent is to integrate and instill the environmental stewardship message and attitude in the youth as early as possible. [Note: Gregory Lee and Connie Beck are NWF Habitat Hosts. Saifon Lee, Erika Rodriguez, and Dominic Varona are NWF Habitat Steward Volunteers. Erika, Tuyen La, and Dominic are Greg?’s former Geography students from Pasadena City College in California.]

The Sustainable Agriculture training will focus on non-toxic pest control and composting. These were first piloted by Gregory & Saifon in summer 1999 when they organized the first volunteer project. (See the report on Community-based Education in Northern Thailand in the ?“Our Pages?” section of the ESSI website; www.earthsystemsscience.org.) Poor rural farmers in Thailand struggle against increasing costs and soil erosion, decreasing soil quality, yields, and incomes. Non-toxic pest controls and composting help wean them from the high priced agricultural chemicals that pose significant health risks to the farmers and their families, erode their meager finances, and degrade the environment.

The ESSI program is a ?“people-to-people?” effort. The volunteers pay their own way. ESSI tends to make much of its own low-tech equipment using locally available materials and off the shelf components. This makes its project activities more easily replicable by other similar poor rural communities. Also, but making the equipment, villagers learn more about the project activities (e.g. making non-toxic fly traps, soil testing equipment, etc.). One underlying ESSI philosophy is that money should NOT the critical element in the problem solution. People are the most critical part of the solution set.

ESSI?’s community-based education approach is family centered and uses the knowledge and skills of persons are willing to share and who care about others and the community. Participants get trained and are expected to ?“teach back?” so as to demonstrate the proficiency of their training. The training sessions are heavily hands-on practical exercises relying on show / tell and practice in the field under the guidance of ESSI volunteers.

Gregory Lee guides the ESSI curriculum development effort. He is constantly on the lookout for practical, effective, and ?“simple?” field methods. ?“Simple doesn?’t always mean easy,?” he says. ?“Simple (fundamental, basic) ideas, principles, and concepts have wide application and lead to profound understanding.?” This approach has led to ESSI lessons on building simple tools to measure slope angle, tree canopy density, soil compaction, measuring elevations, tree heights / canopy width, soil texture, soil structure, soil chemistry, water penetration, cloud cover / wind direction, and others.

After the 2-week project trip, Greg, Saifon, Erika, and Dominic will be staying to do more work to implement the ESSI-RTC (Rural Training Center). The RTC was conceptualized in summer 1999. The team will start to construct demonstration units for future composting training and an agroforestry experimental effort.

Plans are already underway for the 2007 Volunteer effort, tentatively planned for the Jan-Feb winter season. That trip will have a Southeast Asian orientation that includes Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Some of Greg?’s students from Cambodia are keenly interested in the Thai project and would like to help introduce this training in Cambodia. So for those not making the Thailand Summer 2005 trip, start saving up for the Winter 2006 trip. You have about 19 months to save up the estimated $2200. That comes to about $116/mo, $29/wk, or $4.15/day. This is a very reasonable price to pay for all the training and benefit you can gain from volunteering on an ESSI international project!