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IALA Agroecology Training Fundraiser
Support Youth Leaders in their Struggle for Food Sovereignty
Last year, twenty-two young peasants from throughout Central America and the Caribbean came together as the first cohort at the Instituto Agroecológico Latinoamericano (Latin American Institute for Agroecology, or IALA) in Chontales, Nicaragua. IALA offers a two-year degree that provides technical, political, and ideological education in agroecology as a fundamental pillar to the construction of food sovereignty and transformation of society as proposed by the international peasant movement, La Via Campesina. This training prepares peasant youth to be leaders in the struggle for food sovereignty and peasant rights.
As a part of the January 2019 Friends of the ATC delegation to Nicaragua, we had the honor of meeting and working alongside eight IALA students for eleven days. We were inspired by the IALA students’ dedication to agroecology, gender equity and the struggle for food sovereignty. We have returned with a commitment to help more peasant youth attend IALA in order to support the strengthening of peasant movements throughout the region.
A Peasant Youth Encounter and Scholarship Fund for Students of Agroecology
We hope to sponsor the participation of 50 youth and women members from La Via Campesina organizations of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean in a 15-day introduction to the curriculum and popular education practice at IALA. This training will serve as an outline of the topics that are studied more formally and in-depth during the two-year agroecology program, with the hopes that many participants will become future students at IALA.
Topics will include: capitalism & class struggle, social movements in Latin America, food sovereignty, La Via Campesina’s agroecology schools, dialogo de saberes in La Via Campesina, indigenous cosmovision, and agroecological livestock raising. The course will be based on popular education methodologies, that is, education for the transformation of our society and the liberation of our peoples.
As a part of our commitment to international solidarity, our goal is to raise $5,000 to sponsor the training by April 30th, 2019. The money will go towards transportation, materials, and food, and will provide scholarships for some students who return for the two-year program. Please join us in reaching our goal!
Signed,
Participants of the January 2019 Friends of the ATC delegation
Make a Donation
To donate by check instead, please make checks payable to "AFGJ/Friends of ATC-IALA" and mail to our fiscal sponsor at 225 E. 26th Street, Suite 1, Tucson, AZ 85713.
La Via Campesina and the ATC
The ATC (Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo) formed in 1978 and organized peasants to help overthrow the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza and to win land rights after the revolution of 1979. Today the ATC organizes to improve the quality of life in the countryside through through its worker unions, small farmer cooperatives, and trainings that focus on women and youth.
In the early 1990s, the ATC joined with other organizations of small farmers and food producers to form an international movement called La Via Campesina. La Via Campesina brings together millions of peasants, small and medium size farmers, landless people, rural women and youth, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. La Via Campesina defends peasant agriculture and fights for food sovereignty as a way to promote social justice and dignity and strongly opposes corporate driven agriculture that destroys social relations and nature.
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