ECHO Conference in Florida

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This week, the Simpsons and Yates are in Ft Myers Florida for a conference at ECHO (http://echonet.org/). The conference is the Health Agriculture Community and Culture. Together with 16 other medical missionaries getting ready to go to Africa, Asia, and Latin America we are exploring topics that will allow us to be effective in working in other cultures to affect real change in the health of communities through education. A big part of the conference is about wrestling with our western expectations and the realities of working in the developing world. It has been so valuable to hear the stories of other families that are going through the same process of preparation that we have. Their stories have encouraged us to continue trusting in God for his provision so that we can go and do His work in Ethiopia.

A really fun aspect of this class is it's focus on agriculture as a way to improve life of the rural poor. ECHO is focused on teaching sustainable agriculture methods to people in developing nations. Through a variety of simple methods crop yields, drought tolerance, and food security can all be increased. They have an awesome research and demonstration farm in Ft Myers and they have really rich library of information on best practices for farming methods for different parts of the world.  
Raised Goat pen

This field started out as sandy Flroida soil, but in 6 years of growing with raised beds has become rich moist black dirt under the hay cover.
One fun thing we were exposed to was the Moringa Tree (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringa). This tree is amazing. It grows easily and fast in lots of climates, the edible leaves are super nutritious (100g of fresh Moringa leaves have 8.3 g protein, 434 mg calcium, 404 mg potassium, 738 μg vitamin A, and 164 mg vitamin C), the seed pods can be cooked an eaten, and the seeds can be pressed for oil for cooking, soap making, or lamp oil. I wonder if we can get these trees in Ethiopia?
The Mighty Moringa Tree

Comments

  1. SophieOctober 4, 2013 at 8:35 AM

    There are Moringa trees here...Arba Minch has a ton :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Matt and KristiOctober 4, 2013 at 2:38 PM

    Loved seeing your pictures of ECHO! Who taught the course? Dr. Dan Fountain taught it for many years, including when we went in Oct 2012, but he passed away several months later.
    Do you have a departure date for ET yet? Looking forward to meeting you in person someday (soon-ish!!).
    -Kristi Florek

    ReplyDelete
  3. Heather and Jeff LadineOctober 6, 2013 at 4:08 PM

    Hey Guys, Moringa trees are all over South Sudan so hopefully you can find them in Ethiopia too. Love from Doro, South Sudan!

    ReplyDelete

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