The Friends Project

Life in Remote Places: A Fragile Balance

Photojournalism exhibition featuring images of the Amazon and Nicaragua — including villages in which The Friends Project has worked — opens May 6 in Rochester, N.Y.

Opening reception with the photographer: May 6, 6 to 9 p.m., at the American Association of University Women, 494  East Ave.

ABOUT THE SHOW: In the aftermath of civil war in El Sauce, Nicaragua, residents are drawing on ways of life that haven’t changed in 100 years to build sustainable artisan enterprises, coffee production and eco-tourism.

In the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon, families struggle to survive in isolation and with consequences of industrialization — and researchers work with communities to try to preserve the delicate balance of an endangered environment.

In her solo exhibition “Life in remote places: A fragile balance,” photojournalist Kris Dreessen explores life in these two distinct remote communities, how the families there work with and against nature for survival, and what the world stands to lose if we can’t find a balance.

The photographer recently launched an initiative to share the language of photography with young people of El Sauce. As a special addition, images taken by the teens documenting their own lives in El Sauce will be on display.

The latest Enlace newsletter is out, updating supporters of El Sauce’s tourism cooperative with the lastest good news.

Read this issue to see how the basket-making cooperative can now work at night, and how The Friends Project is helping El Sauce area teens attend high school and our friend Manuel attend his first year of college in Léon. Congratulations Manuel!

I was invited last night to speak with the Honeoye Falls-Mendon, N.Y. Rotary International club about The Friends Project and what we’ve been able to accomplish.

It was a pleasure to share the stories of the people we’ve met and become friends with since 2006 — and the lasting changes we have been able to facilitate with this grassroots initiative.

Rotary has been helping people in many cultures for generations so it was an honor to be there.

Members of the Los Altos de Ocotal cooperative look at the photographic book I made them.

Kellan and Yacarely made a special delivery to Mauricio and the other farmers of Los Altos de Ocotal who are building their eco-tourism business high on the mountain.

I created a book with many of the images I took of them — including the milestone day when most of them officially joined the cooperative — during my first visit in 2009.

Here are many of the farmers looking at the book, which will be kept at the Ranchón, the small shelter and cooking center for visitors.

This way, visitors can discover more about Ocotal culture and the history behind the tours they are now taking.

Congratulations to Manuel Munguia, who I met in January 2009 as a student of English in El Sauce.

Back then, he was learning his first words of a new language.

A few days ago, he earned a spot in the Saturday school at the university in Léon to study marketing or economics. Friends helped him hone his math skills and he studied like mad to pass the test.

The Friends Project is providing Manuel with a $350 scholarship to cover some of his costs for the first year, including books and tuition. He will attend on Saturday so he can work during the week to support him and his family.

Manuel’s also one of our photographers, who recently began to document life in El Sauce — from his perspective.

The Friends Project photo initiative has officially launched! We are sharing the language of photography with young people in El Sauce, Nicaragua. Three friends are documenting their own lives with donated cameras, and images will be posted in their own online gallery, and displayed in conjunction with my upcoming exhibition. Here is a first from Manuel!

The Friends Project recently provided a small grant of $350 to the Ocotal coffee cooperative in El Sauce to purchase a portable bag sealer and to buy enough coffee bags at a discounted price.

Now, they can offer their organic and sustainable coffee to tourists who come to Ocotal for overnight and eco-tourism visits. Previously, they had to sell their coffee wholesale to middlemen. They will still do that, but now have another option for which they can make more money and be in control.

Enlace, the tourism organization created by El Sauce residents, bought the bags at a discount and are selling them to the cooperative for 25 cents each. That money will be used to buy more bags at less expensive prices.

Read all about it — and see photos of the cooperative members trying it out in the Enlace newsletter.

Jacqueline is a member of the Fuente de Pino co-op with whom the Friends Project has worked. (We provided a $600 grant in 2009 so the women of the cooperative could complete a five-week training course to create more complex baskets.)

During my last visit to El Sauce, in August 2009, I interviewed Jacqueline for the newsletter that was launched for community tourism and economic development efforts. During this interview, I learned that she walks 4.5 hours down the mountain on Fridays ,usually stays over at a relative’s house in town, and then attends high school on Saturday. Then, she walks 4.5 hours back up the mountain.

She uses the money she makes selling the pine-needle baskets for school.

After funding a self vacuum-sealer and bags for the coffee cooperative so they could purchase them at a discounted price and earn more per bag, and providing bricks for so the Ocotal tourism cooperative can complete their well, we had some money left.

I’m happy to announce we used the $245 to provide 7 teens with a one-year scholarship for high school.

Typically, the Friends Project funds projects that implement sweat equity or makes ideas and goals possible by allowing the El Sauce residents to purchase items or services at a discounted price and put money back in…

I think if you walk more than 4 hours one way to school, you really want to be there.

And I’ll be in El Sauce. Still collecting small donations for our efforts. I am excited to see the progress the farmers in Ocotal have made, including the overnight accommodations and restaurant pavilion.

We’ll be working on a good Web presence so intrepid travelers can find us out there, and know all the cool things to do in that remote area, like jump off waterfalls and see what traditional Nica country life is like from coffee farmers and their families on top of a mountain.

check out my slideshow …

http://www.geneseo.edu/geneseo_scene/el-sauce