Books To Kids on the Gulf Coast

On October 4, 2014 Plenty’s Books To Kids project distributed hundreds of children’s books in Native Communities along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. Since 2007, Books To Kids has given away more than 150,000 children’s books in communities recovering from disasters and poverty from the Gulf Coast to Appalachia to metropolitan New York.

At the Pointe au Chien Community Center where Plenty is helping to install a library and computer lab.
At the Pointe au Chien Community Center where Plenty is helping to install a library and computer lab.
Chucky Verdin is the Chief of the Pointe au Chien band of Biloxi-Chitimacha Choctaw tribe and Theresa Dardar (red shirt) is a member of the Council.
Chucky Verdin is the Chief of the Pointe au Chien band of Biloxi-Chitimacha Choctaw tribe and Theresa Dardar (red shirt) is a member of the Council.
On Isle de Jean Charles kids select books.
On Isle de Jean Charles kids select books.

Super Typhoon Haiyan Relief Efforts

Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines with massive force. Relief efforts are needed on a massive, long-term scale. Plenty is being asked to help the village of Alta Vista on the island of Leyte, which is home to about 1,500 people. Every house in the area lost their roof and/or sustained other damage. Alta Vista Elementary School, with 280 students and the preschool/daycare with 45 students, lost its roof, desks, books and supplies. Other schools in the area are in similar shape and need help.

DONATIONS ARE NEEDED NOW TO AID THESE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

We will aid as many schools as we can, depending upon the amount of donations we receive.

This is an opportunity to help in a very specific and personal way to help this community get back on their feet!

Spring/Summer 2014

April, 2014

Dear Friends of Plenty,

It was 40 years ago this spring that Stephen Gaskin stood up in the middle of 500 or so of us young hippies gathered in a meadow in southern Tennessee to meditate and watch the sun rise. He talked about the “idea” of Plenty. The idea was that as we built our community, we should also be reaching out to be of help to other people in the world who might not be as lucky as we felt we were. We immediately agreed that it was an idea worth pursuing.

Over its history Plenty has fielded dozens of projects in some 20 countries, including the US. What’s impressive about these numbers is not the numbers themselves but that a tiny-budget, small-staff organization like Plenty could reach that far. That reach is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that Plenty, like so many small nonprofits, is less of an individual NGO than a strand in an ever-widening web of like-minded, committed people who reinforce, replicate, and expand upon each other’s efforts.

Just in time for Earth Day, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued its latest report. It basically says we don’t have any more time to delay the drastic changes that nations, industries, communities and individuals need to make in order to effectively reduce atmospheric CO2 to tolerable levels, levels that have been rising “almost twice as fast in the first decade of this century as they did in the last decade of the 20th century.” The Chairman of the Panel is quoted as saying, “We cannot afford to lose another decade.” The report included some good news such as the costs of renewable energy options like wind and solar are falling fast and the panel says it detects “a growing political interest in tackling the problem.” (We can detect a bit of eye rolling among US readers about that “growing political interest” but we can stay hopeful.)

We hope you enjoy the new Plenty Bulletin, which contains all the Plenty news we were able to fit with as many photos as we could squeeze in. Because we’re only printing two of these a year now (a total of eight pages) and there’s so much more going on than we can include please go to our website and Facebook pages for updates and expanded versions of the Bulletins. Also, we’ve tried to make it easy for folks to donate on the Plenty International website.

I want to wrap up this letter by saying how grateful I am personally to have been involved with Plenty over these four decades. It’s been a constant privilege. When, as young hippies, we declared that we were “out to save the world,” we didn’t think we could do it alone or in a generation. We can’t even say things are much better than when we started and some things, like climate change, are worse. However, it’s apparent that our children’s and grandchildren’s generations have a better awareness of the big problems and the tools that are needed to fix them than we did at the same age. There’s much to do and lots of us gray-haired flower children are still around to help.

With love and appreciation,
Peter Schweitzer
Executive Director

Aid provided to Alta Vista School, the Philippines

Thanks to everyone who donated to help the village school at Alta Vista, which was hit hard by Typhoon Haiyan.  The superstorm struck the Philippines on November 8, 2013, killing more than 6,000 people and destroying the homes of 15 million more.

At the Alta Vista village school all school papers were lost to water damage in the typhoon and the students needed writing tablets and notebooks for lessons. Your donations via Plenty bought school supplies for the 285 children and 48 kids at the day care.  Each student received a notebook and 2 writing tablets, a pen or pencil, an eraser and a pencil sharpener. In total 285 notebooks, 530 notepads, 165 pencils, 120 pens, 165 erasers, 165 sharpeners, plus 50 boxes of crayons and 50 boxes of colored chalk for the daycare were provided. School is over at the end of March, and our friends there told us “this elementary is now set”. Small gestures mean a lot. Thanks for your help.

 

Super Typhoon Haiyan – help needed now!

 

The interior of one of the school’s classrooms after the typhoon.

School ext.Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines with brutal force. Relief efforts are needed on a massive, long-term scale.

Plenty is being asked to help the village of Alta Vista on the island of Leyte, which is home to about 1,500 people. Every house in the area lost their roof and/or sustained other damage. Alta Vista Elementary School, with 280 K-6th grade students, lost its roof, desks, books and supplies. Other schools in the area are in similar shape and need help. DONATIONS ARE NEEDED NOW TO AID THESE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS. We will help as many schools as we can, depending upon the amount of donations we receive. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO HELP IN A VERY SPECIFIC AND PERSONAL WAY and support the Alta Vista community as they get back on their feet! Choose DONATE in the menu bar and specify “Typhoon Haiyan” using the Network for Good option. Thank you!

Two years After the BP Oil Disaster, a letter from Chief Naquin.

Two years later, the BP oil spill seems no longer newsworthy, no longer politically expedient, and one that many believe has long been settled.  The fact of the matter is that this event continues to have an adverse impact on the lives of the most vulnerable:  the working poor and disenfranchised communities.   Negative health effects have begun to surface for those who worked in the cleanup efforts.  Oyster and shrimp populations have dwindled drastically as other forms of marine life are washing up dead on coastal shores.  Two years later our coast is still suffering.  And our community has yet to see any compensation for our losses.

For more visit:

http://www.isledejeancharles.com/news/?p=29

Living on the Edge of the Abyss In Guatemala


<http://indypendent.org/2012/01/08/living-edge-abyss>

In Guatemala City, however, an independent movement exists, where activists have occupied the street in front of Congress since the 22nd of August 2011. Here, warm houses were not sacrificed for tents, rather miserable hovels have been exchanged for tents. Activists from the slums have pledged not to leave until the “Housing Law” is approved – demanding a solution for the housing crisis in Guatemala. A lack of affordable accommodation forces uncountable Guatemalans into shantytowns where precarious living conditions often have lethal consequences.

Books To Kids now in Appalachia

In a partnership with the Williamsburg, KY Action Team and the Clearfork Community Institute and Woodland Land trust of Eagan, TN Books To Kids has expanded its reach into what has to be described as one of America’s National Sacrifice Areas, the Appalachian region of eastern Tennessee and Kentucky. Current Books To Kids sites include five elementary schools in and around Eagan, TN and a storefront in Williamsburg, KY.

Open pit mine.