Tierras de Vida 2009 – Agros Benefit

Saturday evening Dan, Minette (his wife), Jodi (my wife), and I all had the pleasure of attending Agros International’s annual donor banquet, Tierras de Vida. It was a wonderful event complete with a great meal, good company, and many Agros supporters (I heard the number was very close to 400). The atmosphere was electric to say the least. Everyone was talking, meeting new people and swapping Agros stories. Agros was so kind to allow us to put a pound of Camano Island Coffee on the table for each and every person attending. Also, with dinner they served our coffee to the audience.

The night kicked off with Agros’ founder, Skip Li sharing his vision that started the organization. The mic passed on to a couple more people through the night including the Executive Director from Chiapas, Mexico. He gave his first speech in English that night after working on the language for close to 5 years. He did a great job and was actually very easy to understand. He explained the desperate situations in Mexico and what was needed to start correcting the direction of the families in poverty there. The mic then passed on to Hanz Theyer, the new, Chilean born (and quite proud of it) President/CEO of Agros International.

As a side note, I had the pleasure of meeting Hanz a few months back when he was still extremely new to Agros. He is a great man with a very passionate vision for the future and direction of Agros. Saturday evening, he explained (in great detail) the way Agros works. It was a great refresher to hear each step of the 7 year village selection process through the successes Agros has had with the villages that have made it through that process.

Hanz then intro-ed a guest from Guatemala. Her name was Teresa Sánchez López. She had a wonderful story in store for us that I wanted to pass on to our blog followers. She opened up talking about her village. In the beginning (pre-Agros), her village had a lot of issues. The boys were forced to learn how to fight at a young age. The families had to endure many hardships. Then, when they became overwhelmed, they were forced to flee their area. Money was always difficult to come by but at this point, it was almost impossible to get. At the end of their rope, they went to Agros and asked for their assistance to get back on the right track. Agros walked them through the process of becoming a supported village. Agros then helped turn the village around.

Teresa then moved into how Agros had turned her life around. Through her village’s involvement with Agros, she was able to attend University. She obtained a scholarship from “Women’s Enterprise” and was able to graduate. She then told us (through a translator) that she was one of the only women from Ixil to graduate from university. This was met with a standing ovation by the entire group of attendees. She then ended by saying that she planned on taking what she had learned back to her village to further help improve their lives. This was, once again, met with a standing ovation.

The rest of the night was enjoyable and we drove home to Camano. I couldn’t help but notice how important it was for me to have that reminder of Agros’ mission. I highly encourage you all to check out Agros’ Gift Catalog on their website or support them through purchasing our coffee and gifts for the holidays.

I appreciate all of you as you help further CICR’s vision of helping these people see the success that Teresa and her village have seen.

Thanks for spending the time to read this and I hope your November is great!

Jeff – CICR