Message-ID: <199604122206.RAA00734@major.cei.net> Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 17:06:35 -0500 From: carol cross <mailto:solync@CEI.NET> Subject: Black Community College in Arkansas Delta seeking Summer To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
BLACK COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN ARKANSAS DELTA SEEKING SUMMER VOLUNTEERSMorris Booker College, a Black Church-owned college in the Arkansas Delta has fallen into hard times. Indeed, presently the only viable program is a day care program for 80 low income families.
I am a development consultant proposing that Morris Booker become involved with sustainable agriculture and develop methods for bringing the Delta out its present problems of high unemployment, deteriorating schools, drugs and crime. I am proposing the Morris Booker College develop a MINI RAIC rural agroindustrial center which would revive the old industry of making sweet sorghum syrup, begin making dried tomatoes for the gourmet and mail order market, grow kenaf and develop organic flower growing as a viable industry. Additionally, we are attempting to obtain seeds of colored cottons to develop a craft industry.
There are few or no funds available for developing any programs. There are a series of old dormitories that have fallen into disuse and need to be rebuilt. Syllabuses and materials need to be written to develop this project as a sustainable agriculture center for the Delta.
I am seeking volunteers who can come here and work to rebuild this program into a sustainable agriculture program for people who would otherwise have absolutely no opportunity for education or hope of development.
We can arrange for volunteers to be housed with local families. Additionally, once the dormitories become somewhat renovated, volunteers would be able to live there.
This is a unique opportunity to create a sustainable agriculture center in a place where there are absolutely no resources available to these populations. Dermott is typical of towns in the Delta. It is a town in the Delta which is 73% Black, due to outmigration of White families as the result of the falling off of the agricultural industries.
If you have skills at building, renovation, gardening, food drying, solar power or any such skills, please consider giving one to two weeks of your time. Because there are no funds at all for volunteers, volunteers will be expected to pay $150 per week for room and board with a local family or at the school while on the project.
Weekend activities include nature walks, environmental discussions saving rain forests, making nonwood paper, and optional tree meditations. Optional evening activities include discussions on environmental methods, life sharing and ways to develop a career working with the environment.
Please contact Dr. Carol Cross at mailto:solync@cei.net if you are interested or fax 501-367-8736 or write to PO Box 5208, Pine Bluff, AR 71611. We appreciate all inquiries and will work with you to make this project be meaningful. Carol Cross, PhD EcoAgroForestry Founder (501) 367-6127 (Ph) 2801 Olive, #35A, Suite 113 (501) 367-8736(FAX) Pine Bluff, AR 71611 Email: mailto:solync@cei.net Together we Can Create A Sustainable World Through EcoAgroForestry (Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Forestry and Rural AgroIndustrial Development). Form Consortiums & Develop a EcoAgroForestry Village Business Incubator (VBI) or Rural Agroindustrial Center (RAIC), NOW! Become an EcoAgroForestry Entrepreneur and Regreen the EarthHome!