Date: 2/23/12
Gracen Kovacik
WST 4015 Service Learning Proposal
Mission Statement: To engage in local-to-global activism by supporting sustainable relationship-building alongside members of the farm working community, the Youth and Young Adult Network of the National Farm Worker Ministry (YAYA), and La Via Campesina. Through communication and cooperation we will strive to work with our community partners towards the shared aim of agricultural justice. Furthermore, we intend to make connections from the local farmworker community to the global food sustainability movement.
Organizational Structure:
Task-based committees Hold members accountable to completion of assigned tasks Maintain effective communication with group members and community partners Committee Chairperson: liaison for committee Meeting facilitator Ensure meetings run smoothly and in a timely matter. Hold meetings with Committee Chairpersons Co-liaisons Communicate with community partners Attend YAYA meetings Secretary Record keeping Attendance Ethics Committee Ensure mindful enacting of project Oversee three strike policy Failure to complete task or attend a designated event results in one strike First and second strikes result in voting restrictions Three strikes result in a meeting with the Ethics Committee and Professor Tweed to discuss the member’s role and future participation in the project By conceptualizing the issues faced by farmworkers as systemically correlated with the adverse effects of globalization, we are modeling ourselves from the Network of Maquila Workers Rights in Central America discussed by Nancy A. Naples, as Maquila workers also face oppression in the workforce based on flawed neoliberal policies (273). In this vein, our group is democratically structured and focuses on working with, rather than for our community. In the spirit of feminist NGOs that have come before us, we endeavor to work as professionals within a committed network of organizers, activists, and farmworkers to prioritize an ethic of communal involvement and service. We have chosen a model that stresses personal accountability, which is imperative to success in any cooperative situation, and we are organizing by committees with leadership positions to prioritize personal strengths, but avoid stringent hierarchy.
Our group’s effectiveness shall be assessed through measures of active participation, thoughtful communication, and shared aims of members, which work together to create group cohesion. We will also critically assess our effectiveness by considering how well we work in solidarity with our community partners and demonstrate feminist organizing as exemplified in course materials.
Community Partner/Global Theme:
We propose to address the larger systemic issues of the treatment and unfair conditions of farm workers, focusing on women farm workers. We know that “women produce 70% of the food on earth but they are marginalized and oppressed by neoliberalism and patriarchy” (What Is 1). These systems of oppression often deny peasants and food producers basic and equal access to the food they produce. As the price of food increases and food is scarcer, women become malnourished, “as they eat last after providing for their children and family members” (Desai 21). One possible way of addressing this issue is to “produce food for local consumption” (Desai 24). To lay a foundation for both environmental and production sustainability, it is crucial that the community eats the food it grows. Local production and consumption can also indirectly address situations of “unsustainable exploitation of workers,” who are denied not only equal access to food but also other resources, such as safe housing and acceptable working conditions (Two Years 1). By establishing themselves as producers of their own food and giving value and recognition to both the unpaid and poorly paid labor that they do, farmworkers can pave the way for larger systemic and institutional change in regard to equal access and fair treatment.
Our local issue relates to lack of resources and tools available to migrant farmworkers. We will take steps toward providing resources and tools to them by working with YAYA on a community garden project, garden tool donation and long-sleeve t-shirt drive. We may engage our global partner, La Via Campesina, in our donation drive. Throughout this project, weekly email with the La Via Campesina will clarify how our progress works in accord with the organization’s needs.
(Relation to Goals and Objectives for Course)
Project Proposal
We plan to work with YAYA on their various events, specifically during Farmworker Awareness Week.
Through working together actively and effectively as a group, we plan to tackle this service learning project by breaking up into task-based groups that address specific issues in a focused manner. We assigned people to writing jobs based on personal preference and encouraged individuals to ask for opinions and constructive criticism, ensuring that tasks were assigned efficiently and assistance could be offered communally as needed. We are using our communication tools such as social media and email to make decisions and gain feedback, ensuring total inclusion. To mobilize beyond the classroom, we will encourage members to facilitate participation from members of their organizations and jobs. Educating as many people in the general community to the needs of the farmworkers of Fellsmere will encourage more volunteering, ensuring a sustainable relationship with the farmworker community with which we are working. For advertising, members will contact media outlets, give out fliers, and tell those from nearby businesses to donate funds, long sleeve shirts, and gardening tools to the community.
Building on our community partner YAYA’s existing relationship with the farmworker community, we intend to learn the most effective way of utilizing our local resources in order to maximize our outreach. Through this bond, we aspire to grow as individuals, as well as develop building blocks for better understanding of global and transnational feminist issues.
I personally believe that this should be effective as a service learning project not only because it will contribute to our community and the communities around us, but it will also bring light to a group of people that may not have been acknowledged before. As Trinh Minh-ha discusses in chapter II of “Woman, Native, Other” we, as anthropologists, attempt to understand, classify, and change a community of people that we do not fully understand. “Omnipresent even in his absence being, he has invaded homes of the wise and left his rottenness in every piece of land he sets foot on.” (Minh-ha, 49) By doing this project we will not bring knowledge to them and try to change their ways, but instead try to change our ways and attitudes towards them. If, after our project, they learn something for us then the most will be accomplished, but bringing knowledge to our community is a main personal goal of mine. Hopefully by bringing out communities together and working as a whole we can better something in the process.
Project Timeline:
February 22: Initial contact with Lariza Garzon of YAYA to confirm partnership February 24: Contact Global Partner March 1: In-class presentation by YAYA The historical events that have led to the current oppressive conditions of the agricultural industry Solidarity (sustainable relationship), privilege, power dynamics, etc. March 10: Fundraising Event March 17: Fundraising Event March 31: Participate in YAYA’s Community Garden Project8 am Depart Orlando from NFWM office 10 am Arrive To Fellsmere 10:15 am Welcome, introductions and instructions 10:45 am Gardening begins! 1:00 pm Lunch (vegetarian options available)/ short soccer game 2:00 pm Back to gardening! 4:30 pm Debrief 5:15 pm Dinner 6:00 pm Depart Fellsmere 8:00 pm Arrive to Orlando at NFWM Office Date TBD: Debriefing meeting
Works Cited
Desai, Manisha. "Transnational Solidarity: Women's Agency, Structural Adjustment, and Globalization." Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics. By Nancy A. Naples and Manisha Desai. New York: Routledge, 2002. 15-33. Print.
Naples, Nancy A. "The Challenges and Possibilities of Transnational Feminist Praxis." Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics. By Nancy A. Naples and Manisha Desai. New York: Routledge, 2002. 267-81. Print.
“Two Years After the Events…” La Via Campesina: International Peasant’s Movement. La Via Campesina International Peasant’s Voice. 12 January 2012. Web. 23 February 2012.
“What is La Via Campesina?” La Via Campesina: International Peasant’s Movement. La Via Campesina International Peasant’s Voice. 9 February 2011. Web. 23 February 2012.
