Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests, an innovative community-based development strategy developed by The Equilibrium Fund was recently awarded a $200,000 grant from the Development Marketplace 2009, financed by the Global Environment Facility, the Danish Government and the World Bank. Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests was one of 25 projects selected from over 1700 applications. The grant was awarded for “Indigenous Adaptations to Climate Change” and will be implemented in 25 Nicaraguan Miskito communities by Masangni, a Miskito community cooperative. Over 1 million acres of primary rainforest and more than 300 miles of rivers were damaged, dammed or diverted when Hurricane Felix hit as a category 5 hurricane in 2007. The Miskito are forest people and depend on forests and rivers for 85% of their protein needs in the form of bushmeat and fish. Since the hurricane destroyed their forests, 75% of Miskito families eat only one meal a day and this meal comes from international food donations, which will end in December 2009. Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests will improve children’s health and agroecosystem resilience to climate change by planting 200,000 Maya Nut trees and providing Maya Nut school lunches to 2,500 Miskito children, many of whom have become severely malnourished since the hurricane. Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests will source the Maya Nut for the school lunches from Nicaraguan women’s producer cooperatives, thereby providing jobs and income for more than 200 rural women from other parts of Nicaragua.
A special thanks is due to the Brandt Family who have been instrumental in supporting the pilot Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests Program in Guatemala in memory of their daughter Sarah, who was the president of The Equilibrium Fund Board of Directors from 2003-2007. We and the 1500 Guatemalan families who benefitted from Healthy Kids, Healthy Forests in Guatemala this year are grateful for their faith and support. For more information, please visit www.developmentmarketplace.com

he Maya Nut Program in Mexico won the prestigious NGO-Mobile award in 2007 and received 4 mobile phones and a laptop computer to facilitate communication between managers and field staff to streamline the workshops in the notoriously complicated region of Chiapas

for more information about the prize, visit
http://www.ngomobile.org/?id=13.

Alimentos Nutri-Naturales, a Guatemalan women's microenterprise trained by The Equilibrium Fund has been awarded the prestigious Equator Prize by the United Nations Environment Program, the U.N. Foundation and the World Conservation Union.
They won $30,000 for their work conserving rainforest and alleviating poverty in their communities in Guatemala and were selected from a pool of over 400 applicants from all over the world.

The Maya Nut Program was awarded the prestigious St. Andrews Prize for the Environment in 2006. the $50,000 prize money was used to expand the program to new areas in Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua, and has resulted in the conservation of at least 100,000 ha of rainforest, the planting of at least 100,000 new trees and the training of at least 3000 rural women about the Maya Nut for food and income.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and United Nations Environment Program nominated The Maya Nut program as one of 12 finalists for the prestigious SEED Award for our entrepreneurship and contribution to sustainable development at the World Conservation Congress in Bangkok in late 2004.
www.seedinit.org Maya Nut Programme

Erika Vohman, Executive Director of The Equilibrium Fund was awarded the prestigious E-chievement Award by E-Town and the Argosy Foundation in May, 2006.
The show and award interview will air on National Public Radio (NPR) in August.
For more information about E-Town and the E-chievement Award, please visit their website at www.etown.org

The National Council for Science and Technology (CONICYT) and the Vice-Presidency of Nicaragua elected the Maya Nut program as one of the most promising innovations in social, economic and cultural Development in July 2004.
Document in Spanish: www.ideassonline.org/pic/doc/ojoche.pdf

The Center for Tropical Research, the University of Veracruz, Mexico and the University of California, Riverside selected the Maya Nut Program to present our work at the 1st International Congress on Successful Cases of Sustainable Development in the Tropics in October, 2004.
Document in Spanish: www.uv.mx/citro/reunion/congreso