Mission Statement:
To fight for agricultural justice and improvement of women’s rights in the farmworker community through fundraising and volunteering with YAYA and communication and cooperation with our [to be determined] global partner.
Organizational Structure:
1) Secretary: record keeping (includes tracking attendance), maintenance of Google group
2) Scheduler: maintains Google calendar and plans attendance to events
3) Task-based committees:
· Headed by a Committee Chairperson who acts as the liaison for the committee and ensures efficiency of meetings
· Community partner liaisons (2): communicate with community partners and attend YAYA meetings
· Global partner liaisons (2): work with fundraising committee
· Ethics Committee (3): ensures mindful action, implements “three strike” policy
o Three Strike Policy:
§ failure to complete a task or attend a designated event results in one strike
§ first and second strikes result in voting restrictions
§ three strikes results in a meeting with the ethics committee and Professor Tweed
· Fundraising Organizers (4): responsible for coordinating an event and/or delegating responsibilities to other members to ensure that we are able to provide at least $190 (for food), 19 rakes and 19 shovels to YAYA for the community garden project
Every member is accountable for their own attendance and participation. If a member is unable to attend an event they must notify the scheduler. The Ethics Committee and “three strike” policy were conceived to deal with situations in which a member fails to be accountable for themselves.
Our group is democratically structured and focuses on working with, rather than for, our community. We have chosen this organizational strategy because, based on the NGOs that have come before us, operating through task-based committees (where personal accountability and leadership can foster) promotes efficiency in goal achievement. Women, Food, and Agriculture Network (WFAN), as discussed in Women’s Activism and Globalization, have a similar mission. One of their goals is to “instigate change” by building community and sustaining relationships with farmworkers (144).
We also have an ethics committee to monitor our progress. In “Unlikely Godmother,” Margaret Snyder characterizes the United Nations as a “godmother,” which acted as a guardian and advocate for women’s issues (25). Our ethics committee is cognate to the UN, in that it will monitor the efficacy and ethical compliance of our project.
We are facing the global challenge of migrant farmworker rights based on local realities, specifically the lack of resources to farmworkers in the community of Fellsmere, FL. We will be participating in discussion that takes place on a global level with our global partner. By building solidarity between our local and global partners, and ourselves, we will either discover or develop new ideas to cater to the needs of the farmworker population.
Group effectiveness will be measured by involvement of the majority of class members at each event, as well as our ability to fulfill each of the goals we have set. We are also considering the individual gains of each class member, outside of the group as a whole, to be an accomplishment of overall group effectiveness. This includes phone banking with YAYA, fundraising, and planning. We will also strive to maintain sincere communication and ethical interactions with each other and our community partners. We will assess ourselves via individual surveys on group effectiveness.
Community Partner/Global Theme Profile:
We propose to address the larger systemic issues of the treatment and unfair conditions of farm workers, focusing specifically 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 those who produce the food basic and equal access to the products they produce. As the price of food increases and becomes more scarce, 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 key 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, farm workers can pave the way for change in regard to equal access and fair treatment.
We have not yet been able to contact a global partner, however when we do we will be able to find out more about their needs and goals as they relate to our own and therefore participate in both shared learning and activism.
By working in solidarity with YAYA, we are supporting activism enacted “to change the oppressive social, political and economic conditions of farm workers” (“About”). Human rights violations, such as those our local farmworkers face, are worldwide issues and are experienced in many forms across many communities. “Few people are willing to do the hard physical labor required to farm under often harsh weather conditions while living in social isolation without many city amenities. This is not just an American problem, as migrant labor issues are present in Europe, the UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere (McDonald).” While YAYA is “[i]nspired by the principles of nonviolence of the farm worker movement,” we are inspired by the efforts of YAYA and the organization’s slant towards working with, not simply for farmworker communities (“About”). As we work with each other and with YAYA, we will cultivate ethical activism through focusing on our communicative and social interactions.
Our project with YAYA addresses the goals and objectives of this course by allowing us the opportunity to work alongside women from diverse histories and struggles as a means to come to a better understanding of the experiences of those that we have labeled as “the other.” By submersing ourselves into this culture, even momentarily, we learn to respect the needs of a community as opposed to pushing our perception of their needs onto them. In doing this, we will rise above what Trinh Minh-Ha refers to in “Woman, Native, Other” when she states: “the invention of ‘needs’ and the mission to ‘help’ the needy always blossom together (54).”
By mobilizing beyond the classroom and reaching out to our communities in order to inform them of the position of women farm worker’s and encourage participation during Farmworker Awareness Week, we are engaging in a feminist movement as described on page six of “Global Feminism. ” As we will reflect our experience and relate it to the feminist theories, beliefs, and strategies that we dissect during this course, our activism is morphed into ‘service-learning’ as its attachment to a curriculum guides our experience.
The Project Proposal:
Our intention for this project is to forge relationships with farmworker communities on a local to global level, with a focus on women and how their lives are impacted by the work they do. We will accomplish our goals by dividing them up between the various aforementioned committees. We will begin developing a relationship with our local community partner, YAYA, by attending meetings and fulfilling their requested needs for gardening tools and long sleeve shirts. We will also be participating in the Fellsmere Community Garden Event, where we will be gardening and sharing and preparing a meal, while also learning from one another. We will determine the needs of our global partners through email and meet whatever need(s) that they express at that time.
We will complete our service-learning project via our combined resources as individuals, the resources we have available as UCF students, and the resources of our Orlando community. Through the expertise of YAYA and FWAF, we will be able to better understand the ways in which we can use our resources to best serve the needs of the farmworker community. We will be communicating as a group in order to continuously reevaluate our initial methodology, resources, and group organizational structure, in order to best serve our goals.
One of our immediate goals in supporting YAYA and FWAF in the Fellsmere community gardening day is to fundraise one shovel and one rake per student. Another goal is to fundraise the cost per person for our visit, which includes meals and transportation. These goals are feasible because we have access to different types of resources that will help our fundraising efforts, such as on-campus technology to create fundraiser advertisements, as well as access to various campus organizations that may support our fundraising events. Our most important goal is to support our community partner and their sustainable relationship building with farmworker communities. Our fundraising efforts will provide the Fellsmere community with the tools that they currently need and will use in the future. We will also be providing labor within the Fellsmere community garden and helping with the upkeep of the plots, a service that FWAF has asked YAYA and our Global class to provide. Through this project, we hope to help YAYA strengthen their established relationship with the Fellsmere community, and that through our collaborative efforts, we will create a sustainable relationship with our community partner.
Project Timeline:
2/22: Initial contact with Lariza Garzon of YAYA to confirm partnership
2/24: Contact Global Partner
3/1: In-class presentation by YAYA
3/15: Meeting
3/17: Fundraise
3/19: Fundraise
3/25: Attend YAYA Meeting
3/31: Participate in YAYA’s Community Garden Project
4/1: Draft presentation and final reflection paper
4/12: Turn in final presentation
4/19: Turn in final reflection paper
Works Cited
· McDonald, Kay. "Migrant Farm Workers in the PIGS, America, and Elsewhere: Noting a Balance Sheet Correlation." Big Picture Agriculture. Black Sea Agriculture, 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. .
· Naples, Nancy, and Manisha Desai. Women’s Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics. New York: Routlege, 2002. 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.
Word Count: 1590
