ECHO

This past week I had the opportunity to take a tour at ECHO. ECHO is a non-profit inter-denominational Christian organization that stands for Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization. It is located in North Fort Myers. ECHO is "dedicated to fighting world hunger through innovative options, agricultural training, and networking with community leaders and missionaries in developing countries."

I really enjoyed going to ECHO and learning what it does and what it has to offer. It was really awesome to see the different climates they have around their garden and what is actually growing in them. The tour guide, Jane, was able to point out different plants spread around the garden and explain what they were used for. The most interesting story I heard all day was about the Moringa tree. She told us how in underdeveloped nations, children were dying from being malnourished until someone explained to them that they could eat the Moringa leaves. It contains more vitamins and protein than a lot of other foods that people would normally consume. It contains seven times the vitamin C of oranges, four times the vitamin A of Carrots, four times the calcium of milk, three times the potassium of bananas, and two times the protein of yogurt.  The happy/sad part of the story was that this tree is found in a lot of places where these children were dying. Because of this plant, many children were saved and are healthy today. Had it been discovered sooner though, they would have been able to save more children. It's so crazy to think that the plants we walk by daily could cure diseases and save the lives of children.

The  American agriculture seems to be more advanced than the agricultural techniques that ECHO is teaching to the poorer countries. But in America, we have a lot more resources available to grow a lot of different things. Also the farmers growing the food typically have more money and are able to afford the machinery or whatever technology that is required to grow healthy plants.  In the poorer countries it's hard for the farmers to afford the tractors or plows or watering systems that American farmers can more easily afford.

The work of ECHO is very appropriate to developing countries because the ECHO staff and interns are showing these countries how to use what they have and how to turn it into something useful. ECHO teaches them how to conserve their water, how to do urban gardening, and how to cook with just the use of recycled barrels. ECHO teaches the developing countries to use whatever resources they have in ways that would benefit them for a longer time.

Appropriate technology is using the tools and resources that are available to complete the tasks that need to be done. Appropriate technology is different for every situation. It would not make sense to teach someone to use a tractor or a plow if they would never be able to afford such machinery.

Although I really admire the work that ECHO does, I wouldn't be interested in doing my service learning with them because the hours that they are open do not work with my schedule as compared to my selected service learning site. The location of ECHO is also far away from my house.