Sponsor a Village Spotlight

The Floresta Sponsor A Village program continues to grow!  Nine of the sixty villages where we work are now completely sponsored.The program allows donors to become personally involved with a particular community where Floresta works.  Up to ten sponsors per village will help provide loans, training, and empowerment through monthly gifts of $30.  Sponsors will receive photos and regular updates as to how the members of their community are growing in the Floresta program and are invited to pray for the particular needs of their village.  In each issue of The Sower we will be spotlighting a new community in need of sponsors.

The village of El Puerto in the Dominican Republic is both the oldest and the newest village in the Floresta program. The first Floresta office was in a church in El Puerto, and the very first participants in the agroforestry revolving loan fund were from El Puerto.

The work has been a tremendous boon to the community, providing jobs, opportunities, and hope.  I remember the dilapidated wooden homes that lined the muddy streets the first times I went to El Puerto.

Today many homes are cinder block and the town has a new sense of vitality.  However, it is a large community and much remains to be done.

Recently, we have focused on broader community needs.  This year we helped the community to build their own nursery for fruit and forest trees.  It will provide trees for agroforestry, expanding the impact of our work to the many families who had not been able to benefit directly from the revolving loan fund.  It will also be an income source for the community members.

A solar produce drier was recently completed and, together with a warehouse, is enabling the community to get a much higher price for their products.  In the coming year we will offer more loans, assist the community in improving their marketing capacity, and begin a discipleship program.

We are also developing an experimental farm nearby, which will help local farmers to get even more out of their land.

Much remains to be done among those who missed out on Floresta's earlier work.  Sponsors who commit to the ongoing growth of communities like El Puerto not only change these villages forever, but also are the ones who make it possible for us to take our work to new communities and even new countries.  To sponsor El Puerto, or any other village, call 858-274-3718 or email Floresta@xc.org.

Sponsor a Village Progress:
Sponsors to Date - 117  
Total Sponsors Needed - 600
Goal for End of Fiscal Year - 300