Date: 2/23/12
To: Professor Tweed
From: Ashleigh Augutine
Re: 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
o Maintain effective communication with group members and community partners
o Individual responsibilities will be outlined in working charts created per event
o Committee Chairperson: liaison for committee
· Meeting facilitator
o Ensure meetings run smoothly and in a timely matter
o Hold meetings with Committee Chairpersons
· Co-liaisons
o Communicate with community partners
o Attend YAYA meetings
· Secretary
o Record keeping
o Attendance
· Ethics Committee
o Ensure mindful enacting of project
o 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
Nancy A. Naples states that many feminist NGOs are “transformed from advocates to professionals serving the needs of neoliberal states” (274). 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, 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. Our goal is to prioritize the needs for which farmworkers express a desire for solidarity. 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.
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 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 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.
This project is allowing us to get first hand experience on how “women theorize and act on local and global levels, taking global and national politics into consideration (Tweed 1). This service learning is different from other service learning projects because it is requiring up to consider both the local and global effects of our project. I believe that this macro level aspect is crucial to having this project meeting the course goals. The macro level approach is also why I consider this project different from activism or volunteer work. In Fight Like a Girl: How to be a fearless Feminist , an article from a previous Women’s studies course , the author discusses how “social changes begin on a small level with a small group of people who envision a new way”(Seeley 16-17). I agree that small acts of change lead to social change but I believe this project is taking a different approach. We are taking strength in numbers approach. First off an entire class of nineteen is a group and we are partnering with both a local and global community partner. I also think that this is the prefect definition of service learning because we will also be learning throughout this project. We are putting into action the exact things we are reading about in the course. Trinh Minh-ha states “ a conversation of “us” with “us” about “them” is a conversation in which “them” is silenced”(67). No one should be “silenced”(Minh-ha 67)/ This comparison Minh-ha makes to gossip helps me understand what the entire second section of the book is about. I don’t think it is fair to bring someone down to build up you own self-esteem or self worth. That is what Minh-ha is saying the anthropologist does. I think that through this project I will learn so much from the farm workers, the organization YAYA, and my classmates
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 to complete each aspect of the project. Group members will complete portions of the project according to interest and are encouraged to ask for help, opinions, and constructive criticism from each other. Using our communication tools like social media and email to make decisions and gain feedback gives every member a chance to be included. To include other members of the community, group members will invite participation from members of their organizations and jobs. We realize that educating as many people in the general community to the needs of the farm workers of Fellsmere, can help encourage more volunteering and thus a sustainable relationship with the Farm worker community we are working with. For advertising, members will contact media outlets we through giving fliers and telling 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.
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
o The historical events that have led to the current oppressive conditions of the agricultural industry
o 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
o 10 am Arrive To Fellsmere
o 10:15 am Welcome, introductions and instructions
o 10:45 am Gardening begins!
o 1:00 pm Lunch (vegetarian options available)/ short soccer game
o 2:00 pm Back to gardening!
o 4:30 pm Debrief
o 5:15 pm Dinner
o 6:00 pm Depart Fellsmere
o 8:00 pm Arrive to Orlando at NFWM Office
· Date TBD: Debriefing meeting
Word count 1562
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.
Seely, Megan. Fight like a Girl: How to Be a Fearless Feminist. New York: New York UP,
2007. Print
Trinh, T. Minh-Ha. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Bloomington:
Indiana UP, 1989. 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.
