On the Ground

On The Ground’s purpose is to support sustainable community development in farming regions across the world.

www.onthegroundglobal.org

After five years of building clean drinking water wells in Chiapas, On the Ground was born branching out to other fair trade farming communities struggling to attain life’s basic necessities. Our purpose it to support sustainable community development in farming regions across the world. Since 2005, we’ve helped thousands of people in Mexico, Ethiopia and Palestine by creating opportunities for fresh water access, sanitation, education, equality, and agricultural development.

Our next project area will be the Democratic Republic of Congo, where we will focus on women’s empowerment programs. This project area is being launched by the 2014 Solstice Run taking place June 20th in Traverse City, MI. Together with our supporters and partners we’re working to bring peace and transformation for women’s lives in the eastern DRC region where hundreds of women, mostly widows, feel the brunt of difficulties in the conflict stricken area. 

• Chiapas Water Project our longest standing focus area, founded in 2005 to fund water systems using appropriate technology.Partnering Concern America, all funds raised through On the Ground go directly to material costs for the water projects in Mayan communities struggling for indigenous rights. To date, over 2500 Mayan people in over seven communities now have clean running water, and 80 community experts have been trained to maintain existing systems and create new ones where they’re needed.
• Project Congo concentrates on gender equality and raising awareness about the key issues faced by coffee farming families in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Initiatives will promote peace and gender equality while highlighting inspirational people and their stories. The work aims to break the chains of poverty and conflict while supporting women empowerment groups in coffee communities of the region.
  
  
• Project Ethiopia champions the importance of education and develops schools for young children in Ethiopia. In 2011, ten Americans and six Ethiopians ran 400 kilometers in 11 days to complete the Run Across Ethiopia (RAE), raising funds for education in the country. RAE and subsequent Project Ethiopia fundraising has built three schools, established an educational and vocational program for street children, constructed and outfitted a library, funded the Sisters of Mercy Home for the Dying and the Destitute and a kindergarten lunch program and supported the work of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union and the Tesfa Foundation.
  
  
• Project Nica is working to support coffee farmers responding to “La Roya” (Coffee Leaf Rust disease) while promoting diversification (production of different crops). Due in large part to climate change, Roya has destroyed up to 80% of coffee crops in Central America in the past two years and is threatening the economic survival of small-scale coffee farmers. Project Nica supports farmers to reinvest in their farms in order to continue their livelihoods while teaching them the importance of expanding beyond the production of one single crop (example: coffee). This project area concentrates on empowering female farmers of Nicaragua to be independent leaders of success for themselves and their families.
  
  
• Project Palestine works in collaboration with The Palestine Fair Trade Association (PFTA) to support fair trade olive farmers in Palestine. In partnership with PFTA and Canaan Fair Trade, six Americans ran 250 kilometers across the West Bank during the Run Across Palestine (RAP) over five days in 2012. RAP and corresponding efforts of Project Palestine have funded the planting of thousands of olive trees and the construction of the Deir Ballout Women’s Center, serving women entrepreneurs of the PFTA, providing a space to create their fair trade products such as za’atar, maftoul, sundried tomatoes, and soaps.
  
  
• Project Homefront incorporates the arts to educate, inspire, and engage the public within all other OTG projects. Co-producing albums and documentaries and organizing speaking events in communities and schools, we use art to focus attention on global issues that are largely ignored by today’s 24-hour news cycle.