Village Earth: The Consortium for Sustainable Village-Based Development
Village Earth is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was provides inspiration and a wealth of information and resources to help us all work to solve the challenges the world is facing. It was co-founded in 1993 by Dr. Maurice Albertson, who helped establish the Peace Corps in the 1960s, and Dr. Edwin Shinn and Miriam Shinn who had been working for 30 years at the community level around the world.
In conjunction with its partner organization, the, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) at Colorado State University, Village Earth promotes sustainable, community-based development around the globe through innovative training, consultation, appropriate technology information, and project support services, and has allied with many diverse groups in different projects, including Lakota families on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota; the Shipibo Nation in Peru's Amazon Basin; tribal communities in West Bengal, India; Mayan communities in Guatemala; and disadvantaged neighborhoods in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Village Earth provides resources everyone can benefit from using, including:
- Training programs in community-based develoment, both online and in-person.
- An appropriate technology library that contains the full text and images from over 1050 of the best books dealing with all areas of do-it-yourself technology.
- Volunteer opportunities.
- An online fair-trade marketplace.
- Book reviews on everything from hand-powered farm tools and bee-keeping to aquaculture and disaster preparedness.
Explore the resources, find the books and opportunities to create a sustainable future, take courses to get the skills you need, and see the work being done around the world at:
http://www.villageearth.org/index.htm(...we particularly liked the section on Agricultural Tools...imagine that!
http://www.villageearth.org/pages/Appropriate_Technology/ATSourcebook/Agriculturaltools.php)NOTE: Picture of the Appropriate Technology Handbook from http://www.villageearth.org/pages/Appropriate_Technology/ATSourcebook/index.php