Moringa at ECHO

Belated post, apologies.

So, here I was at ECHO agricultural development training in Florida, and little did I know that this would be the most profound and inspiring few weeks of my summer! I learned about everything from vermiculture to permaculture to grafting to water purification.  With all of the challenges and setbacks that come with development work, ECHO is beacon of light.  They teach simple and practical technologies that save lives every day and will continue to do so by passing the torch of knowledge about conservation, soil health and improved land production.

Moringa was a tree that I was particularly excited to learn about.  This tree grows well in almost any tropical or semi-arid environment and is delicious raw in salads, or the leaves can be dried and crushed into a powder.

This diagram shows the nutritional content of moringa.  You can see why they call it the miracle tree!  Malnutrition is an enormous problem in the area we'll be working in and Moringa is part of a multifaceted solution by our Covenant Mission team to combat food insecurity in Northwest Congo.

These are the moringa seeds.  They can be crushed and used for water purification, which is amazing! Is there anything this tree can't do?!

My classmates from session one.  There were a lot of folks working in Africa from this crowd, so I look forward to keeping in touch with them and sharing best practices.

My class from session two.  About half of this group is working in Haiti.  These folks challenged my knowledge of agriculture and development in many ways and I am grateful for the time I was able to learn alongside them.

Fundraising update soon to come...