How to Support Bay-Build Foundation

#FeedPeace - #AlimentemosLaPaz de Colombia

Feed peace in Colombia by supporting the efforts of former rebels and rural farmers. They have put aside 50 years of war, and are pursuing sustainable peace by producing cheaper, healthier, and environmentally friendly animal feed. How can animal feed make a difference? Read below to learn more.

Alimentemos la paz del campo colombiano apoyando este proyecto de reincorporados y campesinos, quienes, dejando atrás 50 años de guerra, le están apostando a una paz sostenible produciendo alimentos para animales más baratos, sanos y ecológicos. ¿Cómo pueden los concentrados para animales hacer la diferencia? Sigue bajando para leer el texto completo en español.

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Hello. We are Paramillo, a Colombian farming community of former combatants and rural farmers that formed in 2016 as a result of a United Nations-backed peace agreement. After 5 decades of fighting, our community came together to embrace peace and cooperation. We got our name from the Paramillo mountain range, one of the most diverse ecosystems of South America, in which we live and work. We successfully developed a flourishing coffee business that grew into a community.

Unfortunately, our success drew unwanted attention from local militia groups. Multiple members of our community were targeted and killed. We were forced to flee for our lives, crossing to the other side of the Paramillo mountains to a new land, far from the coffee plantations that made us dream of peace.

And now we humbly ask for your contribution to help us start over and continue our pursuit of peace. Your donation will help us build an animal feed production facility that will strengthen the peace process by promoting the sustainable development of surrounding farming communities as well as ours.

Why an animal feed production facility? It is very difficult for Colombian rural farmers to obtain a return on their product that is consistent with their enormous effort. The primary challenge is the high cost of industrial animal feed. Our natural feed facility will provide cheaper, healthier, and more accessible food for the raising of livestock. It will also do much more:

Create jobs along the entire natural feed production supply chain.
Decrease waste by using raw materials that used to be discarded.
Provide financial independence by cutting out third-party industrial feed suppliers.
Reduce production costs by being 35% cheaper than the price of industrial feed.
Spread the wealth by increasing the profitability of projects developed by other farming communities in the region.
Improve the health of animals, which normally feed on chemically treated feed.
Reduce our carbon footprint by eliminating the import of feed from distant locations.
Encourage collaboration by acting as a central node for local farmers and other nearby ex-combatant communities.
Provide a launchpad for other humanitarian and educational efforts in the area.
Change the paradigm by encouraging a legal alternative to illicit drug production.

This facility is the first of many investments that will benefit the community and strengthen efforts for sustainable agriculture throughout rural Colombia.

How will your contribution be used? The money raised through this fundraising campaign will be used to:

1. Give us a floor to work on - Cement slab and foundation: USD $2,000

2. Give us structure to build on - Metal frame, provided by the Bay-Build Foundation: USD $5,000

3. Give us shelter to protect us from the elements - Metal roofing: USD $1,000

4. Give us tools to do our work - Machinery required to produce natural feed: USD $4,000

PASO Colombia’s contribution: PASO Colombia is a program of One Earth Future that mobilizes the local intelligence and resources of remote rural communities, and connects it to national and international institutional knowledge, capital, and markets. It is currently supporting the implementation of the Peace Agreement in 20 locations across the Colombian territory. PASO Colombia will provide training and technical support for the members of the community who will produce the natural feed.

Through the Rural Alternative School (ERA) of Communication project, PASO trained members of Paramillo to create the audiovisual content for this campaign, as well as the material that goes with it on social media. The ERA of Communication project won a grant from the Imagining Our Image 2020 (INI, as per its Spanish acronym) Program of the Ministry of Culture.

Bay-Build’s contribution: Bay-Build’s mission is to increase global access to strong, reliable shelter. To do so, we offer a prefabricated framing system that can be assembled in a matter of hours. These frames can be fabricated using industry-standard equipment in over 100 countries around the world. We partner with regional non-profit organizations to provide targeted support that is guided by the local community. We are currently building in Colombia, supporting the construction of sustainable farming communities. Bay-Build will provide the design and shipment of the metal structure, as well as the logistics and administration for this fundraising campaign.

We are telling our story to raise awareness of the struggle for peace in Colombia. We worked with PASO Colombia to create the communication contents for this campaign, along with the renowned artist Edgar Álvarez, known for his project “Shall I explain it with clay?”

*** ESPAÑOL ***

Hola. Somos Paramillo, una comunidad de reincorporados y campesinos colombianos que nació tras el Acuerdo de Paz de 2016. Nos dedicamos a la agricultura colectiva y sostenible en el Nudo de Paramillo, uno de los ecosistemas más diversos de Sudamérica, situado en las montañas de Antioquia. Luego de colaborar exitosamente con familias campesinas en la producción y comercialización de café, de repente, nuestras vidas cambiaron.

Varios miembros de nuestra comunidad fueron atacados y asesinados por grupos armados. Nos vimos obligados a huir para salvar nuestras vidas, cruzando el Nudo de Paramillo hasta Mutatá, lejos de las plantaciones de café que nos hicieron soñar con la paz.

Ahora necesitamos tu ayuda para volver a empezar en un nuevo lugar. Tu donación nos ayudará a construir una planta de producción de alimentos naturales para animales que impulsará el proceso de paz al promover el desarrollo sostenible de las comunidades campesinas de los alrededores, así como de la nuestra.

¿Por qué una planta de alimentos naturales para animales? Los campesinos colombianos se enfrentan a muchos obstáculos para que sus productos obtengan una rentabilidad que le haga justicia a su enorme esfuerzo. Uno de estos obstáculos es el alto costo de los alimentos industriales para animales. Nuestra planta de alimentos naturales proporcionará concentrados más baratos, sanos y accesibles para los proyectos pecuarios de comunidades campesinas como la nuestra. De hecho, hará mucho más:

Creará puestos de trabajo a lo largo de toda la cadena de producción de alimentos naturales.
Disminuirá el desperdicio de materias primas al utilizar buena parte de las que antes se desechaban.
Contribuirá a la independencia financiera de las comunidades al prescindir de los proveedores externos de alimentos industriales.
Reducirá los costos de producción al ser un 35% más barato que el precio de los alimentos industriales.
Repartirá la riqueza al aumentar la rentabilidad de los proyectos pecuarios de otras comunidades campesinas de la región.
Mejorará la salud de los animales que normalmente se alimentan con alimentos tratados químicamente.
Reducirá la huella de carbono al eliminar el transporte de los alimentos industriales desde las ciudades hasta lugares lejanos en la ruralidad.
Fomentará la reconciliación al ser un nodo de trabajo colectivo para campesinos y otras comunidades de reincorporados cercanas.
Servirá como plataforma para nuevos esfuerzos humanitarios y educativos en la zona.
Cambiará el paradigma como un caso de éxito que permitirá fomentar economías alternativas a los cultivos ilícitos en otros lugares de Colombia.