Dear IOI Community

DEAR IOI COMMUNITY

It is the season to be grateful. Starting with Germany’s Erntedankfest on the first Sunday in October, versions of the same, mostly secular holiday are celebrated from Canada (on the second Monday of October), to Liberia (on the first Thursday in November), to Japan (on November 23), to Thanksgiving Day in the US and Brazil on the last Thursday in November.

While large family gatherings—the modern-day interpretation of this celebration—might be difficult during the Covid pandemic, the season gives us an opportunity to focus on the origins of this festival—being thankful for the year’s harvest. It is an important reminder that we should not take our food and land for granted. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that soils around the world are heading for depletion at a rate of 30 football fields a minute, with only an estimated 60(!) harvests left before our lands are too barren to feed the planet.

IOI has been leading regenerative agriculture programs for many years. While these programs increase the nutritional value of the local diet, bolster the local economy, and increase food sovereignty in remote locations, they are also part of IOI’s larger strategy to become a carbon negative organization, contributing to our overall mission to promote the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Concretely, IOI’s regenerative agriculture programs lower the local carbon footprint of food imports by 51 grams of carbon emissions per kilogram of food produced. In addition to lower rates of fertilizer and pesticide/herbicide use, our cattle breeding program helps to protect local soils. When pastures are managed responsibly, ruminants are an integral part of soil conservation and regeneration.

More on that in upcoming newsletters! For now, let’s be thankful for what we harvested this year (or for 2020 being almost over) and look forward to a new year with new politics, new vaccine and treatment options, and a re-opened IOI—all of which are looking very much in reach right now.

Dear IOI Community

DEAR IOI COMMUNITY

As we enter the last quarter of 2020, it feels like a corner might be turned soon on a more-than-tumultuous year. From political turmoil to civic unrest, from lack of life-work-balance to working at home, from stock market crash to record recoveries on Wall (but not Main) Street. And all that before the backdrop of a Q4 that might yet pack the biggest punch, with US elections upcoming and societies moving life indoors as winter approaches in the northern hemisphere. 

IOI has undergone a similar roller-coaster ride. On the coat-tails of last year's shift to align our programs with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we started the year by implementing our industry-leading 2022 Carbon Negative Initiative. Then came Covid, along with evacuations just ahead of border closures and ever-extending program shut-downs for the rest of 2020. I'll spare you the gory details, but we had to cut both our budget and our fixed cost by over two thirds. Such radical cuts are painful of course, mainly with regards to staffing. At one point we were a team of 14—currently, we are down to a single full-time employee holding down the fort in Galapagos. 

But, we also found opportunity and made important progress. While society at large has found new vigor in opposing the world's injustices, IOI's community came together to help us survive, continue with innovation, and keep our spirits up during this time of crisis. Our relentless staff (now working part-time or volunteering) has been putting in countless hours of their time to continue fulfilling our commitments on the ground, as well as our program development. The government in Ecuador realized the importance of food sovereignty in the Galapagos, and IOI’s sustainable agriculture program got a long-awaited, major boost through their support. Our cost-cutting demanded a move to new facilities, which has left us in beautiful, new, and expanded installations in an even better location. We updated our health and safety protocols to state-of-the-art standards, including bubble approaches and frequent testing. Last, but not least, in the face of continued travel restrictions (SPOILER ALERT) we are developing new online programs that will be launched in November, which can stand as individual programs or serve as enhancements to our existing programming after opening our doors again in January. 

Dear IOI Community

DEAR IOI COMMUNITY

2020 has been a challenging year, particularly for the travel industry. After a somewhat desperate summer—and with your help—IOI has now secured funding to remain alive for the rest of the year, despite all study abroad and volunteering programs being closed until 2021. 

Times of change are always a good moment to step back and reflect upon the former status quo. As I am writing this letter, the dire need for action on climate change is more urgent than ever. California is experiencing its worst fires on record while the Gulf Coast is battered by a record seventh named storm to make landfall in the US before the end of August (previous record was six in 1916). Both events are directly related to climate change.

While IOI is of course a sustainable development NGO, most of our funding comes from educational travel in study abroad and volunteering. How do sustainable development and carbon-emissions-heavy funding combine, you ask? So have we, and IOI is striving to be part of the solution to climate change, perhaps the biggest challenge of our time. In anticipation of reopening in 2021, IOI is moving forward with its Carbon Negative 2022 Initiative, leading by example in a traditionally emissions-heavy industry.

It is inspirational to see that more and more large organizations are also picking up some of the sustainable practices that IOI has been promoting. Sustainability leaders in their traditionally carbon-emissions-heavy industries, Patagonia and White Oak Pastures have made impressive progress in the cotton/apparel and meat production industries, respectively.

As you will read below, despite heavy cutbacks, our local projects and our initiatives to promote sustainable agriculture and biodiversity protection are being pushed forward as our remaining staff maintains our project work. Stay tuned for the launch of an exciting online education campaign that combines our field experiences with pre-arrival courses and internships. 

Keep up the positive spirit—we’ll get through this together.

Dear IOI Community

In honor of the United Nations' International Day of Friendship, I would like to thank our friends for their support, in the name of the entire ioi community. I am very grateful for how our community has been coming together over the past 3 months to help ioi survive.

In May, we raised $11,000 dollars in our COVID Relief Fundraiser with your help. With these funds, we were able to continue our support for our ongoing programs as well as expand our assistance in food sovereignty for the Galapagos and help in the disaster relief efforts in Isabela. In June, you reminded us to help larger issues and to stand united with other causes, not only in Galapagos where our local communities adapt to new realities, but beyond. I have been impressed by the rise in social justice issues coming to the fore, in court and in the streets, and your overwhelming support for it. In July, you helped us by donating your possessions to our first online auction and by bidding on items, which aided us in getting through the pandemic related shutdowns.

First and foremost, however, I have been impressed by our staff. As I have mentioned in past newsletters, ioi's staff have been more than their usual impressive in 2020. They have taken all changes in stride, in an ever more dynamic environment. They have switched their fields of involvement from logistics to medical assistance and from environmental management to PPE-making without complaint and as a matter of course to help with whatever was needed in whatever situation.

As such, I want to especially thank Felipe Andrade and Kathryn Metzker, both of whom will be leaving ioi in August.

Felipe came to IOI 5 years ago as a facilities manager and logistical assistant. Felipe has always gone above and beyond any and all job descriptions and expectations—be it as a dance instructor, a sustainable chef in our community programs, a research assistant, or a budgeting advisor (he has an accounting background). Felipe is a jack of all trades that will be missed in ways we can not even foresee yet.

As our newest staff member, Kathryn has already been with IOI over 2.5 years. She came, she saw, and she conquered our sustainability programs. With a master's in human geography and loads of knowledge in urban and sustainable agriculture, she made happen our sustainable agriculture program in no time, and took it to unimaginable heights. We'd had plans to start a model garden and get Galapagos to be food sovereign for many years, but it would not have been possible without Kathryn's drive, knowledge, and womanpower. The results of her work are helping Isabela through shortages during the pandemic and will have a lasting impact on the food system in Galapagos.

I know they have touched the lives of many of our participants, and it is with the saddest of hearts that we see them go. We hope to be able to work with them again in the future.

Dear IOI Community

We are evolutionarily wired to pay more attention to the negative than the positive, for our very survival. Thus, with an ever shorter, social-media- and sensation-driven news cycle, and a still ongoing pandemic, it is easy to lose sight of all the good changes that are happening.  

With regards to IOI for instance, I want to highlight how our community came together—raising over $10,000 to ensure IOI’s continued ability to support the relief effort in Isabela—rather than lamenting the fact that our summer programs and fall semester have been canceled and how that is pushing us right to the edge of extinction. I want to highlight how IOI’s team has shown me consistently that a few, impassioned people can make a change—be it when they tirelessly deal with the medical issues of a participant, rise to the occasion and switch from tote-bag to mask making during a pandemic, or when they take on government-requested disaster relief programs in times where their own health is at risk and their economic futures are shrouded in uncertainty. They ARE the change, without much recognition or remuneration. I am humbled to work with such a dedicated group of good people. 

With regards to daily life in the US, where life-after-Covid seems further away than in other OECD countries, we can feel society changing. While some of the efforts to re-open the economy clearly were premature, and the US did not adequately use the lockdowns to increase testing or establish contact tracing, we should focus on (and support) the positive changes we can see every day. 

Last month, society at large finally started to address racism, systemic inequality, and police brutality. Many, including IOI, pledged to no longer be silent bystanders. Millions protested in the streets for BLM. And while that struggle continues, June also brought hopeful legal realities to the fore with important decisions in LGBTQ+ protections, women's reproductive rights, and DACA. Continuing the spirit of Pride Month and living up to our pledge to no longer be silent, I would like to encourage all of us to speak up for these and other worthy causes. We are all in this together!

Keep up the spirit, be well, and live the change - Happy 4th of July. 

Johann