Esperanza showed me all the varieties of corn products she grew- from red corn to blue corn and huitlacoche. I told her she had the same name as my grandma, and she told me about how her community was able to curb deforestation.
“Our friend said that we never really understood the importance of planting trees before. We didn’t understand that we needed a large number of trees to breathe. We thought as long as we had air around, it was fine. But in order for one person to have life they need trees.
For one person, we did the math. If there are 4 or 5 people in a family, how many trees do those family members need to breathe? We counted how much we were planting, and also the rate at which we were cutting down trees. Raising awareness is a big task. But people saw there was a big need and they started planting trees.”
Shortly afterwards, she started to get emotional. “Thank you for hearing my story,” she added. “I am just one woman and I have not gotten a lot of formal education. People don’t listen to us very often.”
And yet Esperanza has worked with her neighbors, and together they’ve done more to reverse deforestation in their area than I’ve seen well-equipped, well-educated PhDs accomplish.
We often scam ourselves by thinking people need some sort of status to make a difference. Identify a need, start doing what you have to, and you’ll be surprised where that takes you.