Pineapples Warm from the Sun
BY LISA HOASHI
A Mercy Corps program helps farmers grow and sell high-value crops such as pineapples. Photo: David Evans/Mercy Corps
Last May, Brian Maney accompanied Mercy Corps staffers on a week-long trip to Guatemala. Maney is a donor to Phoenix Fund, which provides private seed capital to startup projects in some of the world's poorest countries. He and several other donors chose to cover their own travel expenses for the opportunity to see our Phoenix Fund projects close-up.
They visited Chitocán, where we helped fund a beekeeping business, and Nuevo Amanecer, where we're helping local people develop and run a poultry farm and a 32-acre pineapple plantation. Planted two years earlier, the pineapples were being harvested around the time of our group's visit. Maney is communications director for American Capital Strategies, a global asset management company in Washington, D.C.
How did you get involved with Mercy Corps, and why did you choose to donate through the Phoenix Fund?
I learned about Mercy Corps from a friend, and the Phoenix Fund appealed to me because it allows entrepreneurial people to take risks. I like the way it supports the ingenuity, energy, and problem solving of people who work in difficult economies.
Since the trip, having seen the work firsthand, I would add that the Phoenix Fund provides people with the tools to manage change, to adapt to a changing world, and to exercise control over their own destinies.
Brian Maney is corporate communications director at American Capital Strategies, a global financial institution in Washington, D.C.
Why did you feel it was important to go on the trip?
I wrote the check. I wanted to see what it had funded. I would encourage everyone who writes a check to go and see. There's no substitute for being there.
Did this trip live up to your expectations?
Meeting the Q'eqchi' Maya communities and seeing first hand the work they've done, all that they've accomplished, was a tremendous experience. And they were very gracious hosts.
On the surface, the trip was about visiting a pineapple farm. But there was so much more than that. You can read about, or be told about, the pineapple project, but there's no substitute for tasting the ripe pineapple in the field, warm from the sun, and knowing that the crop is being harvested and sold, thereby contributing to the well-being of the community. There is no substitute for being with the people, walking step by step over the land they will own, and hearing the story of their struggle to acquire clear title to the land and use it productively.
Did anything surprise you?
I can't say any of this was a surprise, but the Q'eqchi' Maya, the Mercy Corps staff and my fellow donors were fun to be with and are extraordinarily impressive people.
The Mercy Corps staff I met are pragmatic idealists. They listened to people and brought to bear the analytical skills to put those goals into a larger context.
The issue was that people had worked on the plantations for a long time, for very low pay. They were never in a position to get ahead or to own land. One of the effects of the long-term civil war in Guatemala, and of the drop in coffee prices, was that many of the plantations they worked for could no longer employ them or even pay the back wages they were owed. Mercy Corps first began working with these communities to settle disputes between indigenous workers and plantation owners. They were able to work out agreements that allowed the workers to buy parts of the plantation from the owners. The Phoenix Fund helped people follow through with those agreements.
We saw three projects: growing pineapples, beekeeping, and raising poultry. But what matters are not the pineapples, the honey or the chickens. It's that these enterprises will provide the income the people need in order to secure a clear title to the land where they live and work.
Why do you give? And what types of development work inspire you?
In my life I've benefited from the generosity of others, and I've been very fortunate. I'd like to share that good fortune in a productive way and to feel a part of something larger than myself.
What inspires me? Seeing people with limited material resources act on an understanding of who they are and what their self interest is, individually and collectively, in order to change their lives for the better. In the Q'eqchi' Maya communities we visited, people appear to be organizing on behalf of their own self-interest in ways that are new and empowering for them.
By taking on these Phoenix Fund projects, the Q'eqchi' Maya communities are also managing an extraordinary array of risks. They must manage change within their own communities. They must learn to deal with investment, market and climate risks, among other things. One day their customers may be able to buy better, cheaper products somewhere else. And the viability of the project also depends, in part, on the health of the surrounding civil society. So I think it's worth repeating: The projects aren't just about pineapples, honey and chickens. They're about developing the communities' strength, flexibility and cohesiveness. They're about the communities' ability to reinvent themselves as circumstances demand.
Now that you're home, do you view Mercy Corps or our work differently?
I don't know that I view Mercy Corps differently, but I'm much more inclined to talk about it. I traveled to an area I never would have been able to visit otherwise, and met people I never would have come across, and who frankly were inspiring to me. It was an experience that would not be available to a tourist.
Was there a particular moment of the trip that stands out in your memory?
I distinctly remember Borys Chinchilla, the Guatemala Country Director, saying that, "Mercy Corps is not an organization that gives gifts." Mercy Corps engages people in local communities to work on their own behalf. Arguably, that's a gift in itself, but I think we know what Borys means. It's not about creating dependency relationships, but about self-determination.
Another stand-out memory is swimming in the river after visiting the pineapple project in Nuevo Amanecer. I live in Washington, D.C., so I thought I knew something about heat and humidity. (Laughs.) There's no substitute for a great swimming hole.
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