The ability to bring environmental conservation, learning, and hunger reduction together was what stood out to me about the Hope in Crops project as we traveled around the Kakamega district of Kenya. We got a firsthand look at the project during our recent site visit to the area.

UUSC's partner the SoilFarm Multi-Culture Group (SFMG) is the initiator of the Hope in Crops (HIC) project, which is funded by UUSC's carbon-offset program. The mission of the SFMG is to protect and conserve the environment, in particular the Kakamega Rain Forest in Kenya. Their work began over two decades ago when the former president of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi, attempted to turn the forest into a tea and coffee plantation. Communities around the forest resisted Moi, and many people were tortured and thrown in jail. The founders of SFMG are some of the survivors of Moi's persecution.

Now, they have made protection of the forest and its environment their main goal. As part of that, they are making primary schools located around the forest green and changing the lives of community women in the area. They aim to make schoolchildren lovers of their environment before they become teenagers. The strategy, which combines planting trees and farming food crops, is ingenious: children plant tree seedlings at their schools, homes, and family farms alongside seeds for food crops like maize, cassava, and potatoes, all supplied to them free by SFMG. And the strategy is working!

We started our tour of the schools with a visit to Isecheno primary school, where the project has been in place for five years. The head teacher, Peter, told us that the tree seedlings and seeds for food crops that HIC supplied have provided food for the students and helped beautify the environment. They have planted more than 1,200 trees at the school, and the crops provide good nutrition for the students, particularly the orphans.

The students of the school were very delighted to see us. They welcomed us with dances and poems on the importance of trees. Though many of the students wore no sandals because they could not afford them, their love for planting trees and their appreciation for the HIC project overshadowed that. They dug holes and asked us to plant trees. They also recited a poem about tree planting titled "Conservation Is Our Concern." It was very moving.

At St. Anne's Mundulu primary school, head teacher James Atsenga was all praises for the HIC project. "SFMG has opened our eyes through the program. We have seen a lot of benefits in the areas of the health, sanitation, and food for the children. We fully own the program, and the compound is environmentally friendly. Education officers came, and they were impressed by the environmental conditions of the school. In addition, the population of the school has increased since the project began; we now have about 800 students."

The fact that members of the local community support the project was evident. As I looked around the vast school premises, I saw community members watching from the other side of the fence as the students sang songs, recited poems, and danced about their experiences. Members of the parents association of the school also came to welcome us. I was particularly impressed by the play performed by the students to illustrate their conviction that trees should not be cut and that those who do cut them should be punished by the authorities.

The HIC project was also recently started at St. Charles Shihuli primary school, but the enthusiasm of the students there was not any less than at the other schools. These students plant their own trees and take care of them individually. And you could see the sense of individual ownership when each student posed in front of their trees like scouts as their teachers took us around to see the project. Atema [Eclai, UUSC's programs director,] rightly insisted we see all of the trees as we did not want any of the students to feel left out. Leonard Makamu, their head teacher, told us that the goal of the project is to make the school environmentally friendly. He said the head teacher before him cut down the trees that were at the school, and when he took over, he sought out SFMG to come help them make the school green again — that was very inspiring.

We visited other schools and saw other great projects. And we saw that, due to the HIC project, members of SFMG have become very popular with the students. According to Laban Shivachi, a member of the team, "the students call me Mr. mti (Mr. tree) whenever they see me, because of this project."

On the second half of his recent journey abroad, UUSC Interim President Bill Schulz spent time in Peru meeting with a partner organization working on the human right to water. In the following blog post, written Saturday, August 28, from his final stop in Cuzco, he reflects on issues of water privatization and free expression.

Peruvian oil companies, subsidiaries of large international companies, process a barrel of oil for $8. Then they sell that barrel back to the consumers for $80. Similarly, Peru has abundant water supplies but lags the rest of the world in the accessibility of that water to the people.

Much of the reason for both conditions is the privatization of control. But we also know that public control of oil and water does not guarantee access at reasonable prices, either. Some combination of public and private is obviously the best solution, with the needs of the consumers, especially the most marginalized consumers, being paramount. Working all that out is a complicated business. UUSC is fortunate to have one of the world's leading experts on the human right to water, Patricia Jones — with whom I have been traveling this week — on our staff to think these issues through.

And we are fortunate as well to have smart, pragmatic partners like the Federation of Unions of Water Workers of Peru (FENTAP), a democratic union of water and sanitation workers, to work with us. We've met with Luis Ivarra, the head of FENTAP, and his colleagues for two days, first in Lima and yesterday in Cuzco, exploring the complexities of making safe, affordable water as easily accessible as possible. The water utility in Cuzco, which we visited, is a pioneer in this respect.

One thing we know for sure: if people are not permitted free expression of their concerns and grievances, little will ever change and solutions will remain elusive. I asked those with whom we met in Lima whether the government would permit mass nonviolent demonstrations for rights. "Yes," they replied. "On two conditions: first, that the demonstration was in support of the government. And second, that it challenged no current centers of power!"

UUSC is working to solve the water crisis around the world, but in a larger sense we are also working to protect the rights of dissent and free expression everywhere. The two go hand in hand.

On Thursday, August 26, UUSC Interim President Bill Schulz filed the following blog post from Ecuador, where he is learning more about the innovative work of our partners there in engaging youth and spreading the word — and responsibility — of human rights.

I'll bet you've never heard of a human-rights circus (though the struggle for human rights sometimes feels like a circus!); I never had. But that is exactly what one of UUSC's colleague organizations in Quito, Ecuador, has created: a summer circus with clowns and acrobats entertaining children in a big top but focused on the theme of protecting rights. Patricia Jones, manger of UUSC's Environmental Justice Program, and I visited the circus yesterday morning and then engaged in a dialogue with the kids about how to stand up for your rights when everyone from gangs to governments are trying to deprive you of them.

The circus is just one of the creative ways Ecuadoran human-rights organizations are engaging young people in the rights struggle. Indeed, we met a very articulate 11-year-old who had testified to the Constituent Assembly — the body that created the new constitution — about the importance of including youth rights in that document. Something like 11 of the 40 elements the youth proposed were eventually adopted.

And here's another novel idea: the new constitution includes the notion that everyone is responsible for seeing that everyone else's rights are protected. If a teacher, for example, notices that a child appears sick, it is not the teacher's job to provide medicine, of course, but it is the teacher's responsibility to see that the child's right to health care is respected and that the child receives the treatment she or he needs. Imagine if we all had legal responsibility for doing what we could to see that human-rights obligations were met by the state! 

Human rights have always been an evolving concept. When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was first adopted in 1948, no one imagined, for example, that its provisions applied to gay and lesbian people. Today the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are quite clearly a part of the human-rights regimen. But progressive evolution always requires that someone take the first step. In so many of the ways I've been detailing, Ecuadorans are leading us on our way — and UUSC's partners are in the vanguard.

Next stop: Peru!

UUSC Interim President Bill Schulz offers the second in his series of posts from Ecuador, where he is visiting with other UUSC staff to learn more about developments related to the nation's new constitution.  

Here's another foreign concept to American ears — the notion of an independent federal human-rights ombudsperson. Imagine this position appointed by a group of representatives of civil-society groups for a five-year term, renewable once, and removable by the legislature only for cause — not for political reasons. That's what Ecuador has. It's called the public defender, and, though the office has no prosecutorial powers, it is free to investigate and expose all human-rights crimes, be they committed by the government itself or others.

In a conversation today with Ecuador's public defender, Fernando Gutierrez Vera, we talked about the new notion that Nature itself has rights. Gutierrez admitted that it is a novel and untested concept. The truth is that no one is sure how it will be enforced. But my guess is that 20 or 30 years from now, we will see lawsuits brought not just on behalf of the human victims of Nature's exploitation but on behalf of the air and the trees themselves. 

"But they are inert," many will object. They have no consciousness. They are not free agents. How can we possibly imagine suing on their behalf or knowing what they would want? But the fact is that we have no compunction today about bringing suits on behalf of children or those whose medical conditions preclude their making responsible decisions for themselves. We sue to see that animals are treated humanely (a funny construction, I know!). We even sue to see that the interests of the deceased are respected. How great a leap is it to imagine acting in the interests of the natural world itself? And is it really so difficult to discern the interests of that world?

One other fascinating element of our conversations with civil-society groups here in Ecuador:  the government now in power is regarded as one of the most progressive on the continent, but it is apparently growing more and more resistant to dissent. It has, in the view of many social-justice leaders, begun to criminalize peaceful protest under the guise of fighting "terrorism." How familiar is that to us Americans? As one observer put it, "Calling what we are doing ‘terrorism' is an insult to the true terrorists!"

What a society can give in one hand — a groundbreaking new concept of rights — it can take away with the other, by reverting to the old shibboleth that those who challenge the status quo are dangerous extremists seeking to destroy the very fabric of civilization. But then, repressive governments are always frightened governments. And we all know what fear can do to even the best-intentioned souls.

I have always known that lack of access to safe water unduly burdens women and girls. We often hear stories of how women and girls spend hours collecting water for their households and as a result are kept from productive work and school. As Usu Mallya of the Tanzania Gender and Networking Program (TGNP) rightly puts it, "Most water finds its way to households on the woman's head, and the patriarchal attitude of the society brings the perception that women will carry water." Because I've heard stories like this before, I wasn't expecting to leave Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, after our visit to TGNP preoccupied by water and gender — but I couldn't get them out of my head.

This train of thought began when members of the Tanzania Water Network, a network formed in 2009 during TGNP's Gender Festival, shared their experiences with us. Like a river, the gender implications of lack of water access run deeper than I realized. First is the issue of water as a burden and water as an income. Yes, women trek several kilometers to get water, but when they have to pay for water, who do they buy it from? Before now, I never seriously considered that it's rare to see a female water vendor. Indeed, it is men that sell water and earn income from it — the women who carry it sadly never get to earn a living from it.

Another area of concern is water and maternal health. Gemma, the former executive director of TGNP and member of the network, observes that "without water a woman cannot get good, nutritious food. Even when she has the food, she needs water to prepare it. This is an issue especially for pregnant women who need good nutrition to have a healthy pregnancy." While sharing the experiences of a community near Dar es Salaam, a woman named Halima explained that "the problem is so acute due to the change in weather and increase in population. Even to deliver a child at the hospital, women have to bring water for the nurses to clean them and the baby."

Also, there are stories of what happens to women in between their homes and water sources. Gender-based violence (GBV) in water collection has terrible consequences. Rehema, of the Kigogo Women and Youth Development Group, took time to explain to me how gender-based violence is linked with water collection. She said that when water is fetched from distance, it means women get home late and sometimes their husbands who are "not patient with them" beat them. Also, at the water point everyone scrambles to get water. "Unemployed boys" seeking water to sell sometimes beat girls and women in order to get water out of turn. To crown it all, young girls sometimes are raped while searching for water. Some of these girls get pregnant and some are exposed to HIV/AIDS. I could only sigh as Rehema painted the picture.

But these women are not just sitting and watching. TGNP, with funding from UUSC, is educating women and youth in Tanzania about water problems and helping them learn and analyze the gender issues involved. Through TGNP, UUSC provided seed funding for the start-up of the Tanzania Water Network. Also, through TGNP's weekly Gender Development and Seminar Series (GDSS) and other programs, women are learning and taking action. As a result, many women have been motivated to become "water activists," as they love to be called, and are now helping organize their communities around water issues.

I was inspired by what Gertrude of the network said about TGNP learning sessions: "TGNP has built our capacity and now we have a voice. We no longer just stare at the problem, now we can identify our problems and the opportunities open for us. We're able to mobilize women and help them stand for leadership. TGNP has made us community animators. We could be members of parliament in the future because of this."

We participated in a GDSS session on our visit. During the session, more than 100 participants were divided into small groups, and each group was given a picture to discuss. My group's picture showed a pregnant woman who, on her way back from collecting water, was ambushed by criminals and a snake. My group, like all the others, was actively engaged as they discussed the picture in Swahili. At the end, a member of the group presented the findings and relayed the group's suggestions for change, which included that women should be more involved in decisions about water and also that more women should be elected into decision-making positions.

As I journeyed back to the United States, I thought about these women a lot. I told myself that the road may be rough at the moment, but these women will get there. As the saying goes, "knowledge is power." As they learn about their rights, they will be continually empowered to fight for those rights and change their world. With UUSC's support and with TGNP's help, a brighter future beckons.

UUSC Interim President and CEO Bill Schulz is in Ecuador, meeting with officials and UUSC partners about human and environmental rights. In the blog post below, he reflects on some exciting provisions of Ecuador's new constitution that protect the environment — and the need for real follow-through and enforcement. 

The notion that Nature itself has rights, that the earth, air, and water can bring suit against those who despoil them, is a new and perhaps strange concept to American ears. But here in Ecuador — where Patricia Jones, head of UUSC's Environmental Justice Program, and I are visiting — it is a concept that has been written into Ecuador's new constitution. The provision exists thanks to the hard work of indigenous groups who successfully advocated that the constitution reflect their understanding of human beings' relationship to and responsibility for the earth.

That is just one of many significant changes that were adopted by the Constituent Assembly that wrote the new constitution. For example, our UUSC partners, El Movimiento Mi Cometa (the "My Kite" Movement) and Observatorio Ciudadano de Servicios Publicos (the Citizens Observatory on Public Services), the latter a consortium of community-based social-change organizations, were instrumental in persuading the Assembly to include a human-right-to-water provision. Using coalitions of partners, holding peaceful demonstrations, and confronting corporate powers with the truth — and most of all by being persistent — grassroots groups pulled off something of a constitutional revolution.

Yesterday Patricia and I toured the barrio of Guasmo Sur, a part of the city of Guayaquil where Mi Cometa has its main offices. The programs that Mi Cometa runs, for housing reconstruction, microcredit, music and computer education, and much more, are helping transform this 600,000-person community where raw sewage still runs through the streets. But Mi Cometa knows that all its services will be but a Band-Aid if systemic economic and social change does not take place as well.

The new constitution is a start, but of course its remarkable provisions must be enforced; it is not yet clear if and how that will happen. Today we are in Quito meeting with many of the officials who have responsibility for enforcing human rights. I'll let you know soon if Nature will have a protector in more than name and whether the human right to water will be more than a pretty phrase on paper.

Simon Sangale Ole Nasieku is the national chairman of UUSC program partner the Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT). He wrote the following post about what the referendum and the new constitution mean to the many thousands of workers throughout Kenya.

The historic win for the "yes" camp in the national referendum was a clear and resounding statement that Kenyans have been yearning for a new constitution. We in KENASVIT pay tribute to the thousands of informal traders who participated in the vote.

The referendum process was carried out in a calm and peaceful environment, and this is a plus for all Kenyans. After the post-election violence in late 2007 and early 2008, KENASVIT started a campaign of peace building, conflict resolution and reconciliation among our members countrywide. The campaign was geared toward bringing communities together and resolving not to fight again. Street vendors and hawkers had suffered loss of wares, injury, deaths, and displacement.

The government and other stakeholders undertook national peace campaigns through media public forums and road shows that created opportunities for discussions of contentious issues, thereby allaying many fears.

The campaigns targeted individuals who were encouraged to read, decide, and vote yes or no. KENASVIT played a big role in distributing over 10,000 copies of the proposed Kenyan constitution to Bodboda (bicycle transporters), hawkers, disabled persons, women, and youths.

The issues that made the Yes campaign more appealing to street traders and hawkers, resulting in its resounding victory, were the following:

• An expanded Bill of Rights, including economic, social and cultural rights alongside civil and political rights (the rights to health, food, shelter, and other basic needs are now protected by the constitution)

• Reduced powers of the president

• Better checks and balances of power (cabinet secretaries drawn from outside Parliament will now replace the ministers)

• Better representation of the people, including women

• Opportunities for marginalized and special-interest groups, youths, persons with disabilities, and other members of society

• Devolution of power to counties (counties will use resources to bring services closer to the people)

• Management of public land, crucial to street traders and hawkers, will be now administered by the National Lands Commission; urban and peri-urban (suburban) land will be accessible to street traders and hawkers

KENASVIT officials played a significant role in civic education, and during the referendum day street vendors were involved in voting, observing the polling, and serving as polling clerks. The declaration of a public holiday on the referendum day enabled most to vote, and the massive security presence helped a lot.

Street vendors, hawkers, and most of the informal traders in Kenya overwhelmingly supported the proposed constitution, and we are eagerly awaiting the president to put it into action in order for us to monitor its implementation.