Training – Field Study: Green PastaOur May Field Study is currently being held on SIFAT’s campus May 12-25. Sarah Murphree, SIFAT co-founder Sarah Corson’s great-niece, is a participant this year. She will be blogging about her experience and giving readers a glimpse of what types of appropriate technologies and community development topics are being presented, as well as a look into who some of the participants are. A 2012 graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Sarah recently directed and produced two short films, one taking first place in the 2013 Nashville Film Festival. She is currently working on her third film, a documentary about Camp Koinonia. Wednesday, Dave and Therese showed us how to make green pasta. Green pasta is a simple recipe anyone can make to incorporate more greens into his or her diet. After making green powder, you combine the powder into pasta dough. We kneaded green powder into our dough until it was nice and thick. We then cut it into thin strands in preparation for dinner. It was a lot of fun to make green pasta, but the more exciting part was the anticipation of the evening. We could not wait to try the green pasta we made ourselves!
 We made pasta using the green leaf powder. Training – Field Study: Bugs for DinnerOur May Field Study is currently being held on SIFAT’s campus May 12-25. Sarah Murphree, SIFAT co-founder Sarah Corson’s great-niece, is a participant this year. She will be blogging about her experience and giving readers a glimpse of what types of appropriate technologies and community development topics are being presented, as well as a look into who some of the participants are. A 2012 graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Sarah recently directed and produced two short films, one taking first place in the 2013 Nashville Film Festival. She is currently working on her third film, a documentary about Camp Koinonia.
Tuesday evening, Dr. Frank Franklin, Emeritus of Public Health at UAB, came to speak about the benefit of “Bugs for Dinner.” Frank arrived in full bug attire wearing moth wings and springy antennas, preparing us for the crazy night we were about to embark on – eating bugs.  Dr. Frank Franklin, center, shared about the nutritional value of eating bugs in developing countries. Training – Field Study: An Outsider’s PerspectiveOur May Field Study is currently being held on SIFAT’s campus May 12-25. Sarah Murphree, SIFAT co-founder Sarah Corson’s great-niece, is a participant this year. She will be blogging about her experience and giving readers a glimpse of what types of appropriate technologies and community development topics are being presented, as well as a look into who some of the participants are. A 2012 graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Sarah recently directed and produced two short films, one taking first place in the 2013 Nashville Film Festival. She is currently working on her third film, a documentary about Camp Koinonia.
I pulled into SIFAT Sunday afternoon preparing to attend the 2013 SIFAT Field Study. I was thrilled I was getting to attend the two-week program, but questions flooded my head as I made the drive from Nashville, Tenn., to Lineville, Ala. Who would teach us about international affairs? What would the people be like? Where would we stay? What would we eat? As I passed red dirt roads and luscious trees, doing my best not to get lost with so few road signs, I looked at the beauty around me and thought this won’t be so bad.
 Learn & Serve: “48: A Slum Experience” Retreat!January 19-21, 2013, eighty participants and thirty-four staff stepped into the life of over one billion people on the planet at “48: A Slum Experience”. This intense retreat allows high school participants, adult leaders, and college-aged staff to experience life in an urban slum environment.  Participants and staff of the 2013 “48: A Slum Experience” retreat celebrate gaining a new awareness of slum life around the world. Our Practicum students begin arriving today! Are you interested in becoming a part of their experience here? Read more below in the article that appears in the Summer 2010 Journal, which will be mailed this week.
Each year, community leaders from developing countries come to the SIFAT campus in rural Alabama for 10 intensive weeks to learn appropriate technologies and self-help skills to make a difference in their villages and cities. We refer to them as students, but their ages range from early 20s to late 60s. Some are pastors, while others run nonprofit organizations. All of our students care deeply about their communities and want to learn ways to foster community development and self-help.
During the Practicum, students learn to purify water, make rooftop gardens, build simple water pumps, make low-cost reading glasses for literacy programs, preserve foods, improve child survival, promote safe motherhood, foster microenterprise and small loans, build fuel-efficient cookstoves, prevent tropical diseases and much more. They also learn how to organize communities for action and write project proposals. We need your help! Would you give or raise a $500 scholarship to enable a student to be trained from Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Thailand, Zambia, the Congo (DRC) and other countries? We have several potential students hoping and praying to be able to come this year to be empowered to return and help others. Your $500 is a long-term investment in a community leader who returns home to share all that he or she has learned. It is a blessing to see the results and fruit continue to bear from SIFAT alumni through the years. Please contact Kathy at brysonk@sifat.org for more information. Please designate your gift “scholarship fund”. |
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