We truly believe that there are enough people out there that simply want to help others. However, often times these people lack the means to do so alone. At Bija, we are creating a platform to empower people to do good. By each of us contributing a small amount of our skills, time, or money, these individual actions, which may seem insignificant independently, sum together to create a collective force of action which can accomplish great things.
At Bija, we believe in working with communities, rather than in communities. The community creates the vision and drives each project. Our focus is not on setting and shaping the project, but rather helping communities enact their own visions and goals. We focus on capacity building for these communities to ensure their continued success, with the goal of eventually making our involvement obsolete.
Sustainability defines the type of projects we focus on, or more precisely the intended impact on the project on the local area. Projects areas include sustainable development, community based agriculture (both urban and rural), ecotourism, clean water, and education. Building sustainable communities creates resilient communities, which are able to protect themselves against destructive development practices.
One of our core philosophies is to be more than sustainable – the idea that projects should not only be able to support themselves in perpetuity, but also serve as a model to inspire and help other projects.
From a collective of urban farmers in California to a village of indigenous Mayans in Chiapas, our communities can take on a variety of forms, but they all ultimately share the intention to shift existing systems in a local manner by creating projects with environmental and economic sustainability aspects.
We mainly focus underserved communities, e.g. communities comprised of Indigenous Peoples, minorities, or the economically disadvantaged. However, we do not strictly confine ourselves to these targets, as we believe it’s necessary to impacting change in all areas for it to be lasting. Despite their various differences in language, location, and economic status, all of our communities share core mission alignment on promoting social justice and environmental sustainability.
Technical, efficiency, viability, and communications consultation to ensure successful project operation
Initial start up fund financial assistance to get the project up and off the ground – money to plant and water the seed.
Assistance and training in project management and logistics, to go from project design to implementation
Long term sustainability planning to create a pathway for the project to be independent of external funds
We believe environmental stewardship is necessary not only for the protection of Earth’s ecosystems, but also for the benefit and perpetuity of humanity.
Land rehabilitation is a proven mechanism for the strengthening and improvement of the community.
We believe the no one should have to struggle to gain access to food, water, shelter, and general well-being. As a society, we must persevere to guarantee these basic human rights to all peoples everywhere.
We believe that every one should have the opportunity and economic means to determine their own path in life.
Whether on the individual level, as in access to education, or on a community level, as in the ability to preserve culture and land, everyone should be empowered to control their fate.
We believe in bringing awareness to cross-cultural dialogs, thus creating deeper relationships and cultivating deeper reverence, for all cultures.
Dialogs, agreements… so often these concepts of bidirectional exchanges are overlooked, sometimes manifesting as appropriation or assimilation. The various cultures of the world all have much to share with each other, once given an equal platform to do so. Coexistence preserves tradition while creating the opportunity for the birth of something new.
We believe changes happens from the bottom up.
Grass roots efforts are closer to the source of the problem than any other structure. However, these entities often lack the means to pursue change on their own. Due to the lack of an established track record, they are also effectively ineligible for the traditional grant model.
We believe in empowering these efforts by working in capacity building contexts, helping develop their project and organizational skills… effectively empowering communities to reach a self-sustaining state.
We believe that the world can change through small acts of kindness.
By networking our skills, abilities, and effort in a collaborative fashion, the sum is greater than the sum of its parts.
We believe that by paying it forward, serving as a model and a template , each individual project can have a ripple effect on it’s surrounding. Thus these localized projects become a mechanism for global change.
Each project is a seed, cared for til it sprouts, with the understanding that one day it will mature and spread its own seed.
