Youth Blooming Agrarian Lands and Community Life
Seeds of change: The blossoming of RIAC-Joven

Dear Friends,

Agrarian lands and community life bloom when youth work alongside their elders to save and sow seed, nurture the soil, tend the harvest, prepare meals, and celebrate the agricultural cycle. The Youth Network for Community Agroecology, known as RIAC-Joven, is a collective of youth that remain rooted in their agricultural traditions. They build on the knowledge of their elders to innovate artisanal fertilizers, mechanisms for responsible water use, and diversified cropping systems. We close 2023 with a series of newsletters that amplify their voices, actions and aspirations. Join CAN in supporting their visions for a healthy and just food system. They are already building it, and they are doing so under tremendous pressure.

Every dollar you contribute to CAN

up to $50,000 will be matched

through December 31st !

2023 is on track to become the hottest year on record. Rural youth affiliated with CAN’s partner organizations have experienced hurricanes, drought and flooding due to the climate crisis. The extractive economy continues to heat the planet, plundering natural resources to turn a profit. Ecosystems are destroyed, communities are displaced, and youth are often forced to leave their homelands. At CAN we believe that if anyone has the strength and momentum to guide the future of agroecology, it is rural and urban youth organized with their communities and connected through ties of solidarity. Together they are defending life and dignity.

We share this belief with the RIAC-Joven. Their grandmothers and grandfathers have taught them how to care for the Earth in a way that sustains harmonious and respectful relationships between people and the environment. They hold monthly video calls to share knowledge and experiences about the practices that make their homelands flourish. CAN accompanies the RIAC-Joven, amplifying their collective decision-making, strengthening their initiatives, and building a network with them that interconnects their struggles to liberate their communities from all forms of oppression.

Each year, the RIAC-Joven organizes an International Exchange that has brought together over 300 youth in the last 3 years. During the Exchange, they publish a declaration that echoes from Colombia to Mexico, crosses Nicaragua and extends into the United States. Their declarations reflect a year of critical analysis about the challenges faced by their communities, their visions on agroecology and dreams for the future. Each declaration is a collective commitment to build alternatives from their cultural and ecological realities, guiding their actions for the next year.

CAN is working closely with the RIAC-Joven to organize the first in-person International Exchange since the pandemic. It will be held in Peru, connecting over 50 youth from across the Americas to share experiences from indigenous centers of agricultural diversity. They will build new alliances and engage with other youth collectives.

Join us and our partners in supporting efforts like the International Exchange so that youth continue to make agrarian lands and community life bloom.

In solidarity,

the CAN team

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