MEDA returns to deep roots in Paraguay
Joint release: Mennonite World Conference and Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA)
MEDA tours, seminar at MWC Paraguay 2009 assembly to profile 55 years of work in Paraguay
Strasbourg, France and Waterloo, Ontario, Canada – MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates) members will return to their roots during Mennonite World Conference's assembly July 14 to 19, 2009 in Asunción, Paraguay.
MEDA was formed 55 years ago by a small group of North American businessmen who wanted to help Mennonite refugees struggling to survive in what was known as "the green hell" – the Chaco region of Paraguay.
MEDA and TourMagination have planned a 17-day tour July 12-25 led by MEDA president Allan Sauder and his wife, Donna Snyder. The tour group will attend Paraguay 2009, the 15th global assembly of the Mennonite World Conference, as well as visiting MEDA projects in Paraguay and Peru. MEDA began in Paraguay and has its longest history there, while in Peru MEDA continues to create new and innovative solutions to poverty.
MWC and MEDA will also host a seminar to discuss business and faith in everyday life at Assembly Gathered in Asunción on July 15. The seminar will feature a discussion on how business leaders can integrate their faith into the work place. This dialogue on business and faith, led by MEDA Paraguay and MEDA North America, will include other business people and pastors.
MEDA will show Paraguay 2009 visitors how the impact of their founders' work has endured over the decades, leaving a lasting legacy. To see MEDA's faith in action, conference goers will have the choice of two tours to local MEDA projects. Tour 1 on July 14 will take visitors to the CODIPSA* I and II plants, which produces starch from cassava roots, and to visit small farmers who cultivate the plant. Tour 2, July 16, looks to new MEDA projects – the construction of a CODIPSA III factory to produce tapioca starch and the site of an ERPAR** factory being built for the production of ethanol from sugar cane. Participants will also visit the farms of some of the small local producers.
MEDA will also conduct a 14-day tour, beginning in Brazil, that will include Assembly Gathered in Asunción and visits to MEDA projects in Paraguay and Peru.
MEDA in Paraguay
MEDA's first investment in Paraguay was in the Sarona Dairy. The Mennonite refugees who came from Russia after the war with very few resources settled on small tracts of land in the Chaco region of Paraguay.
Mennonite Central Committee and others provided some assistance to these farmers, but it was the keen business sense of early MEDA members that recognized the business opportunity to process and sell milk products into larger markets. They knew dairy would help these farmers earn better incomes – incomes they desperately needed to feed their families, to educate their children, to afford better health care, and to be able to dream about buying more land and increasing their farms beyond the subsistence level.
The Sarona Dairy repaid MEDA’s investment in full over the next 20 years and went on to spin off other dairies that today provide more than half of Paraguay’s milk products. An offshoot of the dairy industry has been raising beef cattle. Today, the beef cattle business in the Chaco is even bigger and more profitable than the original dairy business.
Mennonite refugees in Paraguay have transitioned from needing help to helping others by building and supporting schools and hospitals for Indigenous peoples. In a matter of 40 years, the early refugees went from struggling to survive to setting up their own MEDA organization, which now helps others in Paraguay and around the world.
* CODIPSA
CODIPSA, with two plants and a third to be built this year, is the largest producer of starch in Paraguay, with exports to Brazil and Argentina and 2008 revenues of $4.8 million. The project is led by MEDA Paraguay and a group of successful local Mennonite business people. In 2008, CODIPSA processed 46,918 tonnes of manioc and produced 12,042 tons of starch – 5,583 tons for export – and supported 2,400 local farmers. Through MEDA members and the Sarona Risk Capital Fund, MEDA has invested US$1.6 million in CODIPSA and holds 26% of its common shares.
** ERPAR
ERPAR will produce ethanol from a mix of sugar cane and tapioca starting later this year, with an annual capacity of 10 million liters per year. Local Paraguayan entrepreneurs, MEDA Paraguay and MEDA North America have joined forces to provide the start-up capital needed to get the project going. The plant is expected to support 400 farming families in Paraguay and create 82 direct jobs at the plant. Ethanol fuel production will continue to be important in the development of Southern Cone economies. MEDA members and the Sarona Risk Capital Fund have invested US$610,000 in ERPAR, and are its largest shareholders.
Photos available upon request
• Historic MEDA photos
• Current day activities