Preethi Burkholder, Project Director

Koinonia Foundation, Maryland, USA, awarded the Rajarata Praja Kendraya Organization (RPK), Kekirawa, Sri Lanka, a grant to preserve guava jam. Preethi Burkholder, was the project director and worked with the staff and volunteers of RPK to make the guava jam project a success.

Sheila Ratnayake, Director of RPK, was extremely helpful in organizing 300 women from Kekirawa to participate in the project and to market the product at the grassroots level during the first three months.

Preethis husband Trent Burkholder’s encouragement and support kept motivation up for all throughout the project. His photographs which are included in this report provide visual representation of what happened in the field.

Preethi Burkholder – Project Documentation

Some Interesting Facts About Guava

Guava is native to the warm regions of the Americas, stretching from Mexico to Peru. It is a fruit that belongs to the Myrtacae family. Guava grows successfully in tropical and sub-tropical climate zones.

Although the guava plant was domesticated more than 2,000 years ago, it was not until 1526 that the first commercial cultivation of guava was reported.

Guava is sweet when ripe. The more ripe the fruit, the more tender the flesh becomes. Guava trees grow in every part of Sri Lanka. it is mostly a volunteer plant and grows in the jungles.

Guava has many uses for Sri Lankans. Ripe guava fruit is an excellent source of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and dietary fiber. The Vitamin C available in guava is two to three times higher than what is available in fresh orange juice.

Guava is also a good source of Vitamin A, phosphorous, calcium, iron, thiamine and niacin. Guava fruits roots, leaves, and bark are used in local Sri Lankan medicine for treating diarrhea and dysentery.

What We Did

Step 1- Picking the Guava Fruits

From March 2004-June 2004, 300 women participated on the guava jam project. Most of them earned an income by selling fresh guavas to our organization, Rajarata Praja Kendraya (RPK). Women went to the jungles and plucked guava fruits during the high season.

For ten medium sized guavas, RPK paid $0.50 (50 Sri Lankan Rupees). During the fruit season in Kekirawa, which is from March to June, the average farmer was able to earn $2 a day from selling guavas to RPK.

Step 2- Making Guava Jam

Basic Recipe for Making Two Cups of Guava Jam

6 ripe, but firm medium sized guavas

2 cups of white granulated sugar

1 cup sugar

We used a large 10 quart pot, which would allow even heat distribution and volume control to boil the guavas. Each person took turns to chop the guava into bite size pieces. We boiled them in water for ten minutes until the guava became soft.

Next we Crushed the guava with a spatula and pureed it through a blender. For every one cup of chopped guava, we added 3/4 cups of white granulated sugar. Sugar acts as a preservative because bacteria cannot live in a high sugar medium. After sugar was added, we heated it for an additional five minutes.

The next part of preparation was to test the jam for setting. We tested the jam by dropping a spoonful on a cold saucer. If it wrinkled in the saucer, then the jam was ready to be poured into jars. If it thinned out, we heated it for five more minutes until it thickened.

Step 3- Sterilizing Yogurt Cups

Although glass jars would have been ideal to pour the jam, we chose yogurt cups because they were cheaper and lighter to handle. A yogurt up costs $0.02 (2 Sri Lankan Rupees) where as a glass jar costs $0.20 (20 Sri Lankan Rupees). The first step was to wash the yogurt cups fairly vigorously for 10 minutes and keep them in boiling water until we were ready to use them. Using tongs, we held the yogurt cups upside down to drain away the water. We boiled them again before filling.

Step 4- Pouring Jam

Immediately, we filled the warmed cups with hot preserves to within 1/8 inch headspace of the top. Headspace is the pocket of air between the top of the jam in the cup and the underside of the rim that allows the jam to expand as it heats during processing. Headspace forms a protective vacuum when the cup has cooled.

We wiped the rims with a clean cloth to ensure they are dry and let the jam sit for twelve hours without moving. Once the jam had set, we checked the cups for cracks and leaks. The final step was to seal the cups with lids and to label the price.

Step 5- Marketing the Product

To our knowledge, currently there is only one government organization that sells guava jam in Sri Lanka, the Marketing Department. A 500 gram mixed fruit jam jar is sold at Rs.120 ($1.20). This is too expensive for the average Sri Lankan to afford.

We marketed our product by pouring small quantities into yogurt cups and pricing them at 10 Rupees ($0.10). We found that there was great demand for the small size yogurt cups because they were in financial range of the average Sri Lankan.

Hiring a vehicle to distribute the jam to individual homes and local stores was too expensive for RPK. We found the solution to the problem by using a bullock cart to transport the jam. The bullock cart belonged to one of the women involved with jam making.

The only expense involved was to feed the cow with grass. Daily, we spent two hours marketing the product in Kekirawa and managed to sell an average of 50 cups. Our daily income therefore was 500 rupees ($5) during the fruit season.

The money was distributed as salary payments to women who worked at the production facility and to buy fresh guavas from the locals.

The Future of Guava Jam Making in Kekirawa, Sri Lanka

There is a growing market for guava jam in Sri Lanka. If properly used, Guava jam can become a staple ingredient in desserts. Women need to be exposed to variations of foods that can be made with guava jam.

Our future plans are to experiment with cakes made with guava jam, guava truffles, guava-flavored yogurt, guava ice-cream, and guava squares.

RPK hopes to continue the guava jam project upon the time duration of the grant. We would like to create a commercial production facility for the guava jam making industry and market our product at the national level.

Background

Buried for 6 long years. In 1993 the Morgan County Board of Education was given a gift — a research grade 16″ Cassegrain telescope. It was donated by the U.S. Naval Academy.

The Telescope is 12 feet high, weighs over 2 tons and is worth $500,000. Most importantly it contains a sixteen inch objective or “main mirror”.

Unfortunately when the telescope was received it was promptly put into storage where it awaited rediscovery. This was because Morgan County had no place to mount it. This is where you come in…

The Community Organizes

In late 1999 a group of citizens and the School Board established a non-profit {501(c)3} foundation to build an observatory for the telescope for the benefit of the schools and citizens of West Virginia.

In 3 1/2 years many important advances had been made: A site has been selected, surveyed and architect’s drawings done. Repairs to the telescope are now complete and the building is almost finished.

Fortunately for us, the original telescope engineer lives in Morgan County and has agreed to repair, setup and maintain the telescope as necessary.

What is needed now are the funds to finish the observatory, maintain it, keep it secure, and provide the staffing necessary to schedule viewing times and develop educational programs. With over $140,000 raised, our responsibility is to run the observatory as an educational resource for everyone interested.

Importance and Value of Telescope

We anticipate that the observatory will be a catalyst for:

• Science seminars
• Astronomy clubs
• Science career days
• Independent research
• Other educational opportunities

The observatory can be used not only by Morgan County schools and residents but also by all schools in the region, including nearby Maryland.

We’re Making Progress

For those visionaries who have already contributed, here is a short progress report on what we are doing with the funding you so generously donated:

• Obtained land for building site from the school board
• Constructed the building to near completion according to architect’s blueprints
• Held frequent star parties to generate interest, educate others, and raise funds
• Delivered programs to thousands at the observatory and at Fairs, Lectures & other events to promote awareness.
• Been awarded many grants

Help us Continue our Progress!

Your generous contributions of time, money, and energy will make this project a reality. here are some ways you can help:

Volunteer; Send a check; Come to “Star Parties” & Shows; Write grant applications; Provide construction labor or materials.

Our telescope was custom built by Ferson Optics in Ocean Springs, MS in 1967 for the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. It was Ferson’s model 1216. The telescope was decommissioned by the Academy and donated by the U.S. Navy to the Morgan County Schools in 1993. Refurbished, repaired and upgraded with funding raised by the Morgan County Observatory Foundation it was placed back in operation at the Morgan County Observatory in December 2001.

It is a unique dual Cassegrain / Newtonian scope with a switchable secondary mirror and a 16″ primary mirror composed of Zerodur. It weighs approximately 3,000 pounds and has a focal length in cassegrain mode of 224 inches or an F/14 ratio. The Newtonian focus is 64 inches or F/4 ratio.

The value of the scope has been estimated at $500,000.00. The original cost of production was approximately $ 23,500 in 1967.

Ferson Optical made four 1216 telescopes. The U.S. Naval Academy received the first production run (This telescope now resides here at the Greenwood Elementary School, Berkeley Springs, Morgan County, West Virginia). Colgate University, Hamilton, NY purchased one. St. Marks Academy, Dallas, Texas purchased one – currently being restored & moved to the Dallas Astronomical Society site in southern Oklahoma. and the last at Werner Von Braun in Huntsville.

Alabama – still in its dome but missing some parts & not functional, with optics said to be superb

Our telescope was custom built by Ferson Optics in Ocean Springs, MS in 1967 for the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. It was Ferson’s model 1216. The telescope was decommissioned by the Academy and donated by the U.S. Navy to the Morgan County Schools in 1993. Refurbished, repaired and upgraded with funding raised by the Morgan County Observatory Foundation it was placed back in operation at the Morgan County Observatory in December 2001.

It is a unique dual Cassegrain / Newtonian scope with a switchable secondary mirror and a 16″ primary mirror composed of Zerodur. It weighs approximately 3,000 pounds and has a focal length in cassegrain mode of 224 inches or an F/14 ratio. The Newtonian focus is 64 inches or F/4 ratio.

The value of the scope has been estimated at $500,000.00. The original cost of production was approximately $ 23,500 in 1967.

Ferson Optical made four 1216 telescopes. The U.S. Naval Academy received the first production run (This telescope now resides here at the Greenwood Elementary School, Berkeley Springs, Morgan County, West Virginia). Colgate University, Hamilton, NY purchased one. St. Marks Academy, Dallas.

Texas purchased one – currently being restored & moved to the Dallas Astronomical Society site in southern Oklahoma. and the last at Werner Von Braun in Huntsville, Alabama – still in its dome but missing some parts & not functional, with optics said to be superb

Tentative Star Parties; 2007-2008

Beauty in motion, but only 108 laying females showed up this year on the last West Coast nesting site.

These 77 Leatherback turtle eggs will be checked daily for correct temperature through the thermo-coupling wire stretching from the nest up to the beach. A Koinonia grant helped us with a students study.

Koinonia president Gary Richman counts eggs as the 800 pound female turtle deposits them. Dr Hal Avery took this photo with a special infra-red camera after obtaining a Costa Rican Government Permit.

Can you find the turtle in this picture? Each laying leatherback turtle weighs between 600 and 2000 pounds. Dwarfed by the female turtle’s shell are Gary Richman, Dr. Hal Avery, and Dr. Frank Paladino.

Learn More about how you can help here: http://www.leatherback.org

Around 1995 a Koinonia funded project placed this stunning picture of our earth in every classroom in Maryland. It was and is our hope this silent reminder to our youth of the world, both wondrous and fragile, it will instill in them a love of creation and creator.

Within the psyche of humanity are forces both of destruction and creative redemption, both personally and globally. Koinonias mission is to draw out the good within humanity, so that all of us may treat the world with fundamental compassion and bear witness to its possible impending demise.

We are the seekers, watchers and recorders of history, making change as possible and recording the progression for posterity.

Chief of Yankton Sioux

The Yankton Sioux Reservation sits nestled along the Missouri River, in southeastern South Dakota. Unfortunately, over this past century much of the Dakota culture has been lost.

It has only been recently (Aug 1978), that Native Americans have been allowed to practice their ceremonial rights without legal repercussions, fear of imprisonment, or death. Families have been integrated into mainstream America, and Christianized by missionaries.

Many of our Baby Boomers and their children, have been displaced and disconnected from the teachings of our ancestors and traditional culture. Our Elders hold these keys for the preservation of sacred song, dance, ceremony, art, language, and history. It is critical that this information be recorded and documented.

There are only 7537 enrolled Tribal members that remain throughout the United States, according to the Women’s Resource Center and Yankton Sioux Tribal Enrollment office. Because of this, There is a great need for the preservation and restoration of the language and culture of our people and future generations to maintain cultural prosperity.

Golden Eagle is Chief of the Yankton Sioux, he is also known as Standing Elk, and Chief Spotted Horse, Dakota Spiritual Advisor and Sundance Chief.

Through years of fasting, prayer, and ceremony Chief Golden Eagle with a group of spiritual teachers, has brought forth interpretations of Star Law. He co-authored MAKA WICAHPI WICOHAN, The Universal and Spiritual Laws of Creator, where he was guided to share the Laws and interpretations as he felt that these Universal laws will help us through this period called “The Age of Coyote” or the “Age of Aquarius.”

He also convenes Star Knowledge Conferences to share the Laws and invites the Elders and Spiritual Leaders to share their wisdom and knowledge with the people.

Koinonia Foundation gave a $2,000.00 grant for the purchase of equipment needed to record the elders story.

FOUNDED IN 1992

PIGS, A SANCTUARY is a place of refuge for abused, abandoned, neglected and unwanted animals. We specialize in the care of potbellied pigs and farm pigs, but shelter other farm and domestic animals as well.

The Sanctuary currently provides a safe haven for approximately 400 animals, including 150 potbellied pigs, 60 farm pigs, 9 horses, 5 cows, 30 adoptable cats, 70 feral cats, 9 dogs, 25 goats and 4 turkeys.

Typically, animals residing at the Sanctuary have complicated medical and/or emotional needs, a history of abuse and/or neglect, diseases or ailments related to factory farming or genetic engineering and they are often considered un-adoptable. The Sanctuary serves as a home of last resort for these animals and has played a crucial role in the placement of countless others.

Although our primary mission is to provide lifelong sanctuary to animals needing a place to call home, we also believe in educating the public on the plight of farm and domestic animals.

We conduct educational tours of the sanctuary, so that people may see first hand the exploitation of the wonderful sentient beings that find themselves in situations of abuse, neglect, slaughter houses or simply thrown on the streets to fend for themselves.

Last year we educated over 1,000 students, 500 individual families as well over 1,000 visitors who attended our two large public events.

Koinonia Foundation gave PIGS, a $5,000 grant to install watering stations so that staff would not have to carry massive amounts of water to the animals. Being freed from this task better enables them love and care for these animals, and allows for more time to educate thousands of people on the terrible plight of our sentient and valuable Earth relations.