HELP International
HELP International is a charitable organization that works with government, charities, churches, and other community and business groups to identify economic, environmental and social problems and develop solutions that will have a significant and long lasting impact. The head office is located on their City Farm in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. There is also an overseas office in Nairobi, Kenya.
History
HELP International was founded in 1999 within a classroom at BYU. It started as a response to Hurricane Mitch, and the disastrous state in which Honduras was left. That summer of "99" the students within that 3020 BYU classroom went out and raised money for micro-financing, to help rebuild the economic stability of the country. They raised $116,000 that summer, which was the beginning to the sustainable development program HELP has become.
Key activities
Education
Help International has hosted hundreds of school and university groups for full day and multi-day immersion programs at their Ecological and Development Theme Park. Educational activities have included traditional African house building, stone carving, fabric dying, solar cooking, manual vegetable oil pressing, manual water pumping, compression brick making, fibre board and hand-made papermaking, grafting and tree planting.
Environment
The focus of HELP International's environmental programming has been on phytoremediation, tree planting for the purposes of river protection and pollution control, and developing zero waste technologies and approaches for homes and communities.
Business
HELP International has been in the newspaper on numerous occasions for labor law accusations by interns working 16 hours days and sleeping in the greenhouses that eventually dried up and are recanted by the newspaper they were printed in (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix and Western Producer).
HELP International's tree recommendations are not based on any current science and seem to aggravate foresters and biologists everywhere who are unsure where such strange logic and information contrary to the laws of nature comes from.
HELP International has used their non-profit status to sell more trees. This seems to have led to their losing their non-profit status.
HELP International had a seven-month contract to run Indian Head's Agroforestry Centre, but had it canceled early on Oct. 31st of 2014.
HELP International is no stranger to conflict.