Economic Empowerment & Global Learning Project

Anuradha Ghai, lecturer in economics, and Gladstone Fluney Hutchinson, associate professor of economics, led a team of students working with villagers in Lagunitas, Honduras, to reinvent the local economy as a coffee plantation.

EASTON, Pa.(www.lafayette.edu), July 26, 2010 — The Government of Jamaica is calling upon Gladstone Fluney Hutchinson, associate professor of economics at Lafayette and founding director of the College’s Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project, to spearhead policy-formulation leading toward sustainable development in that nation.

Hutchinson has been appointed director-general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica. Under the Office of the Prime Minister, the Planning Institute is the national agency responsible for leading the formulation of policy on economic and social issues and managing external cooperation to achieve sustainable development for Jamaica. The institute initiates and coordinates the development of policies, plans, and programs for the country’s economic, financial, social, cultural, and physical development and undertakes research on national development issues. It is the lead agency for the implementation of Jamaica’s national development plan, Vision 2030. Read the rest of this entry »

Wfmz on eeglp

Students and faculty work to convert an abandoned school into a
community arts center

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A group of Lafayette students and faculty spent their spring break in New Orleans working with artists and community leaders in the Lower Ninth Ward to help them convert a former public school, abandoned since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, into a community arts and cultural center.

The trip was part of an ongoing effort since 2007 by the College’s Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project (EEGLP) to help residents rebuild after the hurricane. The group has been focused on creating sustainable options, including projects to encourage the use of solar energy, establish urban farms, design a town center shopping area using green technology, and rebuild as a carbon-neutral community.

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Students and faculty from Lafayette’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and the College’s Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project (EEGLP) spent spring break working on various water and economic infrastructure projects in the Yoro region of Honduras. Since 2003, EWB has been implementing water filtration and distribution systems in El Convento, Lagunitas, and La Fortuna–rural Honduran villages without any modern amenities. For the past two years, EEGLP has helped the villagers of Lagunitas plant more than 30,000 coffee plants in an effort to reinvent the local economy as a coffee plantation. The next part of the plan is to work with the villagers of El Convento to start up bee, cocoa, fish, plantain, and sugar cane farms.

EWB’s Adventures in the Honduran Jungle, By Thomas Johnson ’11
EEGLP Team Leader Richard Durham ’11 Writes about Helping Reinvent the Local Economy

Photos courtesy of Hannah Rhadigan ’11 of EEGLP and Zhou “Zeus” Wu ’11 of EWB

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Engineers Without Borders students worked under the guidance of Gladstone Hutchinson, associate professor of economics and business, to improve the economy in Lagunitas, Honduras

This summer during July and August, members of Lafayette’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) spent three weeks building the groundwork for a sustainable economy in Lagunitas, a poor, rural village in the Yoro district of central Honduras.

• Watch a Video about the Project.

Led by Gladstone Fluney Hutchinson, associate professor of economics and business, the team worked together with the villagers of Lagunitas to help them improve their own economy through coffee farming and production. Read the rest of this entry »