For caring, sharing and acting with and on behalf of those in need at home and abroad.
Stephen Gaskin (1935-2014) was a counterculture icon in the US and the founder of Plenty, an international non-profit, non-sectarian agency for relief, development, environment, education and human rights. It was founded in 1974 on the principle that all people are members of the human family, and if we protect and share the abundance of the earth, there is plenty for everyone.
Plenty has worked both in the US and internationally. In the 1970s and 1980s, it worked on projects with the Mayan people of Guatemala – in fields such as primary health care, drinking water systems, soya bean agriculture, food processing and communications technology.
In the US, the Plenty Ambulance Service was established in the South Bronx, New York, providing free emergency medical care and training to the embattled residents of that sprawling city. Early in the 1980s, Plenty founded a free health clinic for Central American refugees in Washington, DC, and undertook small-scale agriculture projects in Jamaica, St Lucia and Dominica in the Caribbean.
More recently, Plenty has been involved in soy agriculture and processing training in Liberia, Central America and the Caribbean. It has also engaged in environmental, cultural and legal protection and economic development work with indigenous peoples in the US and Latin America.
We are strong, because our collectivity has made us that way.
Stephen Gaskin, 1980 Laureate
Stephen Gaskin (1935-2014) founded Plenty in 1974. It is an international, non-profit, non-sectarian agency for relief, development, environment, education and human rights. It operates on the principle that all people are members of the human family and if we protect and share the abundance of the earth, there is plenty for everyone.
From 1976 until the end of 1980, Plenty employed more than 100 American volunteers in projects with the Mayan people of Guatemala - in fields such as primary health care, drinking water systems, soya bean agriculture, food processing and communications technology.
While working with the Mayans in Guatemala, Plenty gave priority to the strengthening and preservation of indigenous cultures. "We learned that to an amazing degree, we shared the values and visions of these precious cultures and that, for us, development was no longer a one-way trip in which we, the privileged, provided help to the underprivileged. We saw that, in truth, it was a fair exchange where every participant had something valuable to give," Gaskin has said.
In 1978, the Plenty Ambulance Service was established in the South Bronx, New York, providing free emergency medical care and training to the embattled residents of that sprawling American city. In the same year, a rural village development programme was begun in tiny Lesotho, a country landlocked by South Africa. Then, early in the 1980s, Plenty founded a free health clinic for Central American refugees in Washington, DC, and undertook small-scale agriculture projects in Jamaica, St Lucia and Dominica in the Caribbean.
Today, Plenty is involved in soy agriculture and processing training in Liberia, Central America and the Caribbean. It markets indigenous artisans' creations worldwide through its Indigenous Women's Economic Development Program (IWED) and engages in environmental, cultural and legal protection and economic development work with native peoples in the US and Latin America.
Two related organisations, Plenty Canada, founded in 1977, and Plenty España, founded in 1987, are engaged in similar activities. In 2009, projects were ongoing in Belize, focusing on the Guatemala Spanish-speaking Maya, the Belizian English-speaking Maya, and the Garifuna, who culturally belong to the Maya tribe, although they are primarily composed of African runaway slaves. At The Farm community in Tennessee, Plenty also has a programme to benefit inner-city children called Kids to the Country.
