AFOW has a dual mission: first, to support and conduct educational programs for college credit for American university graduate students. Second, AFOW helps to promote and fund the programs and capital operations of the Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR: www.wotr.org) based in Pune, India. See an extensive November 2009 article about WOTR in National Geographic Magazine at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/11/india-rain/corbett-text.
AFOW’s programs are open to students in many disciplines, such as public policy, public administration, international studies, development studies, comparative politics, environmental studies, political science, sociology, economics, and other academic degree programs. AFOW seeks to help Americans to study and learn about public policy solutions to the degradation of environmental resources, such as watersheds, at the rural village level. AFOW’s partner organization is the Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR). As an umbrella nongovernmental organization (NGO), WOTR’s mission includes helping village governments (village panchayats and other governmental and NGO bodies) to manage their own economic development, improve water security, create jobs, maintain existing livelihoods, increase women’s empowerment, create and maintain microfinance funds, and implement climate change mitigation, adaptation, emissions reduction, greenhouse gas trading offsets, and small-scale clean energy strategies and technologies. WOTR also offers international courses to village leaders and students from many countries at its Darewadi, Maharashtra training facility.
AFOW’s unique programs provide Americans with the opportunity to learn about innovative watershed development programs working on watershed conservation and regeneration to mitigate the consequences of climate change, and to foster the judicious use of land, water, vegetative, animal and human resources.
The founders of AFOW are American professionals and concerned citizens who are passionate about development programs that focus on regenerating and conserving natural resources and the environment in dry, drought-prone, and poverty-stricken parts of developed and developing countries.
Please browse our site. If you have comments or questions or simply need more information, e-mail us atcontact@friendsofwotr.org
The American Friends of WOTR is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization incorporated in the State of Illinois.
