Potters for Peace

February 20, 2011

San Juan de Oriente, Nicaragua

Very few potters in the world can make a living at it.  Rather most are domestic crafts persons who in fashioning functional ware for food preparation and storage have found a means of self-expression.   The techniques are passed down generations.  Each will take to the clay either as chore or passion.  Some are good.  Some do the minimal.  All extend this ancient and very human art form.

What could be more artistic than adding the symbols of nature, tradition or faith to the form and decoration of the cup that will hold the drink that nurtures, the bowl that serves the meal that will sustain, the lidded jar that will store something as precious as holiday wine or next season’s seeds?

Whether consciously or not potters transform the most common materials…..earth, water and fire….into useful and at times beautiful instruments of transformation and in so doing offer us the user the chance to touch and taste the life grounded in the living earth.

While on a medical assessment team to Nicaragua we ran into and learned about Potters for Peace (PFP).

 Potters for Peace is a U.S. based nonprofit, a network of potters, educators, technicians, supporters, and volunteers. Founded in Nicaragua in 1986, PFP works with clay artisans in Central America and worldwide on ceramic water purification projects.  PFP is a unique organization devoted to socially responsible development and grass roots accompaniment among potters.  Its goals are to offer support, solidarity and friendship to developing world potters; to assist with appropriate technologies sustained using local skills and materials; to help preserve cultural traditions; and to assist in marketing locally, regionally and internationally. The vast majority of potters in Central America are rural women and the core work for Potters for Peace has always been assisting these hard-working people to earn a better living.

 Every day 5,000 children die due to unsanitary water (WHO 2005). Since 1998 Potters for Peace has traveled the world teaching the fabrication of a low-cost ceramic water filters that can bring clean, potable water to those who need it most. PFP does not make, store or distribute ceramic water filters nor does it operate filter production facilities. Instead, PFP assists responsible local partners to set up filter production and distribution facilities, now in 33 countries in the tropical world. (www.pottersforpeace.org).

It should not be surprising, although it was, that potters across the borders of culture and language would work together to empower local artists in developing communities by transforming earth, water and fire into the means of health and healing.  They’ve been doing just that for millennium.

For this pastor/potter PFP inspires me once again to consider God at work when our hands create and reach out.