Green Empowerment

Nearly 13 years after Ben Linder was shot to death beside a stream in northern Nicaragua, his life is inspiring friends and admirers to carry on his work. Green Empowerment, a Portland-based nonprofit organization, has raised more than $400,000 since March 1998 to help bring electrical power and the power of self-reliance to remote villages in North America, Central America and Malaysia.

Linder was the first U.S. citizen to die in the Contra-Sandinista war. The slim, 27-year-old engineer from Portland was shot by U.S.-financed Contra soldiers outside San Jose de Bocay, where he was helping build a small hydropower project that would deliver electricity to the remote farming village. Linder reportedly was carrying an AK-47 rifle for protection but had set the gun down to take notes about stream flow at the site.

"He was young, idealistic and very funny," said Michael Royce, a friend of the Linder family and president of Green Empowerment. "Ben Linder believed in democracy with a small 'd.' He believed people ought to be able to control their own destinies." David and Elisabeth Linder formed the Ben Linder Memorial Fund shortly after their son's death. They spent a decade traveling the United States decrying the role their country played in his killing and raising money to complete the power projects he had begun.

The couple's public appearances proved both successful and wearing. With the Linders' blessings, Royce, his wife, Francie, and a circle of friends founded a new nonprofit organization two years ago that would help carry on Ben Linder's ideals.

Green Empowerment has a network of 500 contributors, a paid staff of one, a post office box and a Web site. Its board members -- lawyers and other business professionals -- are constantly on the prowl for contributors with deep pockets. But much of the money that fuels the organization and its work is raised in $50 and $100 checks written during "house parties" that Francie Royce arranges in Portland, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The organization is unusual because most of the money that charitable groups raise in the United States is spent domestically. In 1998, just 1.2 percent of the charitable donations in the United States were spent on international projects, according to a report commissioned by the American Association of Fund-Raising Council. "There's nothing magical about borders, in my mind," Francie Royce said. "People in Nicaragua, Borneo or wherever have needs. With just a little bit of money, you can make a big impact."

Today, two of the original Linder hydropower projects supply electricity to 5,000 people and potable water to 4,000. Green Empowerment is helping bring two more hydropower projects online in Nicaragua, as well as a small hydropower project in Borneo.

Green Empowerment stretches its dollars by forming partnerships with local governments and non-government organizations. Villagers supply the skilled and unskilled labor. Electric power also brings social and environmental benefits, Michael Royce said. Access to electric power has made it possible to construct a rice milling machine in San Jose de Bocay, allowing 350 small farmers in the area to get a higher price for their crops.

A local hospital has more medicine available now because it has a refrigerator to keep it cold. El Cua has a new machine shop, which not only generated five new jobs but also gave local residents access to machine parts they once traveled long distances over dirt roads to obtain. And despite the fact that Linder was killed in 1987 by Contra soldiers, one of the villages now getting a boost from Green Empowerment is home to many former Contras. "The leadership had very different views of the world," Michael Royce said. "But at the local level, these people are poor peasants. They saw what happened in El Cua and San Jose de Bocay, and they wanted the same for their community."

Nicaraguan villages also have a newfound environmental awareness. Residents realize they must protect their watersheds if they're to have water and not silt running into their power turbines. Residents identified undeveloped land that needed protection and developed land that needed to be replanted because of slash-and-burn agriculture. Green Empowerment helped buy 1,100 acres to be put into public ownership, and the organization helped plant 160,000 trees. Ben's father, David Linder, died a year ago. His mother, Elisabeth, still lives in Portland and remains on the Green Empowerment advisory council.

She reflected recently on what her son meant to her and to others. A new book, "The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua," also is drawing attention to her son's work. "Sometimes when Ben is described as 'idealistic,' it almost sounds like being the opposite of realistic, and it's not," she said. "He was very realistic. He knew what he could do. . . . You don't change the world. But you can make changes in small places, and that is worthwhile."

© 2000, The Oregonian