Krauss has negotiated with foreign governments and corporations to install solar-powered electricity at no cost to the villagers - all the while respecting and retaining their culture.

As happens in life, Krauss' work in Brazil resulted from happenstance. While at GU, Krauss (a 1990 GU alumnus) met Brazilian native Jocelito Dantas, who studied English as a Second Language at GU from 1989-90. Krauss, president of the International Studies Club at the time, helped Dantas through a club project to assist foreign students with their English.

"Jo was my student," Krauss recalls. "At the time, the Brazilian president froze all bank accounts and Jo thought he would have to quit school and go home. So, my family in Spokane took him in and he lived with us for six months. That's how we became the 'Exchange Brothers.'"

After living with the Krauss family in Spokane, Dantas insisted Krauss come to Brazil and live with his family for time, to return the favor. So Krauss went to Brazil in 1991.

"I fell in love with Brazil and was teaching English and living above Jo's family's coffee warehouse," Krauss said.

"That's where I first started to get in touch with their coffee. They have had that business (Serra Grande Coffees) for nearly 50 years. From there I have been involved with sustainability projects and solar energy."
Krauss, who estimates he's spent five years in Brazil on and off since 1991, approached the local government of Sobral County (Brazil) in 1999 with the idea of solar power. The locals liked it but had no money. Krauss began a letter-writing campaign via the Internet and found support from the German government and the RWE Corp., a Germany company. RWE donated the solar panels with tax incentives from its government, and the German government donated all the water pumps and some electrical equipment. The county provided the batteries and all the lights and wires.

"We installed solar in two mountaintop villages - Serra Verde and Serrinha. They were the first and there are about 20 families in each village," Krauss said. Because the villages are accessible only by foot, Krauss had to organize parties to hand-carry the solar equipment to them.

With that success, the county installed solar power in the villages of Sao Jose, and Pau Branco - each with 10 families - and Krauss went to work again.

"Then I organized the rural association which is like an official political body so the villagers would work together and vote on many decisions as a community," Krauss said. The solar power allowed the villages to install water pumps for irrigation, sewing machines with motors, CB radios so they can contact physicians in emergencies instead of carrying people down to the doctor in hammocks, refrigeration to store vaccines and more.

Wanting to do more, Krauss formed Exchange Brothers Coffee company in June of 2003 with 10 percent of his purchase going directly to the villages. Dantas provides the coffee from his family's company and Krauss is marketing it in the United States. The relief effort mushroomed in March when Krauss met in St. Louis with the Missouri Synod of Lutheran World Relief. They agreed to purchase the coffee, sell it and give 100 percent of the profits back to Brazil in the form of grants and social work; 10 percent will go to the solar villages. "In terms of Brazilian relief, this represents potential for major impact with a significant source of aid to the solar projects," Krauss said. "I won't make anything from this arrangement and Jo is sending some of his profits to the villages as well." The Lutherans also are interested in marketing the villagers' handmade crafts and embroidery.

For Krauss, it all boils down to political science in action.

"If you use your imagination and follow your own path, you can be successful and help others," he said. "It's just hands-on political science."

Krauss takes pleasure in helping others.

"I've always believed that life is more of an experience than a material possession so I tried to enrich myself with rich experiences rather than saving up for bigger toys," he said. "I take intense pleasure and joy from working with these folks who are so honest and humble. It's humbling to see how they enjoy life with so little in these villages. That's my motivation."

He credits Gonzaga University with much of his motivation.

"The Jesuit education instills a personal sense of justice, and a strong sense that you should give back," he said. "I'm sure that if I had gone to another school I would not have been instilled with those values that are such a part of the liberal arts education at Gonzaga."

Father Michael Treleaven, S.J., a GU political science associate professor, remembers Krauss as a student and has kept in touch with him.

"In his last year at GU, John was clearly ready and eager to embrace other cultures, to appreciate the wider world. He felt at home, it seemed to me, almost anywhere," Fr. Treleaven said, adding that Krauss' work underscores the widespread applicability of a GU arts and science degree.

"Political science teaches us to think about structures, institutions, and how other people see issues and needs." Fr. Treleaven said. "I think John Krauss does exactly these things every day, and with great enthusiasm and generosity."

 

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