I recently spent four months as a long-term volunteer working with Winrock’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Team in Myanmar. This was my first time working as a volunteer for Winrock International. From the start, I was impressed at how well organized Winrock’s team was with logistics and making sure everything was smooth throughout the duration of my assignment.

During my assignment, I worked with the MEL Team and the project staff to review indicators for monitoring and evaluating the progress of the Value Chains for Rural Development project. M&E is an important function of a project and can serve as its backbone as it provides useful information about how the project is doing (e.g. what things are going well, what things are not going well, whether the project is on target in reaching expected milestones and outcomes, and where adjustments should be made). Ultimately, the information that is collected through M&E helps to tell the story of how Winrock’s Value Chains for Rural Development project is helping to improve the livelihoods of the rural farmers that are being reached.

It was exciting to already see positive results of the Value Chains for Rural Development project. Through agricultural training and demonstration farms, Winrock is working with farmers to raise the quality and quantity of their yields and ultimately their household incomes. The project has catalyzed and strengthened the mobilization of farmers into groups and associations, giving them a collective voice to express their wants and concerns and advocate to the government for the regulation of agrochemical companies, to hold them accountable to provide proper extension services, and control pricing and quality of chemical products. The Farmer Groups help farmers to bargain for better prices to purchase seeds, input, and equipment. The Value Chains for Rural Development project is also focusing on finding and establishing new market opportunities while helping to establish clear grades and standards that will create transparency around the prices that farmers receive for their produce.

Farmer Field School for Sesame Farmers

Farmer Field School lesson about pollinators and pests

One of the goals of my work was to standardize and simplify measurement and reporting across the five value chains that Winrock is working in, which include soybeans, melons, sesame, ginger, and coffee. Even though there are many similarities across these value chains, there are also big differences between the crops, such as the number of harvests in a year, input costs, amount of labor required, and the quantity and value of the yields. These details need to be accounted for to ensure that the data collected is thorough, reliable, and valid. In preparation for the project’s upcoming annual evaluation, the MEL team and I designed the survey questionnaires to ensure that the right questions are asked and tailor them to be appropriate for each value chain. After putting together the questionnaires, we headed out to the fields to test the questionnaires with the farmers. The process of field-testing the questionnaires highlighted the challenges of working in another language and the need to make sure that the wording of questions is as simple as possible and understandable when translated. Field-testing the surveys also revealed differences in reality versus theory. The feedback provided by the farmers was essential for modifying and finalizing the questions.

Female farmers weeding by hand

Myanmar is a beautiful country with warm-hearted people who are eager to learn and grow. The country is developing rapidly with conveniences and familiarity provided by global companies like Uber, Coffee Bean, KFC, and even Hard Rock Cafe. Trying to negotiate a fare and tell the taxi driver where you want to go used to be one of the most intimidating things about getting around town but now you can simply use an app. There is even an app to have food delivered by bicycle courier to your door. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working as a volunteer with Winrock and plan to return to Myanmar to do another assignment soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Winrock’s Agriculture & Volunteer Programs team is thankful for so many things this year:

• 160 volunteers donated more than 29,000 hours of their time and $248,200 in additional resources for international assignments in 2017 (so far). These volunteers trained and assisted more than 10,500 people and 147 host organizations in 11 countries!
• 117 agriculture education and training institutions have introduced more than 140 new or improved trainings, degree programs, and services to equip and inspire the next generation of agriculturalists.
• As a result of volunteer assistance, hosts have leveraged an additional $3 million in resources from other sources.

We are constantly amazed by the dedication, ingenuity, and generosity of our volunteers, and by the resilience and perseverance of our host organizations.

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers, field staff, host organizations, and partners, for all that you do!

Our Nepal Farmer-to-Farmer staff have nominated, Dr. William (Bill) Foxworth, as the November Volunteer of the Month, because he is a “highly skillful, flexible volunteer and adjusted his hands-on training sessions for the assignment to best utilize locally available equipment and resources in Nepal.” Dr. Foxworth is the reproductive physiologist at the International Goat Research Center at Texas A&M University and is responsible for Artificial Insemination (AI) training at the center. He has also worked extensively in reproductive technology transfer in Africa and Latin America for both cattle and goats for more than 25 years. During his assignment, he conducted training for Okadi Goat Raising Group members, local service providers, and extension workers on AI technologies and practices to improve a youth-targeted goat breeding program. Sushil, one of training participants and Government of Nepal Extension Officer explained, “F2F volunteer William’s contribution is crucial for the country’s context in goat breeding and increased production.” After the training, Sushil facilitated AI in more than 150 goats, doubling the conception rate from their AI operations. Bill shares his thoughts below about his Farmer-to-Farmer experience. 

Why did you want to volunteer?

As a research scientist, my goal has been to develop technologies that assist with livestock reproduction. Improvement in breeding technology leads to more efficient animal production and greater number of offspring. This is a foundation for feeding more people worldwide and that is my true aim. Volunteering in Nepal afforded me the opportunity to enhance the knowledge base in goat reproduction in a country that relies so heavily on the goat.

Photo from Dr. Foxorth’s training on Artificial Insemination

What was the highlight of your most recent volunteer assignment abroad?

For me, the highlight was generating the discussion of how to disseminate this reproduction technology in a manner that would best benefit the people of Nepal.

What made your Winrock volunteer trip distinctive?

Winrock’s infrastructure made the trip work seamlessly. Every step of the way was meticulously planned out with some flexibility and that allowed me to focus on giving my presentations and training sessions. It also allowed me to delve more deeply into the culture through the in country representatives, making my presentations better because I had intimate insight into my audience.

How does your experience affect your world view?

I have had the opportunity to work all over the world and each country I work in presents a new set of challenges from culture to infrastructure. Nepal presented me with a view of a country, that while being smaller in size and geographically highly varied, was a crossroads for several cultures and religions. Seeing their efforts to deal with their differences gives me insight into my own multicultural world and, hopefully, I impart it to my students, colleagues, friends, and family.

What advice would you give a new volunteer?

Enjoy your time. Utilize the in country experts to understand the people and cultures. Ask lots of questions. This will help you tailor your presentations and maximize the benefits to the audience.

How have your assignments made a difference in your own life?/Has your assignment caused you to do anything differently once you returned?

Working in Nepal, with the lack of some infrastructure and the availability of certain products, reminded me of the need to be flexible and resourceful. After returning, I was reinvigorated to work on and develop strategies for transferring agriculture technologies in global locations that may not have all of the energy or product availability that we have.

Why should people consider volunteering?

It is a truly rewarding experience. For me, having the opportunity to help people improve their ability to produce food and provide better foodstuffs to their fellow man, allows me to directly contribute to helping put food on someone’s plate.

How do you feel about the support from Winrock, whether before, during or after your assignments?

The staff, both here in the US and in Nepal, were of great help. I have a pretty hectic schedule every day and they took care of all the travel and logistics allowing me to focus my preparations on my presentations. Not speaking the language, I had some trepidation, but the staff in Nepal, and a well placed Peace Corp volunteer, made my communications flawless with the local communities. I must say, one of the unsung heroes in my time in Nepal was my driver. We were frequently on some white knuckle roads and his skill at maneuvering the mountainside allowed me to relax and enjoy the view.

Dr. Foxworth with Peace Corps volunteer, Garland Mason.

When your friends/family find out that your volunteer assignment aboard, what do they say or ask?

The first question almost everyone asks is, “How cold was it?” Everyone imagines that Nepal is all like the base camp on Mt. Everest. They don’t realize that geographically it goes from low tropical jungle to the highest point in the world. The temperatures in the areas where we were working, Pokhara and Waling, were very pleasant in March. I will admit, while looking over the edge of some of the roads on which we were driving, I felt like I was on the side of Mt. Everest.

What do you do when you’re not volunteering?

I am a research scientist at the International Goat Research Center, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, Texas. I conduct research with goats in an effort to improve their reproductive efficiency, with an end goal of disseminating the information to limited resource farmers around the world.

Does anyone in your life play a role in supporting your involvement? In providing inspiration?

My family supports me by giving me the time to pursue my goals of helping others around the world. They cover my responsibilities at home while I am gone and I am eternally grateful for that.

Do you keep in touch with your host organization? [Host organizations are the organizations that receive volunteer support]

I am in touch by e-mail on occasion, but I am in regular communication by Facebook. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a post about people doing something related to the training we did.

How do you feel that your volunteer assignment has contributed to create a shared understanding across different cultures through person-to-person interactions?

My family is of blended cultures and I have had the opportunity to be educated in Japan and work in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Each time I encounter a different culture, it reminds me that we are a diverse people. Working with individuals in Nepal offered me first hand insight to the unique cultures in Nepal and they added greatly to my understanding of the world, especially in a country that serves as a crossroad to many cultures. This experience also offered me insight into my own work and how best to present my knowledge in a manner that could serve this unique community.

You can read more about Dr. Foxworth’s volunteer assignment and Farmer-to-Farmer’s cooperation with Peace Corps in Nepal in this previous blog post. 

Closing ceremony after Dr. Foxworth’s trainings.