Throughout 2017 and over the course of three separate trips, Monica Norley provided extraordinary assistance to the Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program in Senegal. Our F2F staff is continually impressed with her great patience, understanding, and humility.

Monica and the members of COFLEC on her first trip in January 2017

In January 2017, Monica began working with the women of the Coalition of Women Against Illegal Immigration (COFLEC), located in Dakar, Senegal. She provided a training-of-trainers (TOT) on leadership and business management that inspired the formation of sub-group within COFLEC, Diapal Ma Diap, whose goal was to seek out new business opportunities. Though COFLEC was already engaged in making soap, these newly trained women identified the increased income opportunities that were possible from value-added soap production. So, in mid-2017, COFLEC asked for Monica’s help in giving a TOT on processes and techniques to boost the quality of their soap, using locally-sourced agricultural inputs and ingredients. Twenty-four women were trained on the basics of saponification, including composition and contributing qualities of natural plant-based ingredients, quality control, soap making as a viable business, and environmentally-friendly packaging.

F2F Volunteer explains the different agriculture products that can be used in soap making

The participants immediately jumped into action, practicing what Monica was demonstrating, reviewing the importance of the curing process and the use and handling of caustic soda. Monica also worked with the group to outline organizational next steps – including establishing bylaws, rules, regulations, and an internal board, securing a rental agreement for the factory, and maintaining good records, essential for any sustainable business. As an exciting bonus, Monica and F2F staff introduced the group to a businesswoman who could provide the soap makers with essentials oils they could use as a scent in their soap; the woman is also interested in selling the final product in her shop which specializes in natural products.

Participants practice measuring out ingredients for soap production. Safety First!

On her latest trip in late 2017, Monica returned to work with COFLEC, after they had met the goals Monica had established for them on her second trip. This time Monica trained a group of women on the basics of natural soap making, specifically using agricultural products. Monica reviewed the basics of the saponification process with COFLEC and as well as going deeper into the aspects that would move them towards a greater commercial venture, such as unit costs of production, standardization, optimum yields per soap mold and revising formulas. On this same trip, Monica also gave a TOT of basic saponification to another group, Alliance of the Integrated Masses for the Development of Women ‘s Entrepreneurship Network.

Volunteer demonstrates how to uniformly cut soap in order to increase its presentation value

After returning home from her volunteer assignments, Monica continued to demonstrate her commitment by responding to questions, providing ongoing guidance, and shipping essential oils to Senegal in late 2017 to help this organization succeed. Along with her dedication to this single host, Monica continuous to support the F2F program as a whole by reaching out over on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Sylvie Diémé, Leader, COFLEC stated “Before F2F assistance, we thought soap processing is a very complicated activity and during the training, Monica showed us how it is simple and practical to produce soap. This new activity of soap production improved our organizational level, now we organize meetings, keep records of operation, establish workgroups for production, have membership registration fees, rent our own unit of production, and purchase basic necessary equipment. This is an exponential leap in three months.”

Monica with COFLEC’s president (left) and with Diapal Ma Diap’s president

“I have been very lucky to experience Senegal three times this year and now have the chance to also work with this new group of women. Each trip has given me new contacts, increased knowledge of the local culture and language and an extremely personally enriching experience. I feel I have friends in Senegal now and I feel in a good position to be able to disseminate information about the country to anyone I might meet,” Monica notes, “[I] have a very special place in my heart for Senegal…. There has been no other group that I have worked with that has grasped the training as fast and well.”

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Winrock’s Volunteer Spirit Award is given to a volunteer who has made a significant difference through volunteering. This is a person who has gone “above and beyond” the minimum requirements of an assignment. He or she is an ambassador of the American people who fosters sustainable relationships and has large impacts on those we serve. Not only does this person exemplify great technical ability or approach, but they also show a charismatic attitude with our hosts, and with staff both in the field and at headquarters. Winrock International is fortunate to receive support from so many caring individuals that exemplify these qualities.

In 2017, Winrock volunteers dedicated more than 26,000 pro-bono hours to helping poor and disadvantaged populations around the world. That is impressive! 141 of these volunteers, who recently earned the President’s Volunteer Service Award. This includes:

• 116 “bronze” award recipients with 100+ service hours
• 21 “silver” award recipients with 250+ service hours
• 4 “gold” award recipients with 500+ service hours

Congratulations to the service award recipients and a heartfelt thank you to ALL of our volunteers. You are each truly inspirational!

Preparing for a Farmer-to-Farmer assignment, my third in Mali and twelfth overall, created a sense of excitement and anticipation. Bara Kassambara, Winrock Country Director for Mali, is a F2F professional who makes every aspect of an assignment go smoothly for volunteers. Over time, Bara and I have become very good friends, beginning with my first trip to Mali in 2011. Bara was even able to visit me here in the U.S. in 2012. Perhaps the greatest value for a Winrock volunteer is the relationships formed while on assignment.

Bara & Doug in Arkansas in 2012

The Scope of Work for my 2017 Mali project used a smart, efficient approach, called Train the Trainers. This approach greatly leverages the knowledge and skills of any volunteer. In 2016 a similar approach was used by me on a previous assignment in Senegal resulting in regional trainers for all of Senegal being trained in one location. This model of training is very cost effective and reaches farmers and small business owners more rapidly than other methods.

The 2017 Mali assignment took my team of pros to four training sites in the south of Mali. At each of the 4 sites, the basics of “Marketing of Agricultural Products” was taught over a 2-3-day schedule, depending on electricity. Crops included cowpeas, par-boiled rice, sesame, and fish. Packaging and branding are almost non-existent for the cooperative members in Mali. Samples of foreign produced products were used to show the impact of packaging, branding, and logos. Without these basic marketing functions being met, advertising cannot take place. Trainers were trained in the basics of sales forecasting, record keeping, costing, pricing, profit & loss calculation, and preparation of a Business Plan to be used for sourcing financing.

Outcome success is measured by evidence of the development of modern packaging, branding, and logos in the marketplace. I cannot give enough praise to my teammates Bara, Fatou, Fatouma, and Hadey. Because of Winrock, I feel more connected to the world and have gotten so much out of volunteering. Americans have so much of what we have been given to give to others.

On February 9, 2018, Farmer to Farmer (F2F) volunteer, Teresa Morris, arrived in Abuja, Nigeria on her first visit to the country and her first F2F assignment; to provide a training-the-trainer workshop in Developing Curricula and Training of Trainers in Farm Administration and Management to Nehemiah Foundation International.

Dr. Morris is a soil scientist who works with the Natural Resource Conservation Services (NRCS), USDA as an Organic Farming Area Specialist. She also works as an Adjunct Professor at the Saint Louis University; teaching beginning soils to graduate and undergraduate students for the Earth and Atmospheric Science Department. Dr. Morris was kind enough to write the below about her experience: 

I was thrilled when I received an email inviting me to join the volunteer team of Winrock International. My credentials matched me with a volunteer position in Kaduna, Nigeria working with small acreage farmers interested in sustainable farm management. The Host for this project was Mr. Emmanuel Nehemiah of the Nehemiah Foundation.

As I learned more of Mr. Nehemiah’s vision for local farmers to support Kaduna’s community I became excited about the development of the training. The focus of the training was agriculture that incorporated ecological principles with the development and building of organic matter related to on-farm money. I refer to this method as “farming as a banking system” and soil organic matter is the currency. I began the training by showing the farmers the actual nutrients and money associated with 1% organic matter. This idea caught their attention and from there the training was off and running.

During the four day training, we visited local farms and discussed methods of farming that would retrain and build soil organic matter. The farms were beautiful as were the farmers. I was honored to learn from them and share what I have learned from my career as an agriculturalist and as an educator in soil health and ecological farming. The challenges these farmers faced was tough. Lack of tools, weather, seed, and working with pastoral grazing were just some of the everyday tasks on their list and yet they produced a crop every year.

Back in the classroom, I showed slides of soil science technology and ecological farming methods. As the day progressed, we as a group discussed the science as well as the methods to assure everyone understood how farming using soil ecology was cost effective and would save them money as well as restoring their natural resources. Each day of the training was filled with lively discussions regarding how Kaduna could adopt ecological farming and work together to provide produce to the local community. It was wonderful.

The whole experience was life-changing. I truly enjoyed working with the farmers and the Nehemiah Foundation to formulate a practical manual for guidance on ecological farming. I also enjoyed showing the farmers how the production of soil organic matter would save them money.

Upon leaving, my new friends of Kaduna welcomed me back in the future, which I would enjoy!

Very Best,

Teresa Morris, PhD