Volunteer Posts
An Experienced F2F Volunteer, but His First Trip to Bangladesh
August 22, 2017
I have participated in nearly 50 F2F Assignments in the past 22 years but this is my first visit to Bangladesh. The level of poverty, the small farms, the density of agricultural activities, and the tropical conditions were all that I expected and more. However, I was not prepared for the Bangladesh people. I found […]
August Volunteer of the Month
August 15, 2017
Winrock’s August Volunteer of the Month is Ms. Erin Riley, a Rio Puerco Field Office Rangeland Management Specialist for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Albuquerque, NM. Erin took a different kind of trip to do a volunteer assignment with Winrock International and USAID. Erin traveled to Zaria, Nigeria, for two weeks to assist […]
Celebrating the Successes of Youth Entrepreneurship Training on International Youth Day
August 12, 2017
In honor of International Youth Day, we would like to highlight an interesting and impactful youth-focused assignment completed in Nepal. Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) volunteer, Dr. Tiffany Drape, arrived in Ramechhap district in March 2016 to provide a training of trainers on youth facilitation and agriculture-based entrepreneurship development to staff and members of 4-H Nepal and the […]
Myanmar Mango Farmers Hungry for Knowledge
August 8, 2017
This week’s blog comes from F2F Volunteer, Dr. Malcom Manners, an expert in nursery management and tropical fruit propagation methods. He is a professor and Chairman of the Horticulture Department at Florida Southern College and has completed over 16 volunteer consulting trips around the world. In late May and early June, 2017, I worked on […]
A Life Changing Experience for First-Time Volunteers
August 1, 2017
Dr. Tyson Sorenson of Utah State University and Dr. Aaron McKim of Michigan State University, recently completed their first-time Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer assignment in Guinea. After completion of their assignment, an institutional assessment, we asked each to share how the assignment affected them personally and professionally. Here’s what they had to say about their experience. […]
From the Fruits of Bangladesh, Come New Experiences
July 25, 2017
Thomas Sallee recently returned from his second trip to Bangladesh, where he built the statistical analysis skills of faculty from Jessore University of Science and Technology and International University of Business Agriculture and Technology in order for them to conduct improved, advanced agricultural research. He shares his thoughts below on the differences and similarities between his […]
Spirited Discussions on Modern Teaching Techniques in Nigeria
July 18, 2017
In May of this year, I traveled to Nigeria for the first time. Dr. Scott Haskell accompanied me as a Winrock volunteer. Our task for this travel was to offer pedagogical training and workshops on curriculum development training to the faculty of Enugu State Polytechnic College. I was a little apprehensive; I wasn’t sure if […]
“The Best Reward as a Volunteer”
July 11, 2017
This week’s blog features, Dr. Cheng-Sheng Lee, Executive Director of the Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture, an organization jointly administered by the Oceanic Institute and the University of Hawaii. He recently returned from a volunteer assignment in Myanmar where he provided training to catfish farmers and breeders at the Myanmar Fisheries Federation office and […]
The essence of our liberty
July 3, 2017
Happy 4th of July! As we celebrate Independence Day in the US, Winrock’s Volunteer Programs team is thinking about one of the freedoms that we enjoy as Americans: the freedom to give back. Volunteerism is not a requirement, yet many Americans actively choose to serve in their own communities, by tutoring local schoolchildren, participating in city clean-ups, mentoring […]
A Humbling and Rewarding Experience in Bangladesh
June 27, 2017
I would like to share how my Winrock International USAID-funded Farmer to Farmer (F2F) volunteer assignment was one of much excitement and full of very rewarding humbling experiences. One experience stands out as a professional one that led to a career culminating experience for me that I would like to share in this blog. The […]